January 31 2016, 17.53 PM IST || Pocket News Alert
Bengaluru, January 29, 2016: The Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) Conclave: Vision 2020 – Increasing US – India Trade to US$ 500 billion, was inaugurated in Bengaluru today by Shri. Siddaramiah, Chief Minister of Karnataka, in the august presence of Shri. N R Narayana Murthy, Chairman – Catamarans Venture & Co-founder, Infosys Technologies Limited; Dr Lalit Kanodia, National President, IACC; representatives from leading companies and industry leaders.
Welcoming dignitaries and delegates Dr. Lalit Kanodia, National President, IACC said. “Time is ripe for the two largest democracies of India and the US to enhance their economic engagement in a variety of sectors. More specifically there is need to drastically improve cooperation of MSME’s of both countries and accelerate the bilateral trade & investment with entrepreneurship playing a key role in charting a new course in redefining trade relations”. This conclave is expected to set the tone and pave way to chalk roadmap to achieve US$ 500 billion of Indo-US two way trade by 2020.
Inaugurating the conclave, Shri. Siddaramiah, Chief Minister of Karnataka, said, implicit in that lofty goal of achieving US$ 500 billion is the need for strengthening the economic engagement between India and the US in a whole range of spheres like investment, technology transfer, joint research, and added the list is expansive. Highlighting e-auction platform created by Karnataka Government for agricultural produces, which now is being followed by many other India states, he said it has the potential to change agricultural scenario in the country. There is great scope in agricultural sector and to make the concept of ‘farm to table’ a seamless option, he sought US investment in realizing this dream.
Highlighting the language barrier, Shri. Siddaramiah suggested to the enlightened audience that there was a need to think of innovative approach or to say bring disruptive technologies that would automatically translate what natives speak in their mother tongue to English and vice versa. This he pointed out can enhance outsourcing from India considerable and also help vast number of artisans, traditional designers and many others who are hamstrung by language barriers to market their skills. Also the Chief Minister made a passionate plea to make India’s electronic sector more vibrant and there by script a new era in information technology.
On this occasion IACC – Deloitte study was released (Deloitte is the knowledge partner). The report even while capturing the current strengths of bi-lateral trade, has detailed the evolving trends. Finally, the report provides the acceleration agenda and provided road ahead for each of the stakeholders.
Billed as one of the flagship programs of the IACC, the conclave will witness sessions on Make in India, Health & Pharma, Aviation and Defense, E-Commerce and Smart Cities. The deliberations of the conclave will be presented to both the Governments in the quest for reaching the ambitious target of Indo US Trade to $500 Billion.
