FM meets global cos' brass in US, hardsells steps taken to woo investors

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has met senior brass of global corporations based in the US, hard selling the Indian government's recent steps to draw more private capital into the country.

Sitharaman met John Connaughton, co-managing partner, and Steve Pagliuca, co-chairman, of Bain Capital; Edmund DiSanto, executive vice-president, American Tower Corp (ATC); John Ardill, senior VP at ExxonMobil; Prahlad Singh, CEO of PerkinElmer, as well as other corporate leaders, as she began her week-long US visit.

In a series of tweets, the finance ministry said Sitharaman highlighted reforms including the national monetisation pipeline for private sector investment towards infrastructure creation in brownfield assets. In August, the government had announced Rs 6 lakh crore worth of monetisation of core assets of the central government over the four-year period from fiscal 2022 to FY25.


In her meeting with DiSanto of ATC, the finance minister discussed opportunities for steering foreign collaborations and attracting foreign direct investment in the next five years under the national monetisation pipeline through investment in strategic sectors, including telecom.

ATC aims to expand operations in the telecommunications sector, the finance ministry tweet said.

Sitharaman mentioned government incentives and initiatives towards promoting innovation in life sciences and R&D in the pharma sector in her meeting with PerkinElmer's Singh, and acknowledged their investment in India's healthcare sector.

According to the finance ministry, Singh opined that India's healthcare industry was ripe for investment and that some of the best science graduates and skillsets that his company leverages come out of India.