Anti-climax: US business honchos give Obama, Modi's CEO meeting a miss

This bit of news is likely to take some of the sheen off the much-hyped India visit of US president Barrack Obama.

A report in The Economic Times has said that some of the big US CEOs are unlikely to be present at the US-India CEOs forum meeting that is slated for today, where both Obama and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi will jointly address business chiefs from both the countries.

The forum, with 12 CEOs from both the countries, was set up on 18 July 2005 by then US president George Bush and former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh “to develop a road map for increased partnership and cooperation between the two countries at a business level”. It was part of the several initiatives undertaken to improve economic cooperation and strategic partnership.

The meeting is likely to discuss bilateral business ties particularly in light of US being a major potential source of manufacturing investments. Critical issues including visa impediments for professionals too may be discussed. It is is significant in the light of the Make-in-India initiative and the government’s bid to make the country a hub for manufacturing, design and innovation, recent PTI story said.

However, today’s ET report says the absence of US CEOs such as JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon, General Electric’s Jeffrey Immelt and Boeing’s Jim McNerney will be conspicuous, especially since they all had joined Obama in his earlier India visit, in Novemeber 2010, when he UPA was in power.

Among business chiefs from the US who will be present at the meeting are Honeywell’s David Cote, Pepsico’s Indra Nooyi, Mastercard’s Ajay Banga, Westinghouse president and CEO Daniel Roderick, Disney’s Robert Iger and Arne Sorensen of Marriott International. The forum is co-chaired by Cote.

Industry officials have attributed three reasons for the absence of the business heads: for one, American companies are in the midst of earnings season; secondly, since the Obama visit happened in a short notice of about two months many did not get time to plan; thirdly, many of them were present at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit and it is difficult for them to return within a week or two.

Does this mean the US businesses have lesser interest in India? One cannot draw a conclusion to this effect yet, but the ET report definitely says the CEOs forum has not been reconstituted for the last five years. An official aware of the development has told the newspaper that the US side has not formally changed its membership since 2009, when it was reconstituted last time. However, those CEOs who are interested in India have been co-opted in place of the ones who have not turned up, the official has said.

Days before Obama’s high-powered visit, India had reconstituted its side of the forum by replacing Ratan Tata with Cyrus Mistry as its co-chairman. The forum now includes industrialists like Anil Ambani and also Gautam Adani of the Adani group.

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries, Sunil Mittal of Bharti Enterprises and ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar continue on the forum while former Infosys CEO S Gopalakrishnan has been replaced by Vishal Sikka, the firm’s new head, a PTI report said.

Shashi Ruia of Essar, Mahindra & Mahindra Chairman Anand Mahindra, Hari Bhartia of Jubiliant, Biocon Chairman and Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Sudhir Mehta of Torrent Pharma are all part of the 17-member forum.

State Bank of India Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya, Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) Chairman and Managing Director Dinesh K Sarraf and BHEL head B Prasada Rao too are part of the forum.