AMCHAM’s first Defense Core Committee meeting for year 2018-2019 was held on 30th May 2018. The committee meeting was chaired by Mr. Michael Koch, Vice President Defense & Space, Boeing India International Pvt. Ltd. and co-chaired by Mr. Nikhil Khanna, Managing Director, India, BAE systems and Mr. Gaurav Mehndiratta, Partner – Tax & Regulatory, Aerospace & Defense, KPMG in India. Ms. Ranjana Khanna, Director General CEO, AMCHAM and Ms. Udaya Arun, Director – Aerospace & Defense, AMCHAM were also present. The discussion focused on the work plan identified for 2018-2019 for the committee. The core group decided to convene the first larger defense committee meeting in June 2018.

AMCHAM co-hosted a U.S. industry interactive roundtable with Ambassador Tina Kaidanow, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, U.S. Department of State, and other officials, on May 30th in New Delhi. AMCHAM’s Defense Committee members met with Ambassador Kaidanow for a candid conversation on the U.S. – India defense climate and how the two governments had invested a lot in this relationship. The discussions touched upon the recent status of CAATSA, pending issues in the COMCASA, FMS deals in the pipeline. Members requested her to meet with NSA counterparts in Delhi in addition to her ongoing dialogues with officials from the Ministry of External affairs and Ministry of Defence officials to advocate for U.S. industry views.

Ambassador Kenneth Juster met with the AMCHAM members on May 30th, 2018, at the J.W. Marriott. Mr. Iqbal Sait, Chairman – Karnataka Chapter, AMCHAM and Head of EMEA Operations, Saggezza Inc., welcomed the Ambassador to Bengaluru and gave a brief introduction of the Karnataka Chapter. Consul General Robert Burgess of the U.S. Consulate Chennai introduced the Ambassador.

On the occasion, Ambassador Juster spoke on the growing trade ties between India and the U.S. and a few challenges. He answered questions from the audience ranging from U.S. – India technology transfer, to visa challenges, to American Citizen Services. The session concluded with the Chief of the Consular Section, Mr. Kent May, conducting an interactive session with the audience.

AMCHAM co-hosted a U.S. industry interactive roundtable with a Congressional Delegation led by William “Mac” Thornberry (R-TX), Chairman, House Armed Services Committee. Other delegates included Representative Vicky Hartzler (R-MO), Representative Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH), HASC, Representative Henry Cuellar (D-TX), HAC-D and other officials, on May 27th in New Delhi. AMCHAM’s Defense Committee members met with the delegation ahead of their meeting with Government of India officials and briefed them on pertinent issues like policy gaps in the Indian DPP, difficulty in ease of doing business and offset challenges. These points were raised to update the delegation on the issues that they could discuss on behalf of U.S. industry.

Chairman Thornberry said in the Indo-Pacific region the U.S. faces a near-term, belligerent threat armed with nuclear weapons and also a longer-term strategic competitor especially in the PACOM area of responsibility. Meeting all these challenges in the region was possible only because of the relationship with allies with whom the U.S. share common interests. He noted that one of the provisions of National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2019 will be to rename the U.S.-Pacific Command to be renamed as Indo-Pacific Command.

Plant visits are organized by AMCHAM’s Tamil Nadu Chapter twice or thrice a year as part of the ‘Sharing Best Practices by Practitioners’ program. This plant visit was exclusively for employees of AMCHAM members and held on May 25th 2018 in Sriperumbudur and Oragadam SEZ, outside Chennai.

Plant visits allow senior executives to build a better understanding of a site’s performance potential, to rally the frontline workforce and to communicate the company’s performance, strategy, and current challenges. Plant visits allow managers to review a supplier’s qualifications, to share best practices with a partner, see innovation at work or to benchmark performance and practices. Shop-floor operators can assess another plant’s operations and apply what they’ve learned to their own factories. Consultants benefit a great deal from these visits.

For participants, the primary objective of plant tours is to learn. The first way to enhance learning is to focus on practices. AMCHAM’s plant tours provide an opportunity to observe how work actually gets done. The visit had 38 participants whose work roles ranged from manufacturing, facilities management, business development, strategy and consulting. Of the four plants visited Dell and Sanmina are electronic hardware manufacturing companies, while Modine and BorgWarner are automotive component manufacturers.