Smitten, US Inc going all-out to court India

There is a definite sense of resoluteness from Corporate America which wants its ties with India to be taken to newer heights. For this, it feels a bilateral investment treaty is a must-have. The thinking here is the high water-mark, if reached, will only cement the success painstakingly built through the civilian nuclear deal.

[caption id=“attachment_30764” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“A Boston Consulting Group report, which was out on Friday, is fairly upbeat on India growth story. Amit Dave/Reuters “]  [/caption]

“The priority is to deliver on a US-India Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) that incentivises greater two-way foreign direct investment,” said Ron Somers, the president of US India Business Council (USIBC) in his address to the 36th anniversary leadership summit of the organisation, which represents the Indian and American corporate world in the United States. “USIBC calls upon both governments to re-energise BIT discussions by re-engaging in technical discussions as soon as possible.”

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The US-India bilateral investment treaty is not the only thing America Inc has on its mind. It’s all for a serious evaluation of a more specialised bilateral economic arrangement – one that will put American companies on a level-playing field with global competitors.

This is exactly where a Boston Consulting Group report fits in, which is fairly upbeat on India growth story and calls for favourable government policies in bio-pharma to make it more alluring for investors. If its assessment is any yardstick, the bio-pharma sector here may see a jump in R&D spending to about $25 billion in the next 15 years.

The paper sees multinationals, Indian industry and funding organisations leading from the front in ploughing money into discovery and innovation. “The Indian government needs to implement favourable policies that enhance innovation and drive collaborations, besides addressing issues in critical building blocks like talent and infrastructure,” BCG said in its position paper titled, ‘Life Sciences R&D: Changing the innovation Equation in India’. The paper was presented in Boston on Friday at the US-India Bio-Pharma summit organised by the USA-India Chamber of Commerce.

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So, the message that comes through from all this is unambiguously clear. The US doesn’t want to miss out on action in a market that it feels is going to be a big driver of the global economy in the coming decade. The current rate at which India is growing can only be something the West can now dream of, given the shaky recovery and the financial mess it is in. At the moment, looks like India is holding all the investment aces.