The core committee of AMCHAM’s Agriculture and Food Processing Committee met under the chairmanship of Mr. Siraj Azmat Chaudhry at the Cargill office on March 28th, 2018. The co-chairs of the committee, Ms. Neelima Dwivedi from Pepsico and Mr. Raju Kapoor from Corteva, were present. It was decided that the committee should concentrate on objectives that are unique to AMCHAM and not replicate what the other business chambers were doing and highlighted that AMCHAM was the only chamber which worked actively with the U.S. Embassy.

Since AMCHAM was the sole chamber representing American companies while other chambers represented all business entities in India, the core committee concluded to start off with activities that are peculiar to and generic to American companies specifically. The Chairpersons agreed that the committee should have a mission statement that covers seed companies, pre-harvest companies, post-harvest companies, food processing and finally packaging and marketing companies. The pros and cons of a pilot projects were discussed. Grant Thornton discussed the knowledge paper the committee plans to bring out and requested inputs.

Members of AMCHAM’s Infrastructure and Smart Cities Committee met under the chairmanship of Mr. Arun Kumar Jain, Managing Director, Fluor Daniel India, on 26th March at the office of Fluor Daniel. The meeting was co-chaired by Dr. Jaijit Bhattacharya, Partner, KPMG and Mr. Samit Ray, Director, Government Affairs, United Technologies Corporation. Since the last committee meeting, Mr. Sameer Jain, Director, Smart Cities, KPMG, shared the smart city proposals and their specifications.

Members animatedly discussed the restrictions U.S. companies were operating within, what was holding them back from bidding or participating in any other manner in the contracts for smart cities, the concept of open loop standards for payments in smart cities and difficulties in obtaining licenses. The committee felt that Indian companies do not bother about scope of liability when they sign the contracts. It was decided to send representations for this issue to the Ministry. It was recommended to reach out to the cities of Ajmer and Allahabad for contracts.

AMCHAM, with knowledge partner, Deloitte, organized a webcast on ‘U.S. Tax Reforms’ and its impact on U.S. and non-U.S. based multinationals, on 19thMarch 2018. The speakers were subject matter experts, Ms. Nancy Millet, Partner, Deloitte U.S. and Mr. Charles Umsted, Managing Director, Deloitte U.S. Their presentations were followed by Q&A with AMCHAM members. The discussion was moderated by Mr. Rajesh H. Gandhi, Tax Partner, Deloitte India.

AMCHAM’s CSR Committee met under the Chairmanship of Mr. Harish Krishnan, Manging Director, Public Affairs & Strategic Engagement, India & SAARC, Cisco Systems (India) on March 19th, 2018 at the Cisco office in Gurugram. The purpose of the meeting was to brainstorm and plan a full day CSR event with cross-sectoral panel discussions aimed at identifying and addressing challenges, needs and avenues for capacity building in CSR. It was decided the event would be held on May 15th in New Delhi and bring together all relevant stakeholders — corporates, NGOs, social and developmental agencies and the government.

AMCHAM’s Supply Chain and Logistics Committee, in partnership with knowledge provider EY, organized a session on ‘E-Way Bill – The Road Ahead’ on Wednesday, 14th March 2018 in Mumbai. The session was held with the objective of understanding the requirement, identifying the concern areas and challenges of the E-Way Bill to journey into the new compliance with minimum disruption to business.

The morning began with a welcome and opening remarks by Mr. Milind Tailor, Co-Chairman – Supply Chain & Logistics Committee, AMCHAM and Head of Indirect Procurement & Electronic Security Asia Pacific, Diebold Nixdorf Private Limited. Through his introductory remarks, Mr. Suresh Nair, Partner – Indirect Tax, EY India, introduced the topic and the expert speakers of the day. The experts from EY, Ms. Smita Bhandari, Partner – Indirect Tax, Mr. Ravikumar Yanamandra Director – Indirect Tax and Mr. Uday Pimprikar, Tax Partner – Indirect Tax Services, shared their expertise with insightful detail highlighting the applicability, responsibilities and key features of the E-Way Bill. The session saw an interesting exchange of thoughts and interaction. The event was well attended by supply chain leaders of AMCHAM member companies. The session concluded with a vote of thanks by Mr. Ravi Sundararaj, Procurement Manager, Solenis Chemicals India Pvt. Ltd.

AMCHAM’s Western Region Committee (WRC) meeting was held on Wednesday, 14th March 2018. The meeting commenced with reviews and comments on past events and meetings held in the Western Region. The committee actively discussed the progress of the WR project ‘Impact Statement’ and ideated towards proposed meetings and events in the region for the near future.