AmCham’s Infrastructure and Smart Cities Committee held an interactive session with USTDA Country Representative, Ms. Mehnaz Ansari, on 22nd September in New Delhi. The interaction brought up significant outcomes from the recently held U.S. – India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue. Areas such as innovation, entrepreneurship, ease of doing business, commerce and economy and energy initiatives, such as the U.S.-India Clean Energy Finance Initiative, clean energy hub, the expansion of the utility support program of USAID and the U.S. India Catalytic Solar Energy Finance Program.

The efforts under the Clean Energy Finance Task Force are being expanded to include new clean energy finance initiatives for joint collaborations. Ms. Ansari give updates from USTDA’s recent outreaches to the cities of Vizag, Ajmer and Allahabad and apprised committee members on the second phase of smart city expansion programs launched in Vizag, as well as the progress of the smart city master plan in Ajmer and Allahabad. She also informed the committee on the upcoming Smart City Stakeholders’ workshop to be held in Vizag, the Reverse Trade Mission proposed for Ajmer and the Commerce Department’s Conference on Smart Cities. Members were invited to share their views on possible candidates for the Reverse Trade Mission and inputs were sought for engaging with stakeholders in Vizag, Allahabad and Ajmer, during the upcoming outreach.