President Obama’s Visit Expected To Open Indian Market For US Companies

With the US President Barack Obama all slated to visit India to attend the country’s upcoming Republic Day, America Inc is all hopeful that the President’s visit will open up several avenues for them in the Indian market.

“The benefits of the Obama visit to India go far beyond the bilateral relations. It sends a broad message to the rest of the world as well, that is, India is the place to be in,” said Rana Kapoor, president of ASSOCHAM, which carried out the study in collaboration with its US arm in New York.

He further added, “We are confident that this visit will force several other big economies to look at India with renewed interest. The Obama visit, at this moment, is going to be the turning point. Even at the ongoing World Economic Forum annual meeting at Davos, the focus is going to be on the visit of the US President to India.”

According to the study, nearly 72% of the 118 corporate leaders anticipate President Obama “to encourage Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi” to allow greater freedom to US companies to explore the Indian markets. The survey revealed that the US companies are keen to participate in Indian Prime Minister Modi’s slew of recently launched initiatives such as ‘Make in India’, ‘Smart Cities’ as well as ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ (Clean India drive) by penetrating in the renewable energy sector especially in the solar energy.

On the other hand, while American companies want President Obama to urge for greater access for them in Indian industries, India Inc. wants Prime Minister Modi to take up the issues faced by Indian IT sector in the US.

The survey disclosed that 81% of Indian entrepreneurs felt that the US communities have a wrong impression that Indian professionals are taking away their jobs as soon as the term ‘outsourcing’ is uttered in the US. “But the fact is that a large number of Indian IT companies are investing heavily in the US, creating job opportunities for the Americans. The back-end setups in India are nothing but parts of supply chains of the US companies. In any case, supply chain in a whole lot of sectors, be it manufacturing or services are becoming global with the countries participating in one or the other layers depending on their comparative advantage,” pointed out Kapoor.

The chamber has also noted that a large number of Indian professionals, who visit the US for short-term projects, lose a large portion of their salary earned in the US as a part of the social security, which they cannot utilize. The chamber has urged the Prime Minister Modi to take up this issue with President Obama. Nevertheless, despite several challenges that both India and the US have in their relations, both India Inc. and America Inc. have felt that President Obama’s visit to India is of strategic importance and is timely.—especially because American companies have the requisite resources and the technology to meet the requirements of the Indian infrastructure sector, which is looking for foreign investments.

Image Credit: Indiatimes.com