AMCHAM’s Defense Committee convened virtually on December 15th to discuss the committee’s activities during the previous month. LTC Christian Mitchell, Director, ODC, U.S. Embassy briefed members on the USG delegation for DefExpo 2022 at Gandhinagar. Names of few prospective leaders who have been identified and invited were shared. Ms. Udaya Arun, Director – Aerospace & Defense, AMCHAM shared updates with members on the TeamUSA events at the DefExpo 2022, namely the U.S. industry and government closed door roundtable, aerospace and defense industry reception on the eve of DefExpo 2022 at Courtyard Marriott, Ahmedabad and the TeamUSA Seminar at Mahatma Convention Centre, Gandhinagar on show days at DefExpo 2022. Alignment between all participating organizing chambers was assured and conveyed to all members. She also requested team members to share their delegation strength and presence at DefExpo 2022 to get a sense of the U.S. industry presence. A few members were committed under the Kallman Exhibitors U.S. Pavillion while a few others were exploring taking up booth space on their own. It was understood that most of the companies were coming with a similar strength of numbers and presence as was visible during AeroIndia 2021 at Bengaluru and would be a contributing factor to the TeamUSA presence at DefExpo 2022.

Mr. Geoffrey Parish, Commercial Officer, U.S. Embassy shared a few other details regarding DefExpo from a trade and exhibition point of view. Mr. William Blair, Chairman – Defense Committee, AMCHAM and Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin India shared insights into the confirmation hearing of Mr. Eric Garcetti, the incoming U.S. Ambassador to India. He also shared about a CEO delegation coming to India for the upcoming Vibrant Gujarat summit in January 2022. Mr. Gaurav Mehndiratta, Co-Chairman – Defense Committee, AMCHAM and Partner and Head – Aerospace & Defense, KPMG shared the KPMG point of view on AMCHAM’s submission on the very recent DOMW clarification on wholly owned subsidiary as an Indian offset partner. The team felt that a more vigorous approach to the meeting requests should be tried since the OEMs too were facing challenges securing a meeting with the appropriate authorities at the Ministry of Defence.

Members also wanted to know if AMCHAM was approached to submit comments on MOD’s call on strategy to ensure SP Model is distinct from existing “Licensed Production” and ToT model being followed between FOEM (Foreign OEM) and DPSU/OF. It was clarified that AMCHAM was not approached, neither received any intimation but only Indian chambers like SIDM and ASSOCHAM were approached for the same. This was corroborated by a few other members. It was decided that AMCHAM should revive earlier comments on the subject matter and send in a submission to ensure that it reaches the authorities once again for consideration.

An all chambers meeting with select industry leaders was proposed during the second week of January for more clarity and information sharing for DefExpo 2022. This would serve as an information sharing and gathering exercise prior to the committee meeting proposed during the 3rd week of January.

AMCHAM’s 2nd virtual Christmas Carnival was held on December 11th over Webex. AMCHAM members, U.S. Embassy and government officials, along with their entire families, enjoyed the evening of fun, raffles, laughter, prizes and games with Santa Claus. Ms. Ranjana Khanna, Director General CEO, AMCHAM welcomed members. Mr. Salil Gupte, Chairman, AMCHAM gave an upbeat festive message. The Honorary President of AMCHAM, Chargé D’Affaires Patricia A. Lacina, U.S. Embassy, as the Guest of Honour, inaugurated the event with brief remarks and holiday greetings. Special thanks to CDA Lacina for lending AMCHAM her tree virtually for one of the games.

Wg Cdr Rajiv Anand, Regional Director – Northern Region conducted a holiday drink demonstration for which the recipes can be viewed HERE. The evening featured the Christmas Carol Sing showcasing the musical talents of members pan India along with a fireside chat between the Regional Directors and leadership:

• Ms. Sandya Rodrigues, Regional Director – Hyderabad Chapter and Mr. Prakash Bodla, Chairman – Hyderabad Chapter, AMCHAM
• Ms. Payal Satish, Regional Director – Karnataka Chapter and Mr. Ravi Krishnan, Chairman – Karnataka Chapter, AMCHAM
• Wg Cdr Rajiv Anand, Regional Director – Northern Region
• Ms. Surabhi Wahal, Regional Director – Western Region and Mr. Shailendra Jagtap, Vice Chairman – Western Region, AMCHAM
• Ms. Amada Kidwai, Regional Director – Eastern Region and Mr. Gulshan Kumar Sachdev, Chairman – Eastern Region, AMCHAM
• Mr. Aubrey Daniels, Regional Director – Tamil Nadu Chapter and Mr. Rajan Aiyer, Chairman – Tamil Nadu Chapter, AMCHAM

The event was only possible through the generous support of our event partners: silver partner Lockheed Martin, bronze partners Applied Material, Bausch & Lomb, Becton Dickinson, Belcan India, Corning India, Pepsico India, Rossell Techsys, Textron India and supporting partners Amway India, Cargill India, Carrier Midea, Hughes Systique, Hyatt Hotels and Marriott International. Ms. Valerie Swope, Program Coordinator, AMCHAM emceed the event.

The AMCHAM India Invitational Golf Tournament 2021 was held on December 4th, 2021 at Prestige Golfshire in Karnataka. There was a great turnout with 111 participants. The attendees comprised of Country Heads of U.S. companies, senior state government bureaucrats, senior management of Indian companies and sponsors of the tournament. Saggezza was the title sponsor of the event. Other sponsors included Grace Relocations, Palo Alto Networks, MOOG, Parexel, Net Connect Global, Cushman Wakefield, Sundaram Motors Mercedes, Fuel Spec, Meritor, Goldman Sachs, 3M and many more. Our event partner was Tiger Sports Management. The tournament was followed by a luncheon and prize distribution with a wonderful band ‘80 Proof’ to entertain the audience. The attendees had a wonderful game on the golf course followed by networking for sponsors and attendees during lunch with excellent connections made for future business opportunities.

The prize winners were:

Overall Longest Drive – Samir Mapillai
Overall Closest to the pin – Ranga Moola
Overall Straightest drive – Manoj Sharan

Category B Runner up team (Non AMCHAM Category) – Ramani Sundaresan & Mrityunjay Singh
Category B Winning team (Non AMCHAM Category) – Anand Sharma & S Gopi

Category A Runner up team (Non AMCHAM Category) – Nooraine Faizal & Alok Bhargav
Category A Winning team (Non AMCHAM Category) – Ishwar Achanta & Aashray Goel

Category B Runner up team (AMCHAM Category) – Col Jose Peter & Manpreet Sachdev
Category B Winning team (AMCHAM Category) – Sumit Verma and Rohit Rao

Category A Runner up Team (AMCHAM Category) – Amitabh Rai & Prabhakar
Category A Winning team (AMCHAM Category) – Iqbal Sait & Loy Halder

*Please note Category B – Handicap 33 & Over | Category A – Handicap 32 & Below

The lucky dip winners were:

• Viceroy – Vikrant Gupta
• Courtyard by Marriott – Vishnu Prasad
• Kochi Marriott – V Prakash
• Whitefield – Rajeev Arora
• Cochin – Sanjay Sood
• Park Hyatt – NRN Reddy
• Leela – Sumit Rathore
• Leela – Sunil B
• Leela – Sanjay Koul
• Conrad – Dhananjay Das
• Conrad – Naresh Shah
• Hyatt – Vivek Tyagi
• Alila – Panish
• Le Meridian – Sanjay

AMCHAM was invited to the Pre-Budget meeting on Union Budget 2022-23 on December 2nd by the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. The meeting was held under the chairpersonship of Mr. J.B Mohapatra, Chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance. AMCHAM made a presentation on direct and indirect tax suggestions/recommendations based on the detailed suggestions received from members earlier and submitted to the Department of Revenue on November 11th. Mr. Amitabh Kumar, Program Director, AMCHAM gave opening remarks, Ms. Neeru Ahuja, Chairperson – Tax, Tariff and Regulatory Affairs Committee, AMCHAM and Partner, Deloitte India covered the direct tax suggestions and Ms. Anshul Aggarwal, Indirect Tax Partner, KPMG in India covered the indirect tax suggestions followed by an interactive discussion. The presentation made to the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance can be viewed HERE.