US-India Business Council on Promoting Digital Economy Mission

The U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC) concluded its Digital Economy Executive Mission to New Delhi, India.  The delegation expressed its commitment to the Indian market, called for further dialogue with the government on issues related to ease of doing business, and discussed strategies for achieving the Government of India’s priorities, particularly the Digital India and Make in India initiatives. The delegation was chaired by Joe Alhadeff, Chairman of USIBC’s Digital Economy Executive Committee, and included participation from Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Corning, Ericsson, Facebook, Google, Hughes Networks Systems, IBM, Intel, Nvidia Graphics, Oracle, Symantec, Texas Instruments, and Uber.

“We had productive meetings with the Government of India,” said Joe Alhadeff, leader of the USIBC delegation. “We discussed ways in which the industry can support the government in turning their ambitious goals into tangible results by pursuing these initiatives and continuing to improve the ease of doing business.”

During the visit, the Digital Economy delegation met with government officials across all areas of the Digital Economy and attended the Department of Telecommunication’s National M2M Roadmap Conference.

“We were pleased to participate in the roll out conference of the M2M Roadmap. M2M, IOT and Cloud are essential technologies of a Digital India and a prosperous India”, said Alhadeff, who spoke on the panel with members of DoT and DeitY.”

The delegation also hosted a briefing on e-commerce issues in India, chaired by the Department of Investment Policy and Promotion and featured experts from PwC and internet start-ups such as Karma Recycling and Nykaa. They also attended the Minister of Commerce’s consultation on FDI for e-commerce.

“USIBC is encouraged by the government’s decision to revisit the FDI policy in the e-commerce sector,” said Gaurav Verma, Senior Director at USIBC. “Opening FDI in e-commerce will spur manufacturing, enhance supply chain efficiency, and provide greater access to consumers throughout India,” he said.

Harish Krishnan, Executive Director of Public Affairs at Cisco India and Vice-Chairman of USIBC’s Digital Economy Committee said, “We commend the Government of India’s serious approach to enhancing the ease of doing business in the country and we are encouraged by the frank, action-oriented approach the Government is taking to achieve this goal.”

USIBC Digital Economy member companies represent every aspect of the global Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.  In an effort to enhance bilateral commercial relations, the committee seeks to promote policies that will lead to greater growth in the Indian ICT sector.  The Executive Committee holds biannual missions to India in order to maintain close contact with key government officials to ensure that the Government of India view USIBC and member companies as partners throughout the policy-making process in this dynamic and promising sector.