Global interest for investments in Indian infrastructure is very much alive: Ghulam Zia, Executive Director, Knight Frank at IACC Annual Convention 2018

 Mumbai, September 21, 2018: Indian infrastructure is very much alive in the minds of global players who continue to show keen interest in investing in the sector, said Ghulam Zia, Executive Director, Knight Frank at the Annual Convention of the Indo American Chamber of Commerce (IACC).

While speaking at the special session on Infrastructure “What India needs to spend over the next decade and how it will be funded”, Zia said that global players are waiting in the wings for the system to evolve and in the recent past various initiatives have been taken in this direction. “For Indian infrastructure to fall in place as far as funding is concerned, the area of concern is government spending and real estate has to be taken out of the system for infrastructure funding to fall in place”, he added.

NN Kumar former Chairman Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust said “ For any infrastructure project to materialize various aspects such as flexibility in timelines set, clear clauses of the termination of contract, syncing with the political setup of the economy for deciding tariffs have to be taken care of”. He felt that the timelines for contractual agreements for various projects should be reduced as there could be various technological changes during long time period.

Before the start of the session, Founder Member of IACC Late Ambalal Kilachand was posthumously felicitated for his contribution to the Indo American trade relations. The citation was received by Tanil Kilachand his son and Chairman Polychem Ltd.

During the special session on Agriculture titled Can India and USA collaborate in Agriculture, Anil Jain Vice Chairman Jain Irrigation said  the technological adoption has been happening in our country since the last decade year has reduced the cost and enhanced he efficiency, taking other things into consideration better productivity will help the farmers in value addition. We have a long road to cover in achieving mechanization for which we need new revolution in Agriculture and that can happen only when we industrialize our Agriculture sector. Together we need to build a sustainable environment for the farmers, he addd.

In the concluding session on How to meet India’s Defence needs, Commodore (Retd) Mukesh Bhargava Head L&T Defence and VS Noronha Vice President Defence and Government Business Tata Motors observed that since past the few years, a change has been witnessed at government to government and business to business level which has defined its own course of action. “We have slowly seen an increase in exports which has resulted in manpower as well as technological migration. We no more procure defence goods from developed countries, but also we are manufacturing and exporting defence goods to other countries” they felt.

About Indo American Chamber of Commerce: 

The Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC), established in 1968, is the apex bi-lateral Chamber synergizing India-US Economic Engagement. It was started by Ambassador Chester Bowles along with the then Industry leaders and visionaries like Mr. S L Kirloskar, Mr. Harish Mahindra, Mr. H. P. Nanda, Mr. Ambalal Kilachand, Mr. A. M. M. Arunachalam, Mr. Frederick Fales and Mr. John Oris Sims for enhancing US India Economic Engagement. Today IACC has pan India presence with 2400 members at 12 locations, representing cross section of US and Indian Industry. The major objective of IACC is to promote Indo-American business, trade and economic relations. IACC promotes bilateral trade, investment and technology transfer, facilitates business collaborations, joint ventures, marketing tie-ups and strategic alliances through a set of proactive business-oriented initiatives.

IACC acts as a catalyst for sustainable growth of business between India and the US. In its four decades of existence, IACC has established operational connectivity with a host of business, research and developmental institutions in India and US in order to leverage each other’s capabilities for enhancing Indo-US business relations. The Chamber continuously interacts with the Indian and US Governments, and provides them feedback on bilateral issues relating to trade and investment. In essence, IACC also acts as a forum for its member companies to interact with senior functionaries of both the Governments. IACC member companies are involved in a cross-section of business domains such as manufacturing, engineering, construction, consumer goods, electronics, IT, pharmaceuticals, consulting, travel and tourism, etc.

The geographical spread of IACC is unique as it operates through 12 offices located throughout the country. These are in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Varanasi & Patna.