India needs at least $100 billion of foreign direct investment every year to reach its target of a $5 trillion economy from the current $2.7, the head of a top India-centric American business advocacy group has said. The group made the observation, asserting that a major chunk of this FDI is going to come from the US.
“India needs to grow its economy from the current $2.7 trillion to $5 trillion. It will need a lot of FDI coming in – at least $100 billion dollars a year to fuel that growth,” said Mukesh Aghi, President of US India Strategic and Partnership Forum.
“I believe that is going to come mainly from the US,” he added.
India, he observed, needs to look at what it needs to do to get that FDI coming in and have the technology coming in, to fuel this growth. “From a US perspective, it needs to leverage India on vaccination diplomacy, have Indian factories produce these vaccines so they can ship it to the rest of the world, and they can make this vaccine much, much cheaper than anybody else can get.” Last week, USISPF, which now has more than 300 Fortune 500 companies as its members, celebrated its fourth anniversary. Four years ago, Aghi, along with many top American corporate leaders established USISPF after they had sharp differences on key issues with the then leadership of US Chambers of Commerce. Aghi then was the head of the US-India Business Council or USIBC, which he left along with the entire board member of USIBC to set up USISPF.
“We have a fantastic board which is quite engaged, involved and who are the most prominent boards, especially between India and the US,” he said.
Aghi said four years ago, one of the goals was to build an institution which becomes a pillar, between two countries or independent institutions, which is not tied to any political party.
