By NNN-PTI
Chicago : With Indian firms investing aggressively in the US, India has put on fast track negotiations on signing an investment protection agreement with the States.
While both the US and India have signed the investment protection agreements with a number of countries, the one between them has to be unique because it is a different type of relationship, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said here Tuesday evening.
The two countries would try and conclude the investment protection agreement by the end of this year, he said, adding that Indian investments were not made in the American stock market but in the backyard of the US economy.
India and the US are also stepping up trade volume, particularly in the wake of the impending slowdown in the US.
Nath was speaking at the reception hosted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the US-India Business Council at the launch of a major initiative to sensitise American opinion-makers about the growing engagement of Indian firms in the US.
Under the programme, ‘Investing in America: The Indian Story’, the two industry bodies will roll out roadshows to change India’s image from being only the recipient of the foreign direct investment to an important source of FDI.
The Indian industry, which has been at the receiving end of the ‘job-shipping’ campaign of the US Presidential candidates, has launched the counter-campaign.