FICCI CEO's delegation in USA meets Finance Minister

Oct 17, 2022

Discuss opportunities to be part of global supply chain, resilience of Indian economy and achievements in digitisation

Washington DC/New Delhi. 17 October 2022: FICCI CEO's delegation to the USA, led by Senior Vice President, Mr Subhrakant Panda, met the Hon'ble Finance Minister Ms Nirmala Sitharaman in Washington DC.

The delegation discussed a host of issues with the Hon'ble Finance Minister, including opportunities which are emerging to be part of the global supply chain, the resilience of the Indian economy, which has helped the country to emerge as a rare bright spot in the global economy and the achievements on digitisation.

Commenting after the meeting with the FM, Senior Vice President, FICCI, Mr Subhrakant Panda, said, "India carries a lot of credibility in how it has conducted itself right through the pandemic and used the opportunity to bring structural reforms which added to the country's capabilities to shore up economy and manufacturing. We complimented the FM for sharing the India story and doing so with a lot of credibility and conviction through the actions that have been overseen by her and the finance ministry all this while".

Mr Harshavardhan Neotia, Past President, FICCI, said there is a global recognition of India's digital progress, "particularly the way we have embraced the digital economy and the digital architecture" in the country.

Mr Sunil Sanghai, FICCI's Capital Markets Committee Chairman, underscored the encouraging global investors' sentiment that was common across the interactions. He averred that the changed investor overtones result from three key factors. The first is "the way India has handled the quantitative tightening". Secondly, Mr Sanghai noted, is "our ability to make some hard decisions," especially inflation targeting. Lastly, is the most significant and welcome change of India becoming a "capital surplus country, instead of capital-starved country." Mr Sanghai underlined. "For the first time, we are seeing the Indian corporates have a significant amount of free cash flow to allow them to invest in the Capex and modernise the industry," Mr Sanghai added.

Apart from meeting the Hon'ble FM, the delegation had discussions with some key policymakers and think tanks in the USA. The delegation also met Mr Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the IMF Chief Economist, to discuss the recent World Economic Outlook report and the India outlook. In addition, the delegation met the Indian ambassador to the US, H.E. Taranjit Singh Sandhu, to gather ideas on increasing the private sector's role in enhancing Indo-US ties. The delegation shared India's multiple economic opportunities across digital, manufacturing, trade, startups, and climate tech at the Observer Research Foundation overseas affiliate, ORF Americas and the Atlantic Council.

Apart from FICCI's Senior Vice President and Managing Director of IMFA Ltd, Mr Subhrakant Panda, Mr Rajan Mittal, Past President of FICCI and Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Enterprises; Mr Harshavardhan Neotia, Past President of FICCI and Chairman, Ambuja Neotia Group; Mr Sunil Sanghai, FICCI Chair Capital Market Committee and Founder and CEO, Novaa One Capital; Mr Adhil Shetty, Co-Chair, FICCI's Fintech Committee and CEO, Bankbazaar.com and Mr Lakshmanan Chidambaram, President, Tech Mahindra, Americas were part of the delegation.