Moving the action from the rapturous outdoors to a boardroom in a hotel, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met 11 top chief executives of America Inc and promised them he would convert the Supreme Court judgement on coal blocks into an “opportunity to move forward and clean up the past”. This reference to the recent court decision aims to address concern among foreign companies about choppy decision-making and sluggish reforms in India’s business sphere. Modi invited the CEOs to invest in India’s key sectors, including infrastructure. The Prime Minister’s message at the breakfast conclave seems to have been well-received, going by the early reactions from the CEOs. He first met the 11 CEOs as a group and later had individual interactions with six others. Jeffrey R Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric, told The Indian Express that he was excited about his 20-minute meeting with Modi. “My interaction with him was outstanding. I am certainly looking forward to further investments in India as the climate for investments has switched to positive once again.’’ This thumbs-up for India was echoed by Andres R Gluski, CEO of AES, a global power corporation. “I thought the Indian Prime Minister has a very clear vision of what he wants India to be. He now has to return to India and urgently address issues which stand in the way of achieving those goals.’’ One chief executive said it was heartening for them to see Modi look upon the recent coal allocation case as an opportunity for revamping the sector. The group of CEOs are said to have candidly listed the hurdles they had in the past while working on collaborations or taking forward specific industrial projects and investments in India. The Supreme Court last week quashed allocation of 214 out of 218 coal blocks alloted to various companies since 1993 terming it as “fatally flawed”. Modi’s observation comes against the backdrop of concerns that the judgment would have an adverse impact on corporate sentiment and overall business climate. Besides coal, the slow licencing regime and problems in acquisition of land are understood to be other problems taken up at the discussions. According to Ajay Banga, President and CEO of Mastercard, the Prime Minister listened to all the areas of concern raised by the CEOs. “Whether it was issues like private sector lending or taxation matters, the Prime Minister said he had heard all the issues raised by us and would respond to shortly,’’ Banga told The Indian Express after the meeting. “He (Narendra Modi) said ‘I get it’ and also that he will now return and get on with the task of addressing our concerns. This, in my view, is a very positive indication of the fact that he wants the investment climate in India to change drastically and change fast.’’ Besides these CEOs, others from top American Corporations like PepsiCo, Caterpillar, Google, Pincus and Citigroup were also present. Besides General Electric’s, CEOs of Boeing, IBM Corporation, Golden Sachs, KKR and BlackRock met Modi individually. “India is open-minded. We want change. Change that is not onesided. Am discussing with citizens, industrialists & investors,” the spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs, Syed Akbaruddin, tweeted quoting Modi at the meeting.
