Coinciding with the first ever US-India Strategic & Commercial Dialogue, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in partnership with Indiaspora hosted a Reception on September 21, 2015 in Washington DC to highlight and celebrate the highly influential and thriving Indian community in the United States.
Ms Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State for Ministry of Commerce, Government of India & Industry and Ms Penny Pritzker, Secretary of Commerce, United States addressed this important gathering which recognized the role of the 3 million strong diaspora's role in fortifying the bilateral partnership. Stressing the positively evolving commercial relationship between the countries, both Minister Sitharaman and Secretary Pritzker invited the business community to help shape and deepen the economic relationship still further. The growing Indian American diaspora is heavily invested in the American system and can not only rise to be the backbone of this critical partnership but can help fuel US & India’s mutual growth story.
The Reception brought together key people from US & Indian communities, CEOs from India and senior representatives of US Administration. A CII delegation led by Mr Sumit Mazumder, President, CII, Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, Mr Sumant Sinha, Founder & CEO, ReNew Power, Mr Shiv Khemka, Vice Chairman & CEO, Sun Group, Mr Pranav Tanti, CEO, Suzlon-IPP, Mr Rajan Navani, Director, Jetline Group, Mr Rahul Munjal, Managing Director, Hero Future Energies Ltd attended the event.
Notable dignitaries included Congressman Ami Bera (the only Indian American member of the US Congress); Assistant Secretary Arun Kumar, Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service and Assistant Secretary for Global Markets, U.S. Department of Commerce, Ambassador Vinai Thummalapally, Executive Director, SelectUSA; Assistant Secretary Puneet Talwar, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Department of State, Frank Islam , Head, FI Investment Group; Sudhakar Shenoy, Founder, Chairman and CEO of IMC, Inc. among others.
Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII highlighted the Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre (OIFC), a Public Private Partnership between CII & Ministry of Overseas Affairs that works on developing an institutionalized economic & knowledge based engagement with the Diaspora.
Highlighting the significant positive change taking place within India, Mr Sumit Mazumder, President, CII invited the diaspora to invest in India’s transformation, avail the immense opportunities available today and be part of our mutual growth story.
Minister Sitharaman applauded the vision of President Obama and Prime Minister Modi and highlighted the significant deepening of commercial ties between the two nations and their businesses. Secretary Pritzker stressed on the work cut out by both the governments to make this into a $500 Billion economic engagement between the oldest and the largest democracies in the world. Together they highlighted the substantial steps taken by the two government in the direction of boosting trade and investments.
Amidst the ongoing wave of optimism and promising developments surrounding US-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue as well as Prime Minister Modi’s anticipated second visit to the United States major stakeholders joined in the Reception to celebrate the flourishing Indian diaspora and to place them front and center within the context of the overall bilateral partnership.
New Delhi
22nd September 2015