May 02, 2014
Though of interest and open to everyone, most callers are having more than a passing interest in India – they want to get expert opinion on the election trends in India.
New Delhi: India’s hotly contested parliamentary elections that are due next month are being increasingly viewed in the United States as one of most important elections since the independence of the country. Therefore in order to keep abreast of developments in India an increasing large and varied number of people all across America are dialing into a unique conference call that takes place every week, and discusses these issues.
Though of interest and open to everyone, most callers are having more than a passing interest in India – they want to get expert opinion on the election trends in India, or to understand the economic policies of various political parties, or to evaluate the investment environment in India post elections. Participants across 9 cities, which included leaders of the Indian American community, policy-makers at Capitol Hill, investment bankers and investors from the Wall Street along with technology entrepreneurs and academicians connected through the call.
The discussion points during the calls touch upon subjects such as possible outcomes of the elections, impact on trade and investments in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, energy, aviation, IT, status of civil liability bill, possible shift in India’s foreign policy.
This unique initiative is the brainchild of the US India Political Action Committee (USINPAC) which is running a series of weekly conference calls with noted analysts from India who provide their expert opinion to the American callers. Last week, the featured experts were Dr. JagdeepS Chhokar, the founder member of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a non-profit organization that’s working for government and electoral change in India and Dr. Anupam Srivastva, Managing Director, Invest India
“There is significant interest in the U.S. about the upcoming elections in India. Policy makers, businesses, and investors want to evaluate the developments. Major policy and business decisions would depend on the outcome of these elections. Through this initiative we aim to provide a better understanding of India to our US members so that bilateral relations which are seeing a rocky present, have a cooperative future“, said Sanjay Puri, the chairman of USINPAC.
USINPAC plans to conduct these calls till May 16. “In an age when we all live with information overload, key decision-makers want a quick, crisp, and high-quality analysis from the real situation on-ground. The financial community on Wall Street is long used to such analyst calls that help them to forecast or price company stocks. We are doing something similar, but with a big difference – our callers are interested in a country, not a company stock”, Puri further added.
Source: OneWorld South Asia
