Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Anand Sharma, made a strong pitch to US businesses to look at India as a long term business and investment opportunity and outlined the various policies undertaken by the Government of India to invigorate manufacturing and to create the right conditions for inviting investments into the country. He made this remarks while speaking at a meeting hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the US India Business Council (USIBC) in New York.

Mr Sharma spoke about the National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZ) being set up across India; the single window approval mechanism for investments; the fast-tracking of critical infrastructure projects; use of technology to minimize paperwork for investment proposals; the efforts to tackle the emotive issue of land; and the establishment of a Cabinet Committee on Investments chaired by the Prime Minister, as some of the steps the Government has taken to spur business and investments in the country.

While acknowledging that 2012 was a difficult economic year for India, Mr Sharma pointed to the country's strong fundamentals such as thriving domestic demand, a high national investment rate (35%) and a high savings rate (31%) as factors that will continue to drive economic growth.

In an effort to highlight the myriad business opportunities open to US and Indian companies, a high powered CII CEOs delegation is accompanying Minister Sharma during his visit to the United States. The delegation is led by Ajay Shriram, President-Designate, CII & Senior Managing Director and Chairman, DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd and other members include Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII; Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Group CEO, Bharti Enterprises Limited; Analjit Singh, Chairman, Max India Limited; Rajan Navani, Managing Director, Jetline Group of Companies; and Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM.