AMCHAM’s Karnataka Chapter hosted a closed door interaction for members with Consul General Robert G. Burgess, U.S. Consulate, Chennai and Mr. Manoj Desai, Counselor for Commercial Affairs, U.S. Consulate Chennai on June 27th. The event was focused on meeting with American companies doing business in Karnataka and understanding how the Consulate and Commercial Services could help U.S. companies succeed. The event was attended by companies like 3M, Goldman Sachs, Saggezza, Inteva Products, Johnson Controls, Enphase Energy, Ernst & Young, Swagelok and Hewlett Packard, among others.

AMCHAM’s Tamil Nadu Chapter held a breakfast session on June 27th, 2019 on ‘Global In-House Centres (GIC) – Emerging Trends and Increasing Relevance’ with guest speaker Mr. Kamalanand Nithianandan, Partner, EY. The meeting commenced with a welcome by Mr. Rajan Aiyer, Chairman – Tamil Nadu Chapter, AMCHAM, who set the tone for the presentation.

The summary of the presentation by Mr. Kamalanand Nithianandan is as follows: Many companies are building digital solutions that use proprietary data for their businesses in-house, unlike in the past where they traditionally outsourced applications to IT services companies. The oldest MNC captive in India is that of Texas Instruments which established it’s captive way back in Bangalore in 1984. Several MNC’s are building captive centres in India to scale up operations and build newer products and solutions that they take to their customers globally. India is at the center of this action as the country is at the cusp of its democratic dividend, with over 2.6. million STEM graduated produced each year.

Global in-house centres (GICs), or captives, of U.S. and European companies are seeing a strong revival in India, with the multinationals either setting up new units or expanding existing operations as they look to use technology to reinvent their businesses. Moreover, India is seen as a fantastic center for innovation. India has over 1,250 captive units, excluding IT/ITES service companies. Last year, these units hired more people than the IT firms, and are set to hire a further 1.5 lakh people over the next two years and this number keeps growing at a steady pace, attritions notwithstanding. The GICs employed nearly one million at the end of the just-concluded financial year.

GIC’s help businesses to meet the demand of new agile ways of working, where the role of GIC’s is not just confined to systems integration but also to be an orchestrator of services, delivered by collaborating through a number of product and technology partners. The meet concluded with an insightful interactive session.

On 27th June 2019, the Anti-Corruption & FCPA Compliance Core Committee organized a meeting at the Genpact office in Gurugram. Ms. Tanya Paul, Communication Director, AMCHAM, welcomed participants and introduced the new Chairman and Co-Chairperson for 2019-20. Opening remarks were given by Mr. Gaurav Ajmani, Chairman – Anti-Corruption & FCPA Compliance Committee, AMCHAM and Associate General Counsel, Business Conduct & Ethics, Amazon Seller Services (P) Ltd. The committee discussed topics the following topics – 1) focus areas for corporate anti-corruption programs, specifically on employee training (offline/online) and 2) changes in policies and what drove these changes?

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)of South Asia hosted an intellectual property roundtable with Ms. Zeba Reyazuddin, Acting Assistant, U.S. Trade Representative, South and Central Asian Affairs, on June 25th, 2019 in New Delhi. AMCHAM members, along with participants from other companies, attended the roundtable. Ms. Zeba Reyazuddin welcomed participants and briefed everyone on her visit to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Maldives where she met with industry and government to address key commercial issues.

AMCHAM’s Eastern Region organized a meeting with Consul General Patti Hoffman, U.S. Consulate Kolkata on June 24th. The meeting was to introduce Mr. Subrata Bagchi, who had taken over as Chairman of the Eastern Region from Mr. Debdas Sen, who would be relocating to the U.S. Mr. Sen updated Consul General Hoffman on various initiatives taken up by the region and the value of the partnership between the U.S. Consulate and AMCHAM members. Mr. Bagchi also give his views on taking AMCHAM forward and discussed some of the events that were being planned. The Indo-Pacific strategy, among other issues, was discussed. Ms. Amada Kidwai, Regional Director – Eastern Region, AMCHAM, was also present at the meeting and highlighted some of the forthcoming events.

On 19th June 2019, the first meeting of AMCHAM’s Supply Chain and Logistics Committee for the year was held via concall. Mr. Kumar Kandaswami, Chairman Supply Chain and Logistics Committee, AMCHAM and Partner, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP, warmly welcomed all committee members. This was followed by a round of introductions. Ms. Surabhi Wahal, Regional Director – Western Region, AMCHAM, shared an overview of the activities and initiatives of the committee in the year 2018-19 followed by the business plan for 2019-20.

As part of the discussions and agenda, members ideated and shared their thoughts on the key areas of value that the committee should focus us in 2019-20, the role and commitment of committee members, frequency of meetings and other important agenda points. The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks by Mr. Praveen Gosain, Co Chairman – Supply Chain and Logistics Committee, AMCHAM and Director Supply Chain India, Corning Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.