Indo-US Business Confidence Index

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President Message

Towards A Shared Agenda for Change

In the recently held Secretariat Retreat at Kochi, one of the briefs that I had conveyed was to show the videotape of the non-fiction bestseller -The Secret- written by Australian television producer Rhonda Byrne. I am not getting into the metaphysics element in the book which revolved around the buzzwords-Ask, Believe and Receive. I do not think that if you really want something to happen, the universe will conspire to make it happen. That is an over simplification. But what that has appealed me was the inspirational power of the book and stress that has been given to the positive thinking and action. My sincere hope was that the Secretariat would pick the thread from the strong positive moorings of the documentary and emotionally get connected to its appeal.

On hindsight, I feel that there is a distant connect between the thematic sequence of The Secret and what I propose to achieve for the year ahead. In a dispensation where the various Chambers are getting themselves involved in a variety of issues, organically and inorganically connected or otherwise-I thought of narrowing down the sphere and push a few contemporaneous issues or topics to the center stage. These are what IACC should ask, believe are deliverable and feel can be received, given that the message is positively imbibed and properly executed.

As I ponder to set the pecking order of my agenda for the year, the foremost is the synergy that I want to build between the small and medium enterprises of India and the US-a factor which has been overlooked in our long cherished relationship, despite the fact that these two segments play an important role in both the economies, be it providing employment, contributing to GDP or exports. The flip side is that hand holding of this layer of industry is always difficult since they operate in a relatively smaller scale and scope. They are also handicapped by resource constraints. Happily, there is a change of mindset now. The Administrations on both sides are keen to facilitate tie-ups between the SMEs of both countries. Increasing number of delegations of SMEs are visiting each other's country and tie-ups are forged in various segments. Yet, I feel there should be an institutional set up, where these firms can pool their resources to collect market intelligence and set up distribution network, which are otherwise costly. As the only bilateral chamber dedicated to promote economic co-operation between India and US, IACC has to be proactive on this issue and carry out innovative programs and projects.

Agriculture holds a lot of prospects for co-operation between the two countries. There has been a spate of initiatives at the Governmental level to share information and to undertake joint research in areas like genetic engineering, training, molecular biology, field trials etc in the recent days. An area that require more focused attention is the food processing sector, where two countries can benefit immensely not only for setting up joint ventures but also tapping the forward and backward linkages of the sector such as agriculture extension work, creating retail networks, cold chains etc. This would create millions of jobs in India, besides preventing huge quantum of wastages of fruits and vegetables in the country due to lack of storage and processing capacity.

I believe that the connect between the Hollywood and Bollywood is not recognized in the proper sense, which I feel is the futuristic segment. It is not only export of films and songs that has to be looked at. Joint production, outsourcing of animation works, editing of films and albums, etc are some of the areas that can be creatively tapped.

There are other segments as well high in my priority such as co-operation in environment issues, promotion of cooperation in soft manufacturing such as machine tools, components, increased outsourcing of engineering designs, participation in the real estate in a more meaningful way etc. I believe that these are some of the areas that can take our growing relationship to a higher orbit of growth.

The pertinent point is what should be the ideal role of IACC in espousing these causes. . As a Chamber our role is mainly advocacy targeted at businesses and the Administrations of both the countries. These initiatives in business need not come from large corporations. It can be from a first generation entrepreneur, say hailing from Malad or Pune. Let me be more specific. Can a web designer in Pune think of creating a web site for a recently released film in US for marketing it or a website for a Senator in US.I feel this is possible and that is exactly what I meant by new wave of cooperation and synergy that should go beyond the metros and big businesses. I am sure IACC can create that enabling situation and ambience through our programs and thoughts. Yes, we have to induct a new sense of purpose, ideation and content to our organisation. We have to create white papers, brainstorming meetings, seminars/workshops, training programs and even exchange delegations etc on these areas across the country. We may also have to go for a big bang program in the US-perhaps organisation of the Indo-US Economic Summit in US. These are some of thoughts that I have to take forward my agenda. For that, I am sure, I have your co-operation and support.

Thank you

Farokh Balsara | View President Mr. Farokh T. Balsara's Profile