India Inc to lobby in Europe, US

NEW DELHI: With chances of India going to war against Pakistan receding, India Inc this week begins hard-selling the country once again in Europe and the US as a land of business opportunities to win back the global business confidence.
Ficci and CII, the country’s two leading apex chambers of commerce, are leading the campaign in Europe and the US, respectively, and representing with official India commerce and industry minister Murasoli Maran is taking off on a week-long trip to key European destinations at the head of an Indian delegation.
The industry ministry in collaboration with Ficci is organising a “destination India� meeting in Swiss financial capital Zurich on Wednesday aimed at briefing European CEOs about the emerging foreign investment opportunities in India.
A strong business delegation, led by former Ficci president K K Modi, will accompany the official team led by Maran at the Zurich conference and subsequently at meetings with Swiss government leaders in Berne. The India Inc led by Maran then travels to Bucharest for a meeting of India-Romania Business Council and the Indo-Romanian joint committee.
Maran will also have an opportunity of briefing a global audience on economic development in India at the annual World Bank conference on development economics being held in Oslo. Maran will be the keynote speaker in the conference, where he is expected to outline strategy of poverty reduction through fast economic growth.
Simultaneously, a CII CEOs mission began on Monday a visit to the US till June 22. The mission, headed by CII president Ashok Soota, includes Arun Bharat Ram of SRF, Sudhir Deoras of Tata International, Y C Deveshwar of ITC, J J Irani of Tata Sons, Arun Nath Maira of Boston Consulting Group, BVR Mohan Reddy of Infotech Enterprises and Vijay Thadani of NIIT. The delegation is scheduled to hold a series of meetings with US businessmen and government and Congress leaders.
A key concern that the CII delegation will focus on during its US visit is the economic impact of the travel advisories and related action of the US administration.