USIBC summit to unveil America’s India policy
09 Jun 2009
The US-India Business Council, an American organization promoting trade and business between the US and India, is set to hold a high-powered business summit that is likely to feature at least three Obama administration heavyweights: secretary of state Hillary Clinton, commerce secretary Gary Locke and US trade representative Ron Kirk.
It is likely that many more US policymakers may attend the two day (16-17 June) meet in Washington D.C.
India is likely to be represented by its commerce minister and other leading corporate leaders, including Azim Premji and Anil Ambani and Confederation of Indian Industry chief mentor Tarun Das.
The USBIC is holding its 34th annual convention.
It is expected that administration officials will articulate India-specific policies at the meet and try and pick up the slack in initiating high-powered contact between the two nations.
The Obama administration has been focused entirely on the Afghanistan-Pakistan region and the impression has gained ground that it has allowed the impetus gained in Indo-US bilateral relations during the previous Bush administration to slip.
Ignoring previous secretary of state Condoleeza Rice's suggestion that India ought to be on her itinerary for her first visit abroad, current incumbent Hillary Clinton travelled to Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing and Djakarta instead. Policy makers in New Delhi have been bracing for a downgrade in relations - which is almost traditional - with a Democratic Party dispensation in the White House.
The late pickup in response from the US side is being attributed to the recent elections to the Indian parliament. With the new dispensation in place in New Delhi with a firm mandate, Washington now feels the need to move, particularly as it sees this sub-continental giant crucially placed in its Af-Pak strategy.
Meanwhile, a full roster of attendees at the high powered summit reads like a Who's Who of US and Indian business.
Apart from USIBC board chairman and Pepsi Co CEO Indra K Nooyi and board member and New York Life CEO/chairman Sy Sternberg, a high-powered speaker line-up will include former US secretary of defence, William Cohen, of the Cohen Group, former US ambassador to India, Richard Celeste, and senior partner emeritus of McKinsey & Company Rajat Gupta.
Current board members include Cohen, Gupta, Warburg Pincus co-president Charles Kaye, General Electric India president Tejpreet Chopra, Chatterjee Group president PC Chatterjee and former US ambassador Frank Wisner.
USIBC, now celebrating its 34th anniversary, was formed in 1975 at the request of the governments of the US and India ''to involve the private sectors of both countries to strengthen the commercial linkages between the world's two largest free-market democracies.''
Its joint programs include the US-India Economic Dialogue (CEO Forum), the US-India High Technology Cooperation Group, the US-India Energy Dialogue, the Defense Procurement and Production Group and the US-India Trade Policy Forum.
Thirteen executive committees and working groups meet regularly to assess progress on the ground, and USIBC organizes sector-specific missions to India.
The forum is headquartered at the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC. It also maintains offices in California and New Delhi.
