A meeting of the Executive Committee of AMCHAM’s Northern Region Council was held in New Delhi. Mr. Vivek Vasishtha, Vice-Chairman of NRC and Country Leader – Government and Regulatory Affairs, IBM India Pvt. Ltd., welcomed members.

An interesting presentation on ‘Workforce Reforms’ was made my Ms. Seema Ajwani from IBM, which covered recent labour reforms, workforce dynamics in India, existing laws, etc.

The committee met at the office of St. Jude Medical to discuss and deliberate on the topics/subjects to be touched on at the 4th AMCHAM Healthcare Conference to be held at Hyderabad on 16th September 2016. After much discussion, the ideas were put on paper and it was decided that we would continue to think on these and firm them up at the next meeting.

AmCham India Medical Devices Committee Chairman, Mr. Prabal Chakraborty led a delegation of AmCham Medical Devices Committee Members to Dhaka, Bangladesh from May 30-31, 2016. The main purpose of the delegation was to understand the ongoing development in the healthcare sector in Bangladesh and the impact on allied industries like medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare insurance policies.

The delegation met with officials within the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare including the State Minister, DG-Directorate of Drug Administration, DGDA, DG-Health Economics Unit, DG-Central Medicine Stores Department (CMSD), DG-Procurement, Deputy Secretary, Additional Secretary, Joint Secretary and many other government officials from the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. The group also met, over dinner, with the President and Executive Committee members of AmCham Bangladesh.

The 19 membered delegation comprised of participants from members of AmCham Medical Devices Committee like Boston Scientific, BD, Abbott, GE, Varian, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Edwards Life Sciences and St. Jude Medical. From the AmCham secretariat, Mr. Gaurav Mendiratta accompanied the delegation.

Mr. Pratyush Kumar, Chairman, AMCHAM, accompanied by Ms. Madhvi Kataria, Deputy Executive Director, called on Mr. Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Government of India, on 26th May 2016. They discussed ease of doing business, fast-tracking of U.S. investments in India, greater industry engagement, manufacturing in India, need for improvement in defense offsets, and IPR policy.

The team was briefed with details of the meeting with Mr. Ashok Kumar Gupta, Secretary, Defence Production. Also issues on the tax and regulatory aspects raised with the Secretary were discussed. It was decided that members would present inputs to the newly appointed Vivek Rae Committee.

Mr. Pratyush Kumar, Chairman, AMCHAM, called on Ms. Rita A. Teaotia, Commerce Secretary, Government of India, on 24th May 2016. He discussed priorities for India-U.S. trade, ease of doing business, opportunities in the defense sector and defense offsets.