AMCHAM’s Defense Committee held a meeting on April 12th at Lockheed Martin’s office in New Delhi. Ms. Udaya Arun, Director, AMCHAM welcomed participants, acknowledged and thanked Mr. William Blair, Chairman – Defense Committee, AMCHAM and Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin India, Mr. Surendra Ahuja, Co-Chairman – Defense Committee, AMCHAM and Managing Director, Boeing Defense India and Mr. Gaurav Mehndiratta, Co-Chairman – Defense Committee, AMCHAM and Partner and Head – Aerospace & Defense, KPMG, for their time and commitment for 2022-23 towards the Defense C0mmittee. Commitment and leadership of Mr. Ravindra Nirgudkar, Former Co-Chairman – Defense Committee, AMCHAM and Former Managing Director, BAE Systems India was also acknowledged. Mr. Jonathan Heimer, Honorary National Executive Board Member, AMCHAM and Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs, U.S. Embassy shared updates on the arrival of U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti, upcoming Select USA Summit in May 2023 followed by likely CEO level engagements during PM Narendra Modi’s visit to the U.S. in June. CAPT Michael Farmer, Chief ODC, U.S. Embassy shared updates on Senator Young’s ongoing visit to India and his engagements with senior government leadership in Delhi, interactions with start-ups and visit to JV facilities in Hyderabad. Other high level U.S. government meetings to follow during this year culminating with POTUS visit at the last quarter were also shared.

Mr. Blair took the group through an update on the wholly owned subsidiary (WOS) clause clarification and shared that hopefully the issue was seeing the light of the day and getting resolved, since it was also a moot point at the Invest India led DPIIT Fast Track Mechanism meeting immediately following the committee meeting. Ms. Arun updated members on the submissions being prepared for AGM from the Defense Committee for the panel discussion. The group decided to come out with an updated document capturing the U.S.-India defense relationship. Details on the engagements at AGM and the annual door knock were discussed.