AMCHAM’s Infrastructure & Smart Cities Committee met under the leadership of Mr. Anand Chidambaram, Chairman – Infrastructure & Smart Cities Committee, AMCHAM and Managing Director, Progressrail, Mr. Samit Ray, Co-Chairman – Infrastructure & Smart Cities Committee, AMCHAM and Regional Director – Government Affairs & Public Policy South East Asia, UTC, and Mr. Ambrish Bakaya, Co-Chairman – Infrastructure & Smart Cities Committee, AMCHAM Director Corporate Affairs, HPE, in New Delhi on July 31st.

The committee discussed avenues in infrastructure since the sector has now reflected marked activity post elections and budget. It was emphasized that the ongoing efforts on smart cities be kept up and efforts be made to identify ongoing projects vis a vis capabilities of members to pursue possibilities with MoHUA. A deep dive on smart cities was proposed and accepted for August 13th at the UTC Office, Gurugram. Other areas of concentration specific to the Infrastructure sector would be identified at the next meeting.

AMCHAM members attended ‘Consultative Meeting for Developing a Roadmap for Scaling-up of MedTech Innovations Striving for Quality, Safety and Affordable Access’ organized by the Indian Council of Medical Research, in association with Biotech Consortium India Limited (BCIL) on July 26th at the Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi. Dr. Vinod Paul, Member, Niti Aayog, along with Dr. Balram Bhargava, DG, ICMR and Secretary, DHR, addressed participants, followed by a presentation on ICMR vision, role in diagnostic devices and scaling up the biodesign philosophy in India.

This meeting brought together all key stakeholders and policy makers to deliberate on key issues/challenges faced by medical device start-ups and propose possible solutions to assist them in scaling-up and facilitating market access so that they can be used by the masses.

The Standing National Committee on Medicine (SNCM) had its first stakeholders national consultation meeting for the revision of NLEM-2015 on 25th July 2019 at the Indian Red Cross Society Building, Department of Health Research (DHR), New Delhi. Ms. Jyotsna Ghoshal, Co-Chairperson – Pharma Committee, AMCHAM, and members of the Medical Devices Committee attended the meeting. The agenda of the meeting was to discuss any feedback on the previous NLEM-2015, get inputs/comments on oncology drugs and cardiology drugs, addition of penicillin preparations in NLEM and get information about antimicrobial resistance (AMR) consultation.

During the meeting Dr. YK Gupta and Prof. Balram Bhargava – DG, ICMR, stated the objective of the consultation was to ensure absolute transparency. This would be standing committee and meetings would take place at regular intervals. Recommendations would be attempted at least once in six months and industry would be given adequate time to suggest/implement changes in NLEM.

AMCHAM’s Tamil Nadu Chapter held a breakfast meeting on July 25th in Chenni. Mr. Vivek Vanmeeganathan, Executive Committee Member – Tamil Nadu Chapter, AMCHAM chaired the meeting. The guest speakers included Mr. Arun Subramaniam, Founder, Earth Fokus, Mr. Beumer Rayen, General Manager, Ford India and Mr. Bijay Mukherjee, Head, Corporate Workplaces, Cognizant India.

A meeting of AMCHAM’s Energy Committee was held on July 25th at the AES India office in Gurugram and was chaired by Mr. Rajendra Shrivastav, President AES India. The committee deliberated on energy storage, renewables, energy transition, biofuels and current developments in refining and petrochemicals. The integration of renewables and battery energy storage (BES) for an uninterrupted supply to the grid was seen as the next big development on the horizon. While BES for electric vehicles also had significant potential, it was felt that charging infrastructure needed to be in place before the full potential of EVs could be realized.

While lithium ion batteries for energy storage were seen as the leading technology offering the fastest response time, other technologies using nickel ion etc. were also good contenders. Lithium ion is not produced locally and is imported. Biofuel technologies converting waste to liquid fuels like ethanol, crude and furnace oil also offered a good business opportunity and some relief from hydrocarbon imports. The disruption in conventional transportation fuels has encouraged the integration of refining and petrochemicals. Technologies such as crude to chemicals were now on being considered seriously.

Members also discussed the above issues in the context of local manufacturing and integration into the global value chain. Challenges in each of these areas were discussed at length and the mobilization of members to address stakeholders. The challenge to contain a rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius was driving energy transition towards low carbon fuels. The themes that emerged for the next meeting were energy storage including renewables, petrochemicals and biofuels.

AMCHAM’s Agriculture & Food Processing Committee organized its first meeting on July 25th at the Cargill Office in Gurugram. Mr. Simon George, Chairman – Agriculture & Food Processing Committee, AMCHAM and President, Cargill India welcomed participants. In his opening remarks, he spoke about the need of having a specific agenda for the committee and to focus on select activities. Ms. Tiffany Landry, Agricultural Attaché, Foreign Agricultural Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Embassy, gave an overview of her department and shared some specific initiatives for members undertaken by the U.S. Embassy.

Mr. Shibu Mathews, Commercial Specialist, U.S. Commercial Service, U.S. Embassy, also shared how they assist American companies in extending their operations to India. The committee discussed a workplan for the upcoming months which included participation in World Food India 2019, creating awareness about water conservation in agriculture through integrated technology and focus on FPO’s. The closing remarks and vote of thanks were given by Ms. Neelima Dwivedi, Co-Chairperson – Agriculture & Food Processing Committee, AMCHAM and Vice President – Corporate Affairs, PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd.