High level government delegation in the US to hard sell India as FDI destination

Despite the ongoing protests against foreign direct investment in various sectors, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has sent a jumbo Indian delegation in the US to lobby for reform push by the government.

The government delegation consists of top bureaucrats, economists, bankers, corporate bigwigs, and other experts and top Indian diplomats already present in the US. The delegation shall be attending India Investment Forum Meeting (September 24-25) at Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York, says Mail Today.

The members in the delegation includes Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Competition Commission of India chairman Ashok Chawla, Reserve Bank of India deputy governor Subir Gokarn, power secretary P. Umashankar and his deputy additional secretary Ashok Lavasa, Power and Finance Corp chairman Satnam Singh, chairman and managing director of the Rural Electrification Corp Ltd Rajeev Sharma, secretary for disinvestment Mohammed Haleem Khan, chairman of the corporate affairs ministry's committee M. Damodaran, secretary in the department of heavy industries S. Sundareshan and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman Rahul Khullar.

The diplomats in the delegation include ambassador Nirupama Rao, who shall deliver keynote address “Cementing a Long Relationship”- to potential investors. Earlier, it was decided the delegation would also have senior Cabinet ministers but “In view of the political crisis and an impending Cabinet reshuffle, these top politicians have been advised to stay back,' said a PMO official.

The industry bigwigs participating in the event are Ficci chairman R.V. Kanoria, HDFC Ltd chairman Deepak Parekh, GMR Group head B.V.N. Rao, Manoj Gaur of Jaiprakash Associates, Suneeta Reddy of Apollo Hospitals, Bharat Doshi of Mahindra & Mahindra, Rahul Bharti of Maruti Suzuki and K. Sridharan of Ashok Leyland.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/cable-news/item/292-high-level-government-delegation-in-the-us-to-hard-sell-india-as-fdi-destination.html