On 29th January, 2016 in New Delhi, AmCham met with Mr. Fred Hochberg, Chairman and President of the Export Import Bank of the U.S. During this visit, Chairman Hochberg met with industry leaders to discuss how Ex-Im Bank, as the official export credit agency of the United States, could advance U.S.-India cooperation on a range of issues from nuclear and renewable power, to aviation and other infrastructure priorities, through Ex-Im financing.

Mr. Pratyush Kumar, President, Boeing India, gave introductory remarks and mentioned the overwhelming opportunity in India for infrastructure growth. He also mentioned that India has the fasting growing civil aviation market in the world.

Chairman Hochberg explained that Ex-Im Bank has been officially re-chartered until 2019. This was his first international trip since the new charter and they remain increasingly enthusiastic towards India. Ex-Im has provided more loans to India under the Obama administration than the Bush and Clinton administration combined. Ex-Im’s prime focus is to support jobs in the U.S. and has been primarily focused on the renewable power sector. When thinking in terms of how Ex-Im Bank can support you, think about the financing of goods or services that supports U.S. jobs.

Other members of the delegation and USG present included:

Raymond J. Ellis, VP of Global Business Development, Ex-Im Bank
Matthew Bevens, Deputy Chief of Staff, Ex-Im Bank
Ashley Lewis, Press Secretary, Ex-Im Bank
George Sibley, Minister Counselor for Economic Affairs, Environment, Science and Technology, U.S. Embassy
Dillon Banerjee, Counselor for Commercial Affairs, U.S. Embassy
Zeba Reyazuddin, Economic Growth Unit Chief, U.S. Embassy
Ray Sudweeks, Energy Unit Chief, U.S. Embassy
Chad Norberg, Trade and Technology Unit Chief, U.S. Embassy
Wes Mathews, Economic Officer, U.S. Embassy

Highlights of the discussion included:

India as a significant market for solar power and how Ex-Im has contributed to it
Most action in the energy realm will occur at the state level
Massive energy opportunities in the northeastern states
Ex-Im emphasized that if state governments have an international rating then they can look at getting involved with them
An explanation of the smart city initiative and progress of various projects

The companies present were 3M, Boeing, Caterpillar, Edgewood Networks, First Solar, IBM, KPMG, Lanza Tech and UTC.

On 22nd January, 2016, in Kolkata, the U.S. Consul General, Mr. Craig Hall, hosted a meeting at his residence with members of AmCham on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). He opened the meeting by welcoming members and asking about the initiatives that American companies in the eastern region are driving. Mr. Deepak Jolly, CSR Committee Chairman, AmCham, attended the meeting and explained the function of the CSR committee and the role Coca-Cola undertakes both in India and globally.

Mr. Dinesh Agarwal, Eastern Region Chairman, AmCham, and Mr. Ashish Sen, member of AmCham’s Eastern Region Executive Committee also spoke about the law that govern the CSR activities and the issues involved. They explained that under the Companies Act, 2013, any company having a net worth of INR 500 crore or more, or a turnover of INR 1,000 crore or more, or a net profit of INR 5 crore or more, has to spend at least 2% of the last 3 years average net profits on CSR activities, as specified in Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013. They gave examples of their own corporation activities. Representatives of Deloitte, KPMG and Genpact were also present and spoke about the various aspects of the CSR activities their organization have undertaken.

Senior members of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee met with the AMCHAM Defense Committee members on 15th January, 2016 in New Delhi. The purpose was to hear from industry about their experiences and challenges in India. Those present from the USG included: Daniel Lerner, Staff Member, Senate Armed Services Committee, Anish Goel, Staff Member, Senate Armed Services Committee, and Jonathan S Epstein, Counsel of the Armed Services Committee. Mr. Phil Shaw, Chairman, AMCHAM Defense Committee presided over the discussions. Several other senior defense committee members were present.

On 14th January 2016, AmCham, in association with KPMG, organized a roundtable interaction on “Investment opportunities for U.S. industry in Haryana” with the senior administration of Haryana Government, led by Principal Secretary Mr. Devendra Singh, (Industries), Divisional Commissioner Gurgaon, Dr. D. Suresh, and Director Industries, Mr. Vivek Atray. The program was organized as a preview to Happening Haryana – A Haryana Government’s Global Investors Summit, being organized in March in Gurgaon. The objective of the interaction was to explore investment opportunities by having a concrete dialogue with decision makers and senior government officials for mapping the upcoming investment opportunities, ease-of-doing-business, PPP models for private sector participation, and obtaining an overall understanding of the business environment in Haryana. An insight into the state government’s new industrial policy was provided by Mr. Devendra Singh and a number of investment promotion initiatives and upcoming projects in the various focus areas were discussed in detail.

The industry participants included KPMG CEO, Mr. Richard Rekhy and senior representatives of U.S. companies such as Honeywell, UTC, Amazon, IBM, Varian Medical systems, Tecumseh, 3M etc. Ms. Robyn Kessler, represented the U.S Embassy at the program and spoke about infrastructure and smart city collaboration being undertaken at the government-to-government level by the U.S. and Indian government.

The meeting began with Ms. Surabhi Wahal welcoming the members. Mr. Nikhil Kush shared a few words on the achievements of the committee in the year 2015 and the positive potential that the new year holds.

The month’s sharing and learning concall led by Ms. Shilpa Ramanathan, Head- Supply Chain at Bard India HealthCare Pvt. Ltd., focused on the consignment and SECM (sale on extended credit) model for fluency brand in India undertaken at Bard India. Through the presentation, Ms. Shilpa went on to explain the innovative model which has resulted in significant improvement in service levels, exceptional business growth, increased service value and helped in inventory management. The SECM model which is a business process change in lieu of consignment process was developed to ensure compliance with taxation rules. The interactive Q & A session that followed addressed queries about the impact of the model within the spheres of supply chain and distribution.

The meeting carried forward with a discussion and sharing of thoughts, to put together a plan of action by the committee during the year 2016.

Mr. Nikhil Kush closed the meeting by thanking the members present, with special gratitude to Ms. Shilpa for sharing her expertise on the novel an innovative supply chain best practice from Bard India.