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GE commits $250million to India

GE’s chairman and chief executive Jeff Immelt said in Mumbai on Tuesday that he envisages an “8x8x2010” plan for GE in India.

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MUMBAI: When General Electric Company, the world’s second-biggest company by market value, received $145 million as settlement for its turbines that powered the jinxed Dabhol power project in India, the American giant decided to reinvest the money in the country.

It did not lose faith after the bad experience. Instead it topped the figure up with an additional $100 million.

But all this is spare change for the mega corp. GE’s chairman and chief executive Jeff Immelt said in Mumbai on Tuesday that he envisages an “8x8x2010” plan for GE in India. Translated, it means generating $8 billion revenues and creating $8 billion assets in India by 2010.

How will it do that? It will expand its already formidable interest in the financial sector (desperate to enter banking), wants a big role in infrastructure, already has a huge hand in aviation, will join Naresh Trehan’s Medicity project, a world-class integrated healthcare facility in New Delhi… The list is long.

GE has committed a total of $250 million to build India’s infrastructure.

“The next 10 years are critically important for India in terms of infrastructure and economic development as the country progresses toward becoming one of the largest economies in the world,” Immelt said. “Success will require depth in areas where GE excels: infrastructure and technology.”

India needs $150 billion of investment in ports, roads, power plants and other projects over the next decade to narrow the gap with China.

“The government and everything else works in China.  

The expressways and airports are just like those in Chicago and New York. China has got the macro picture right, India the micro picture. India has a greater bureaucracy and among the pluses are its fantastic companies and systems,” he said.

How does he compare India and China?

India, he said, has to fix its macro picture while China has to fix its micro picture.

Sounding a warning, rare in an otherwise gushing speech about India, Immelt said the country has to fix certain things (infrastructure) if it wants the economy to continue to grow.

He said the leviathan is ready to play the waiting game in India. “I don’t see profits tomorrow. Our main concern is how to grow partnerships with the Tatas, Reliance and Wipro.”

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