By Arun Kumar
IANS
Washington : The new Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) president, Sunil Bharti Mittal, wants US companies to make long-term and "inclusive" investments in India as the country today offers "the perfect combination" for partnership.
"Thanks to economic reforms India is growing at a fast pace, understanding of US industry is increasing in India and irritation levels are going down in America," he said at a luncheon hosted here Tuesday by the US-India Business Council (USIBC) to welcome a visiting CII delegation.
"This offers the perfect combination for growth of Indo-US economic relations," he said adding, "A new young confident India awaits all of you."
Asking Indian and American businessmen "to build on India's 16 years of economic reforms – ensuring that growth is sustainable, reaching all segments of society," Mittal said the world's two largest democracies were natural allies.
India offered a big continent of consumers for US goods, he said, encouraging US companies to engage with India deeply as only a few nodes were left not open to foreign investment, he said. But this was natural as India moved from a controlled economy to an open and free one.
CII chief mentor Tarun Das said defence cooperation between the two countries was showing good progress with some major business coming in the way of US thanks to a new level of confidence in US supplies.
Besides Mittal, chairman and group CEO of Bharti Enterprises, the executive delegation includes Hari S Bhartia of Jubilant Organosys Ltd., C K Birla of Hindustan Motors Ltd, Atul Punj of Punj Lloyd Ltd, and Analjit Singh of Max India Ltd.
Ron Somers president USIBC, comprising 250 of the largest US companies investing in India and two dozen global Indian companies, thanked CII for its partnership in moving Indo-US commercial relations fast-forward.
He complimented the commitment the Indian private sector has invested in supporting India's emergence as a global economic power.
Former US Secretary of Defence William S. Cohen, who is a USIBC board member, applauded Mittal on his leadership in building a "global" India and encouraged CII's continued leadership in deepening the US-India commercial partnership.