PM Modi Invites US CEOs To Invest In India, Focus on Improving Quality of Life

The Prime Minister Modi is making all efforts to make India, a business-friendly nation. On his recent visit to the United States of America, Prime Minister Modi asked the CEOs of Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, among others to invest in India.

The reason for Modi’s insistence can be attributed to the impending GST rollout, next week. He also mentioned that the country has attracted the largest FDI (foreign direct investment) in the last three years.

PM Narendra Modi is on a three nation tour to Portugal, US, and the Netherlands respectively. During the US leg, PM Modi had a roundtable meeting with the top 20 American CEOs in Washington DC.The CEOs present at the roundtable included Apple’s Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Walmart's Jeff Bezos and John Chambers from Cisco among others.

Modi reitereated his view post the meeting via Twitter too, "The whole world is looking at India. 7,000 reforms alone by GOI for ease of (doing) business and minimum government, maximum governance,” stated PM Modi. Modi also emphasised the government’s insistence on “efficiency, transparency, growth and benefit for all.” Bagley also mentioned the potential for public-private hotel partnerships in the tourism industry at 500 Indian railway stations.

Since the world is focussed on the Indian economy and government is working towards improving the quality of life since coming to power. Factors such as a young population and a rising middle class are generating interest from global players in fields such as manufacturing, trade and commerce, and people to people communication. To do so requires global partnerships and this is what the government wants to establish.

Other topics that were discussed in the meet were Digital India initiatives, skill development, the impact of demonetisation as well as India’s accelerated thrust for renewable energy.

PM Modi and American CEO's: ROUNDTABLE CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

The CEOs participating in the discussion then mentioned and took keen interest in the work that NDA government has done. Be it demonetisation, Digital India or skill development, all these initiatives received appreciation from the foreign companies. They showed their willingness to participate in improving skill development and education in India but PM Modi was insistent on their cooperation in only specific areas, as namely, women empowerment, renewable energy, startups and innovation.

Some practices that PM Modi suggested include linking health and sanitary practices, products and technologies related with the requirements of school going girls. He emphasised that his primary interest is improving the quality of life in India.

The CEOs also showed willingness to talk about a number of other programmes. Social-led industries such as digital technology, education, and food processing came up for discussion, with the CEOs mentioning the drives undertaken by their companies for the same. Bigger themes such as infrastructure, defence manufacturing and energy security were also discussed.

GST was one of the most talked about subjects in the day, Prime Minister stated that it is a culmination of years of effort. In conclusion, PM Modi reiterated his opinion that India and the US have shared values. According to him, India would be a natural beneficiary of America’s strength.
Amazon India Plans.

After his interaction with PM Modi, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos endorsed the Startup India bandwagon. In a tweet, he noted that he had “terrific meeting with @narendramodi,” tagging the PM on his personal handle.“Always impressed, energized by optimism and invention in India. Excited to keep investing and growing,” he continued.

In keeping with Amazon’s aggressive expansion policies in India, the company has already invested a significant amount in its ecommerce marketplace and the business-facing enterprise, Amazon Wholesale. Amazon has also made news recently when the Government approved Amazon’s proposed $500 Mn investment in Indian food retail. It has also invested in warehousing and infrastructure, building fulfilment centres in 13 cities in 7 states.

Amazon has introduced several new initiatives such as Amazon Prime Video, Basics, digital payments arm Amazon Pay in the last few months to keep up with homegrown unicorn Flipkart. Its latest investment has been securing 6 Lakhs. Sq.ft. of space in Hyderabad for warehousing, infrastructure and office facilities.

PM Modi To Meet US President Donald Trump 

The two leaders will meet at 3:30 pm, Eastern Standard Time, for a one-on-one discussion.The initial discussion will be followed by a meeting with various delegates from the two governments. Senior aides such as Mike Pence, the National Security Advisor, Lt. Gen. H R McMaster, and the Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis, the Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are expected to be part of the meeting.