Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday commenced his visit in Washington D.C. with meetings with the top brass of the multinational companies based in the United States, hard-selling his government’s initiatives to draw more foreign investments to revive the Covid-hit economy of India, including the recently launched Production Linked Incentive scheme.
Modi had separate one-to-one meetings with Cristiano Amon, Shantanu Narayen, Mark Widmar, Vivek Lall and Stephen Schwarzman, the Chief Executive Officers of Qualcomm, Adobe, First Solar, General Atomics Global Corporation and Blackstone respectively. They discussed prospects of the US companies investing or expanding existing investments in India.
The Prime Minister and the Qualcomm CEO discussed investment opportunities offered in the telecommunications and electronic sectors in India. Modi pointed out that the Qualcomm could take advantage of the recently launched Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for electronic system design and manufacturing. He also highlighted recent efforts by his government to achieving self-reliance in production of semiconductors and to find long-term solution to the global chip shortage which started hitting the auto industry in India.
“We're so proud of our partnership with India. We're happy with everything we're doing together with India,” the Qualcomm CEO told journalists after his meeting with the Prime Minister.
Amon conveyed to Modi that the Qualcomm was interested in exploring opportunities for production of semiconductors in India. He also evinced his company’s interests in digital transformation programmes in India, a source aware of the discussion between the two said. The source quoted the Qualcomm CEO saying that India is a big market but the company also saw it as a big export market. It is the right time for the Government of India to not only encourage manufacturing for the market in India, but also plan to serve the need of other countries, he told the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister stressed that India had prepared 5G standards, and urged the Qualcomm to actively participate in the 5G rollout, as they did in case of the NAVIK. He also spoke about the new liberalised drone policy of the Government of India and said that Qualcomm could take part in new opportunities in the emerging market.
The Prime Minister and the General Atomics CEO discussed investment opportunities in the defence technology sector in India. Lall appreciated the recent policy changes by the Modi Government to accelerate defence and emerging technology manufacturing and augment capacity building in India.
Narayen of the Adobe expressed desire to bring videos and animation to every child in India. The Prime Minister told him that bringing smart education to every child is important and that made technology very significant. He said that the ground for digital education had been laid in the Covid-19 era and it should be taken forward now. Modi and Narayen emphasised on creating few centres of excellence in Artificial Intelligence in India.
Modi told Widmar about India’s ambitious target of installing capacity for generating 450 GW of renewable energy. He also emphasised on India’s focus on manufacturing solar energy and said that the companies in the field of solar energy could take maximum advantage of the recently launched PLI schemes.
Schwarzman briefed Modi about the Blackstone’s ongoing projects in India and its interest in further investments in the infrastructure and real estate sectors. The Prime Minister and the Blackstone CEO discussed investment opportunities in India, including the ones under National Infrastructure Pipeline and National Monetisation Pipeline.
The Air India One with the Prime Minister on board landed at the Andrews Air Force Base near the US capital early on Thursday (6 pm on Wednesday Washington D.C. time). He was welcomed by T H Brian McKeon, Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources at the US State Department. New Delhi’s envoy to Washington D.C. Taranjit Singh Sandhu was also present at the airport. Some Indian-Americans greeted the Prime Minister on his arrival in Washington D.C.
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