Mr. Srinivasan Sarangapani, Chairperson, AmCham Supply Chain and Logistics Committee, welcomed members to the first meeting of the year on 24th January at the Diebold Systems office in Mumbai. An overview of all events and achievements in 2016 was followed by a discussion on planned and prospective events in Q1 of 2017. Fruitful brainstorming on the annual event brought to fore ideas as well as prospects for collaboration.

As part of a sharing and learning initiative Mr. Umesh Madhyan, National Head Infrastructure and Logistics, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd., shared an insightful presentation on the visionary topic of ‘Supply Chain in 2025 and ASRS Warehouse Design at Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd.’ The committee meeting concluded with a vote of thanks to Mr. Milind Tailor, Co-Chair, AmCham SCL Committee and Head – Supply Chain Management, Diebold Systems Private Limited for hosting.

AmCham Hyderabad organized a session on GST at Westin Mindspace on 24th January. Siddhartha Jain from Ernst & Young led the session and encouraged the participants to make it as interactive as possible. The session commenced with Siddhartha giving an overview of GST and mentioned it would, in all probability, be effective from 1st July 2017. He explained to the audience what GST meant to manufacturing, services and the hospitality industry and the implications of the same on these sectors. He also discussed the increase in compliances and the impact of GST on not just the tax part but the value chain as a whole. Preparing for GST is three fold – understanding the impact on business as a whole, implementation and transition planning.

The Transfer Pricing (TP) Alternative Dispute Resolution Forum was held in Chennai on 23rd January 2017. The event brought together a forum of PwC tax partners and directors for sessions, dialogues and panel discussions to discuss TP disputes and various dispute resolution forums to share information/expertise with multinational companies in India. Madhan N, Partner in PwC Chennai’s Tax practice, set the context for the event by discussing the recently concluded strenuous TP assessments and explained the need to be geared up to proactively prepare for putting in place an alternative dispute resolution mechanism.

As the opening session, Jatin Gajjar, Director in PwC Chennai TP practice, gave an insightful and stimulating speech on the theme ‘global tax scenarios.’ He touched on increased transparency across the globe and its effect on the international tax policy environment, how the tax authorities view typical TP issues across the globe and the dispute resolution trends. Sivam and Soumitra, Directors in PwC Chennai TP practice, engaged in a dialogue to discuss the most litigated TP issues across the country. While Sivam dealt with the nuances of parameters involved in a ‘risk based audit system,’ Soumitra explained the intensity of TP adjustments in the future and the resultant pressure on traditional appellate forums to settle TP disputes.

Finally, the event brought together an interesting panel discussion engaging Sriram Seshadri, Partner in PwC Chennai’s litigation practice, Kuntal Sen, Executive Director in PwC Mumbai’s litigation practice and Kunj Vaidya, Partner in PwC Chennai’s TP practice and National Dispute Resolution Lead. A wide of range of TP topics were discussed, such as start-up losses, management service pay-outs, mark-up issues and possibility of deemed international transactions. As a concluding thought, Kun Vaidya shared certain practical insights on selecting the right forum for dispute resolution, considering facts of case. The event brought to together renowned TP professionals and litigation leads to share their experience and insights into the issues impacting businesses across the region.

When sharing their feedback, participants mentioned the event was informative, easy to understand, added value to their work and helped them to network with peers and professionals.

The fourth meeting of the HR Committee was held on 23rd January 2017 in New Delhi under the leadership of Mr. D.P. Singh, Chairman – HR Committee and VP – HR (India/South Asia), IBM India and Mr. Sameer Mathur, Co-Chair and Senior VP – HR, Citibank India. The committee deliberated on possible topics of interest and events for the next quarter. Mr. Sameer Mathur presented the HR charters for the sub-committees and possible events for 2017.

Mr. Sarthak Raychauduri, Whirlpool, spoke about “Future of Work.” He focused on various practices that are currently being adopted by organizations related to future work practices. He urged the committee to think about the changes that will occur in the years to come. He contemplated on how the interaction, communication and the impact on processes will change in the coming years. He proposed that the perspective of millennials should be taken in consideration as they represent the future. It was thereby finalized by the committee to have a paper competition on the “Future of Work.”

A presentation on ‘Understanding Millennial’ was given by Ms. Kristina Deighan, Citibank, which highlighted the generational differences and values of millennials. She explained the biggest shift in India’s workforce is represented by millennials and how it is important to understand their values, preferences and mobility for human resource departments.

Ms. Kavita Mathur, Grant Thornton, also gave a presentation on ‘Employee Frauds’ elucidating on how fraud is attempted in India. She also suggested a few measures for companies to prepare themselves to handle such situations. She advised that a repository should be created of all identified frauds, their source of occurrence, detection/prevention method as prevalent in organizations. She also discussed what types of fraud typically happen in organizations.

AmCham India and its Eastern Region supported the Government of West Bengal to attract U.S. investors to do business in the state. As a prelude, AmCham had jointly organized a road show for the West Bengal government in New Delhi also. There were 27 countries who participated in the third edition of the Bengal Global Business Summit. Some of the countries who attended were China, Russia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy. Political dignitaries and business leaders from India and around the world attended the summit in Kolkata from 19th – 21st January.
On 19th January, the Honorable Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee hosted a dinner for delegates, chambers of commerce, industry, diplomats and government at Eco Park. This gave the guests the opportunity for networking and to have informal discussions. At the dinner, members of chambers including AmCham members, and Director General CEO Ranjana Khanna, got the opportunity to meet with the Chief Minister and Finance Minister and network amongst a host of government officials and foreign delegates.
On 20th January, at the inaugural session the President of India, the Honorable Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, was the Chief Guest. In his inaugural address, the President said that the strength of India lies in its cooperative federalism. India is a conglomeration of states and initiatives like the Global Business Summit aimed at achieving growth and prosperity. Day one of the summit saw business proposals of Rs. 30,000 crore into the state. A dinner was also hosted by FICCI for the foreign delegates and special invitees to enable them to have a platform for informal networking. The Honorable Minister Finance of West Bengal was the Chief Guest and in his address, while thanking the various chambers and delegates for supporting the BGBS 2017, acknowledge the presence of Ms. Ranjana Khanna, Director General CEO, AmCham India, for attending the summit and said he looked forward to further strengthening its relationship and working with AmCham.
Amongst the various investment announcements, Mr. Purnendu Chatterjee CEO of TCG, the largest American company which has investment in West Bengal, as well as ownership control of Haldia Petrochemicals and MCC PTA India, said that his group would invest around Rs. 1,000 crore over a sixteen month period.
On 21st January, the final day of the summit, some of the biggest investment proposals were made. Some of the proposals were (in Rs./crore) a total of 2.35 lakhs.):

• TEB Technology China and Texmaco in mass rapid transport system — 27,200
• Extension of Metro Railway – 235,960
• Howrah MSE hub – 18,000
• Tajpur port and port-led infrastructure – 12,000
• RPG Group – 10,000
• Ambuja theme-based township – 10,000
• Truck terminal at Rajarhat – 10,000
• Gail gas pipeline – 3,000
  The final day session concluded with an announcement by Dr. Frank-Jurgen Richter, Chairman of Horasis, an independent international organization that hosts annual meetings globally, on the critical challenges faced by corporations, who said that he would organize a conference to be held in Kolkata in November 2017. This will be the first time that a Horasis conference will be held in India. The Horasis Asia summit is Asia’s World Economic Forum and around 450-500 top of the line CEO’s come for the event.

A meeting of AmCham’s Eastern Region Committee (ER) and members was held on Thursday 19th January at the Data Core Systems office. The meeting was primarily held to nominate the ER Chairman, Vice Chairman and nominee to the National Executive Board. AmCham’s Director General CEO, Ms. Ranjana Khanna, during her visit to Kolkata to attend the Bengal Global Business Summit 2017, attended the meeting to meet members and understand the workings of the ER. Mr. Debdas Sen was elected as the incoming Chairman; Mr. Amit Malik was elected as Vice Chairman; and Mr. Gulshan Sachdev was elected as the nominee to the NEB.

Key points of discussions included budgets, sponsorship, membership drive, engaging with state governments that the ER covers and forthcoming events. Members suggested that additional members could be nominated to become Regional Chairman. Ms. Khanna shared her vision and goals for AmCham India. The meeting was concluded with thanks to the Chairman, Mr. K.P. Sengupta, for hosting the meeting.