Skip to content Skip to navigation

Modi’s US lobby vis-à-vis challenges in India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a successful second visit to United States of America (USA). The major thrust of this visit was centered on his ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ dream as his meeting with numerous business czars and CEOs of top techies in USA is a big diplomatic push in that direction. While a purring Indian National Congress (INC) is seen crediting itself for this Digital India drive saying that it was the vision of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and all subsequent governments took forward that dream. This version of the INC has only earned laughing stock from one and all whosoever has come in terms with this baseless self-glory statement. Modi on the other hand is a tech savvy PM and inarguably the first such Indian PM. That is visibly clear in his style of technology driven governance, which he uses to its utmost to connect with the people of this country. His yearn to learn and most importantly his focus on critical areas of the economy to take on the challenges using technology is awesome and has earned accolades from techies from USA, too. But although the trip was successful but real success of the visit will only be weighed now by what flows from abroad in the form of FDI. There are several challenges ahead to make India the dream home for investors and as they say in USA, ‘ease of doing business in India’. It is not that easy doing business here at the moment but things are indeed moving in the right direction under the current BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) dispensation.

For doing business with ease and attract investors, India has to make numerous changes from education, infrastructure, bureaucracy and most importantly political system. There are apprehensions from many NRI (Non-Resident Indian) investors and those from USA that the political system in India is so corrupt and bureaucracy is so entrenched that even if the Modi led government is willing to make reforms then there may be a possibility of those getting stalled by the former two. Then there is red tapism and political incursion. The single party rule led mostly by INC post independence has done enormous harm to the Indian economy confining it to a structure that mostly suits its own return after every five year. Those NRIs who have seen the days of License Raj and rest of it observed that rules, regulations, labour laws, taxation et al needs complete overhauling in the country as there are states and cities which has some of the most archaic laws in place. These versions of the NRIs are true since even if we see a small state like Meghalaya where if anybody wants to do business then he will be hounded first by the state ministers, bureaucracy followed by district councils, dorbar shnongs, NGOs and what have you here. So, is anybody a fool that they will come and face all these in order to do business in Meghalaya?

Today, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and all the states of Southern India are the most favored destinations of investors from abroad. We have seen major technological, automobile, banking, to name a few, doing business with ease in each of these states. There is an opinion gathering among investors, who are choosing these destinations because of no political infringement besides other factors. Infrastructure remains a major bone of contention, which has time and again been raised by aspiring investors. Barring these states and some in Northern India, where infrastructure is comparatively better, it remains an area where the current dispensation has to give more impetus to see India as the next manufacturing hub in this region after China.

Today companies world over are going to USA for testing and production of their drugs. USA has become a major pharmaceutical hub because of its available facilities and infrastructure. An NRI pharmaceutical major from USA said that India for that instance does not even have any academic courses in it and so it is unable to open up in that sector. Then the scary taxation regime, which has not been eased by the current government to the expectation of the investors, as there are opinions that if companies invest in India and 40% of that goes in taxes then that changes the entire parameters of making investments. In such a situation, they have every right to rethink on that and move out. Corporates in USA knows what the INC led UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government did during their regime, what they call the ‘Vodafone massacre’ and the current BJP led NDA government in ‘MAT’ (Minimum Alternative Tax) – applicable in case of foreign institutional investors (FIIs). India as a nation, seeking to become a manufacturing hub has to get rid of controversial and outdated laws that are hindering growth of the economy and investments. Many investors are jittery about the Labour Laws and are of the opinion that the more a government tries to regulate the industries the more it gets messier. The role of the government has to be least as the Chairman of Chugh Foundation said in USA if someone is wiling to do business, ten years down the line none knows what a government is whereas in contrast in India the first word they hear in the first thirty seconds after landing here is a government.

The Chairman of Cisco, John Chambers in his Silicon Valley meet with the PM said that education curriculum and academic courses has to be adjusted with the current trends and developments shaping the world of today. This is also an area where India has to make serious adjustments just like the outdated laws in place. Vinod Dham, a techie from Silicon Valley observed that he does not see many start-up entrepreneurs from the country’s IITs, IIMs and sought to know if curriculums of these institutes actually foster promotion of entrepreneurship. Former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, who passed away recently in Shillong while delivering a lecture at the Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management, was for entrepreneurship than job seekers. He wanted to see more entrepreneurs coming out of our institutions of excellence rather than job seekers. For this he envisioned that there is a need to overhaul the education system and our financial institutions playing the role of venture capitalists other than being mere bankers. This can only fructify when the IIMs, IITs, universities and other higher educational institutions adjust their academic courses similar to their counterparts in the west. Today professional educational institutions in the country are thriving upon placements and garner a large chunk of students on that single parameter. Students’ and their guardians’ looks for institutions which can assure a job post graduation. So this job-seeking mindset basically is the outcome of the education system in place which has to change to produce entrepreneurs, was the vision of Dr Kalam.

Modi has a big task in hand. He has got the signal from the investors and now it is his turn how well he makes the desirable changes so that they can come and start their operation here. More than everything else he has to remove the fear of government from the minds of the investors. It is difficult to shake something that has embedded in the economy. But it has to be fast. The Americans don’t like the slow way out. As someone said that it takes only four hours to open a firm in USA whereas it takes two months in India. Prof. Wadhwa of Stanford Business School, USA said that red-tapism and corruption in Indian economy is far too much still and there are genuine fears in the minds of investors from USA and elsewhere who sees India as an investment destination with a robust market. Can a change be effected at the earliest by Modi as he assured to the American business tycoons and techies? Can India become another USA in terms of doing business? Well all eyes are now on Modi. There is a genuine feeling that if he is around then we can do it.

Author info

Rajiv Roy's picture

Shillong

Add new comment

Random Stories

Jumbos ransack walls at Tangla

29 Nov 2015 - 11:16am | Shajid Khan
A herd of 4 to 5 wild elephants damaged railway quarter walls and created a havoc in the entire  Pujakhola Tiniali area in  Tangla on Saturdy at about 1.55 am. The elephants also...

Youth hurt in Dimapur shoot out

20 Aug 2015 - 7:25am | AT News
Repeated shoot outs seem to have turned Dimapur into a den of criminals where the safety and security of the common people are at stake. Yet another incident of shoot out sends no less anger and...

Muslim Council withdraws support to AUDF

18 Dec 2007 - 1:33am | editor
Its a significant development in Assam politics inn the run up to the panchayat polls. The All Assam Muslim Council (AAMC) has withdrawn its support from the Asom United Democratic Front (AUDF)...

Polling to urban civic bodies ends

9 Feb 2015 - 5:44pm | AT News
Polling to 74 municipal boards and town committees concluded today amid tight security. Barring a few sporadic incidents, polling was largely peaceful. Voters turned up in 1,748 voting centres to...

Other Contents by Author

Away from the seemingly causes that led to the pandemic called Novel Coronavirus aka CoViD-19 it cannot be denied that it can well be attributed to the bitter spat between USA and China over trade. The CoViD-19 could well be a creation out of vengeance after what we have witnessed in terms of sanctions on imports by both nations. The arrest of Dr. Charles Lieber - the Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University for making "false, fictitious and fraudulent statements" to the US Defense Department about China's Thousand Talents Plan (a Chinese government program to recruit foreign scientists and researchers) and his affiliation with Wuhan University of...
Can anyone advice Rahul Gandhi (RaGa) that what he and the other nincompoops of the Indian National Congress (INC) are doing in the name of electioneering campaign by targeting the defence forces of the country is only going to decimate their prospect – even if there is any, left? What does it take really to win elections in this country? The defence personnel who are keeping their territory safer from external aggression are being targeted by the INC, insanely. Can RaGa and his inept sister, Priyanka – and her equally inept hunk, Robert Vadra, breath freely if the soldiers in the country aren’t keeping it safe. Can anyone, and for that matter of fact the president of one of the country’s...
An employment advertisement that caused more inconvenience to applicants than providing them with jobs has resulted in the advertiser to issue a statement regretting the inconvenience and correct the blunder being committed, after the matter was reported in the local media, while the affected ones are questioning if the media can really wash off its hands and whether it should not be held responsible, at the same time. Abhinandan Vartaman, the Indian Air Force (IAF) combat pilot has earned immeasurable appreciation, for his valour and courage, from the countrymen after the heroics shown by the force and especially him – who shot down an F-16 jet of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) – that...
Well Mr. Donald Trump, the outlandish and outspoken US President, with his usual signature facial expression said recently that “walls work” with regard to his decision to construct a border wall, along the border of US-Mexico and even declare a national emergency after the US Congress (the lawmaking branch of the national government) declined to his demands for billions of dollars to fund the proposed wall at the southern border. The president has earned a slew of lawsuits over his emergency move and one may well wander whether such a wall is required in India’s northeast which faces a serious threat to its demography. Arguably, the US President’s idea on a border wall may well be correct...
There are opinions among the tribesmen of Meghalaya that the sweeper lane issue in Shillong town has gone colder since May 31 when mayhem broke over this place near Iewduh, one of the largest traditional markets in the region. That such opinions being held by the native citizenries in a society where matriliny has hit such a low that the fairer sexes are facing insecurities in their own hearth and homes, is in itself, morbid. An incident over an alleged eve-teasing went out of proportion when the local tribesmen clashed with the residents of Sweeper’s Lane, inviting global attention to the issue. The stalemate that exists in this lane dates back to time immemorial and history is replete...
We need to use the social media wisely. But this call is getting lost in a world where anything that is talked about online are caricatured by opportunistic and outrage-mongers. This medium, which is creating more upheavals than connections in societies around the world, should be understood that we choose to assimilate these services into our daily lives because they allow us to deepen social connections and enable us to exercise ourselves in a manner that was unthinkable before their coming.  Many would agree to the fact that after “nature” comes only “social media” in terms of gross misuse. We are witnessing the phenomenon of changing patterns in climate and irrational nature...
If we are to assess one thing clearly about the 2018 Assembly Election to the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly at this point in time then it is the focus and charisma that is awaited coming January. Except that, the assurances, claims, slamming of one party by another will continue to rule the roost and this is not something new in the Indian political diaspora. Nonetheless, this is going to be the most sought after elections given the emerging complex political equations. There is much at stake in this election when the sixty seats to the state assembly goes up for grabbing no sooner the Election Commission of India releases the dates. There is much expectation from the BJP which has since...
Award winning Shillong based author, Kalpana Roy’s ‘Sei Somoy Perie’ (Beyond that period) covers a period of Indian independent movement in the then Bengal, which very soon spread over the entire Indian sub-continent. The book received the prestigious Narsingdas Bengali Prize for the best book in Bengali in Arts / Science subject from the University of Delhi in 2014. The central character of the book – published in April, 2012 – is the renowned independent movement activist from this part of the country, Bipin Chandra Pal, who was born in a small village in Sylhet (now in Bangladesh) district of undivided Bengal. The book is primarily a biographical novel on the life of this great freedom...
“The northeastern states of India should cooperate with each other in terms of their tourism potentialities, culture and tradition, food habits and create a depot in Japan to invite inbound tourism. The geographical condition, cuisine and taste, good atmosphere here are similar to that of Japan. This will not only transform the economy of this region but also open it up to the larger Asia – which is one,” said the Chairman, Japan India Tourism Promotion Committee, Tsutomu Sato on his second visit to Shillong. His first visit was two years ago when he represented Japan on an invitation by the Meghalaya Government which called tour operators from all over the world.Acknowledging candidly that...
I am tempted to write this piece after my neighbor, whose son, a local tribal from Meghalaya, studying in a private institution in Maharashtra had to deal with some uncomfortable questions, that may sound hilarious to many, following the demise of former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam here in Shillong on July 27, 2015. These inquiries, which for many northeasterners staying in mainland India is a common parlance, tends to push us into thinking sometimes “where are we”. For a majority in the country the northeastern (NE) region does not exist at all. They believe that Kalam died in a foreign land where he was invited to give a lecture, something that he has been consistently doing after...