Patiently Watching India’s Rise

Tim Roemer, former six-term U.S. representative for Indiana’s 3rd congressional district, most recently served as U.S. ambassador to India. He sends this dispatch from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

I started off the morning at a breakfast forum titled “Are You Ready for Asia,” and the discussion was promising and highly optimistic about global business opportunities in the region. India is still growing at a 7.50-percent rate (with some individual states at 10 percent) and China is cooling off at 8 percent. One panelist pledged that India will spend $1 trillion on infrastructure in the next 6-8 years.

When the issue of the mulitbrand retail rollout and abrupt pull-back was raised to a prominent Indian business leader, he confidently predicted that this proposal (allowing retail companies like WalMart to enter into the market) would be re-visited and subsequently passed in six months. While this would be great news, it underscores the lessons of practicing patience, doing your political due diligence, and realizing the volatility in the environment for these major transactions.

Several key issues for the Indian economy included the vital need for increased access to education and skill building, positive collaboration to help Asia on scarce resources, and new efforts to expand energy technologies. One panelist strongly advised businesses to help a “daring India” by displaying a “caring agenda,” therefore developing effective corporate social responsibility models. It is certainly clear that the U.S. foreign policy focus on Asia with the new Trans-Pacific Partnership and overall geopolitical security emphasis is timely, smart, and lucrative for helping American economic security.