Second India-US strategic dialogue tomorrow; Tata's Mistry to co-chair CEO forum

The Ministry of Commerce & Industry on Monday announced that India and the United States are set to meet for the 2nd Strategic and Commercial Dialogue (S&CD) on Tuesday, August 30 in New Delhi. 

The decision came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Barack Obama in 2015 elevated the India-US Strategic Dialogue to a Strategic and Commercial Dialogue, which will reflect the significance of the trade and economic engagement between the two countries. 

Apart from reviewing the tracks, the engagement is likely to cover the discussion between Indian and US CEOs, the Ministry said. From India, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Nirmala Sitharaman will represent. The US delegation will be led by Secretary of State, John Kerry and Secretary of Commerce, Penny Pritzker. 

Along with them, two co-chairs of CEOs Forum, Cyrus Mistry, Chairman of Tata Group from Indian side and Dave Cote, Chairman and CEO of Honeywell International from US side will also be present at S&CD plenary, the Ministry said. 

The first S&CD was held in September 2015 at Washington DC and identified the focused areas of cooperation under the two tracks – Strategic and Commercial. This S&CD will be reviewing the progress made so far under the two tracks, the Minister said.

On CEO Forum front, Tata's Mistry and Honeywell's Cote will co-chair CEO Forum. As per the Ministry, some of the major areas of intervention following the CEO Forum recommendations are:

1. In line with the CEO Forum recommendations to boost the renewable energy sector, the both sides are working on the US-India Energy Finance Initiatives, which is expected to mobilise upto $400 million by 2020. 

2. Similarly, to ease the defence production procedures, the Government of India has introduced a new Defence Procurement Procedure which has made it much simpler to take advantage of the immense opportunity for defence production in India. 

3. The Government of India has shortlisted 33 cities for development as smart cities and will be collaborating with U.S on three of these. Also, the US.-India CEO Forum developed a Smart Cities Strategic Framework. 

4. In addition, given the focus on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, various policies and measures, including the creation of Sister Innovation Hubs, and develop the Innovation ecosystem in the country. There has been very productive US-India CEO Forum-led Digital Infrastructure Best Practices Exchange Workshops in New Delhi, Jaipur, and Visakhapatnam from August 2-5, 2016. 

5. Both sides are working together to encourage participation of all stakeholders in the regional Global Connect conference to be held on September 15, 2016 in New Delhi. 

6. FDI reforms: As part of FDI reform measures, the FDI policy has been further simplified and conditions relaxed. Norms have been relaxed in brownfield pharma sector, processed food, defence production, railways etc. 

7. FDI inflow trends: Reforms undertaken in the recent months have shown positive results and FDI inflows into India has increased at a time when globally, there is decline in the investment flows. Total FDI inflow into India which was at $36 billion during 2013-14 increased to $44.2 billion in 2014-15 and has further shown an increasing trend as during the year 2015-16, India received $55.4 billion as FDI, the highest in a year so far.

8. FDI from USA: FDI from USA has also shown a positive growth trend and during the years 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 it was $806 million, $1824 million and $4190 million, respectively. This corresponds to an increase of 500% in two years.