OIFC Investment and Interactive Meet

The Consulate General of India, New York, in association with the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA), the Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre (OIFC) organized an Investment Interactive Meet on 13th September 2010 at the Consulate premises.  

A press conference was addressed by Dr. A. Didar Singh, Secretary MOIA who headed a delegation from India comprising of industry leaders, officials from the Government, and heads of various MOIA led organizations.

The Investment Interactive Meet was attended by representatives of corporations, banking and financial companies, investors, academics, healthcare professionals and members of the press corp.

In his opening remarks, Amb Prabhu Dayal, Consul General of India, New York, welcomed the delegation to New York and praised the collaboration of the OFIC and the MOIA in organizing this event. He said that many steps were being taken by the MOIA to build bridges between the Indian Diaspora and the Indian Government. The Consul General praised the efforts of Dr. Didar Singh including the organization of yearly Pravasi Bharatiya Divas meet for the PIO’s (Persons of Indian Origin) and NRI’s (Non Resident Indians). He spoke about the strides taken by the India in the global arena and its economic achievements in the recent past. He mentioned that India was the second most favored foreign investment destination and urged the Indian Diaspora to take part in India’s success.

Dr. Didar Singh spoke about the ubiquitous investment opportunities existing in India especially in education, healthcare, infrastructure, rural development, etc. He said that the aim of OIFC was to facilitate the engagement of the Indian Diaspora and thereby facilitate the process of investment. He spoke about India being the fastest growing free market democracy and the receiver of the largest NRI remittances, 30% of which were from North America. He added that Indian Americans were among the wealthiest ethnic groups in the US.  He added that NRI’s investments into India currently remain low. He spoke about India’s stable FDI policy and added that India’s FDI environment was better than that of some OECD countries in several sectors. He mentioned the activities and schemes of the MOIA and the OIFC including setting up a web portal called Global Link for knowledge exchange, assisting in philanthropic activities, setting up universities for PIO’s and NRI’s, etc. He urged the Diaspora to connect with OIFC which acts as an interface with India.

Dr. Vishakha Desai, President and CEO, Asia Society spoke about the activities of Asia Society and the strong bond that the organization shared with India. Dr. Desai said that Indian Americans were representatives of India in the US and urged them to take pride in their country of origin and continue to partner with India in any way possible.

Ms. Shefali Chaturvedi, CEO OIFC gave an overview of the working of OIFC. She spoke of OIFC’s three tiered facilitation framework which includes dissemination of information to the community via the Global Ink portal and newsletters, providing live help to queries from around the world and facilitating the investment process for the Diaspora by partnering with other Indian agencies. Ms. Chaturvedi urged the audience to register themselves on the Global Ink portal, a vibrant forum for knowledge networking.

Mr. G. Gurucharan, CEO, Indian Council of Overseas Employment (ICOE) said that currently NRI’s and PIO’s remit large sums to India and choose to keep them as short term FCNR and NRE deposits rather than long term investments. He urged the Diaspora to make investments in India’s many promising sectors like education, healthcare, etc.  He said that India was taking steps to have more transparency its policies, frameworks and accountability and reporting mechanisms. He also spoke about ICOE’s internship program, different offers for fellowships, scholarships and internships.

Mr. Manishi Raychaudhuri, Director and Head (Research), BNP Paribas, India made a presentation on ‘Investment Opportunities and Financial Solutions in India’s Investment Sector’. He gave an overview of policy reforms that have taken place and ongoing initiatives in different infrastructure sectors including power, roads, airports, etc. He mentioned the opportunities for investments amounting to over US$ 1 trillon open to the private sector in ports, power, roads, railways, airports, etc. He spoke of debt financing options for the investment opportunity which include borrowings from India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited, external commercial borrowings, foreign bond markets, etc.

Mr. KVS Manian, Group Head – Consumer Banking, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd, India made a presentation on ‘Engaging with India’s Stable Banking and Financial Services’.  He gave an overview of the global economic scenario and its impact on the emerging countries.  He mentioned that there were concerns of China overheating in spite of its steady growth. He spoke about India’s fiscal debt scenario and added that India’s growth was primarily driven by private consumption and investment. He said that in the recent 3G auction in India, an amount of about 1.5% of the GDP was raised which could change India’s fiscal deficit scenario. He spoke about the regulatory framework in India’s banking sector and the future of Indian markets.

Mr. Sameer Mehta, CEO, Everonn Medical Education and Director, Mehta Hospitals presented on ‘Investing in India’s Healthcare and Sustaining the Growth Momentum’. He gave an overview of the future of the Indian economy and added that India will become the 3rd Largest Economy by 2025. Mr. Mehta said that currently, Indian Healthcare Market, growing at over 15% per annum, is primarily dominated by private service providers. He mentioned that rising real incomes, growing ageing population and rising insurance penetration in India were fueling demand for better quality of healthcare and education. Mr. Mehta talked about the rise in lifestyle diseases rather than communicable diseases which caused increase in specialized care like diagnostics, ambulatory services, home healthcare. etc,  He added that India suffered from a huge infrastructure gap, low per capita expenditure on health and low density of physicians and nurses. He mentioned that many opportunities in the healthcare sector existed in India including focused super specialty hospitals, low cost hospitals for tier 3 and 4 towns, wellness and preventive centers, day care surgical centers, mature living nursing homes, low cost medical devices, integrated health care complexes, etc.

Mr. P. Kishore, Managing Director Everonn Education Ltd. India, spoke on ‘India’s Education Sector and Partnering in the Reforms’. He said that India had a huge student population of which 550 million were below the age of 25. He added that India needed 200,000 new schools and should increase the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) to 25-30% in order to accelerate the GDP growth to double digits. He spoke of many initiatives of the Indian Government to promote the education sector like increased allocation of $62 billion in the 11th five year plan, introduction of Computer Education (ICT) in 108,000 government and government-aided schools at a total expenditure of $1.3 billion, benefitting 15 million students and help train 1 million teachers in computer literacy, allocation of an outlay of $6.2 billion under the supervision of the Prime Minister for Skill Development Mission, setting up of 6000 new high quality model schools, etc.

A lively ‘Question and Answer’ session followed where the delegates responded to many queries raised by the attendees and took note of their suggestions for the upcoming Pravasi Bharatiya Divas and better engagement of the Indian Diaspora.

Dr A.M. Gondane, Deputy Consul General, thanked the delegation and the speakers for their informative talks on the focus areas for India – infrastructure, banking & finance, healthcare, education. He spoke about the importance of philanthropy and issues of trust.

The event concluded with dinner and active networking.

New York
September 14, 2010