Top Indian CEOs meet Nirmala Sitharaman ahead of Indo-US meet tomorrow

Ahead of the India-US CEO Forum meeting on Tuesday, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held wide ranging discussions with top industry leaders on Monday on issues such as energy and manufacturing with a view to boosting economic ties with America. Sitharaman said the Indian business leaders briefed her about the business-to-business meetings that they have had with their US partners. "Lot of areas have been specifically looked into for greater cooperation between India and the US commercial matters whether you talk about energy and manufacturing of certain items," she told reporters after the meeting.

The other issues which come up for deliberations include the US participation in smart cities, medical devices manufacturing and its technology and setting up of civil nuclear power generation centres, she added. "So on all this, there are various groups chaired by Indian business leader and his counterpart from the US. They have had these discussions prior to the S&CD," the minister said. About 10 CEOs attended the meeting including Cyrus Mistry, Chairman, Tata Sons; Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal; ICICI Bank MD & CEO Chanda Kochhar; HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh and Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra.

The day-long second strategic and commercial dialogue (S&CD) between India and the US will begin on Tuesday. As part of that top CEO's from India and the US would deliberate on ways to enhance economic cooperation. Mistry will co-chair from the Indian side and Dave Cote, Chairman, Honeywell from the US side.