Indra Nooyi to be a part of Obama’s business delegation to India

Mtoday news

Washington, Oct 31: US President Barack Obama will be accompanied by 200 business leaders, including soft drink giant PepsiCo’s India-born CEO Indra Nooyi, during his November 6-9 India visit, which is mostly focussed on improving bilateral economic ties.

His cavalcade will include Air Force One, 18 cargo planes and two extra jumbo jets carrying hundreds of secret service agents, communications equipment, a team of White House chefs, doctors, 100 journalists and 45 vehicles, half of which are used as a decoy motorcade, ’The Sunday Times’ reported.

 

 

Obama arrives in India next Saturday, the start of a 10-day tour of Asia, the longest trip of his presidency. It includes a stay at the Taj hotel, one of the sites of the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008.

One official said the choice of the Taj Hotel in Mumbai for the President’s stay was a deliberate signal of "India-US solidarity" to the terrorists who killed 166 people in the city in November 2008.

Obama will be accompanied by 200 business leaders, including Nooyi and McGraw-Hill publishing house’s CEO Terry McGraw, during the visit, the report said. With 1.2 billion people and an economy expected to grow at an annual rate of 8 per cent over several years, India is viewed by America as an important market. US exports to India have already quadrupled over the past seven years to about USD 17 billion.

Indian companies are the second fastest-growing investors in the US and now support about 57,000 jobs in the US. According to the report, the President is also expected to visit other sites attacked by terrorists. India will renew its request for the extradition of David Headley, a Pakistani-American terrorist involved in the Mumbai attacks.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner would also be travelling to India next week to join Obama, an official statement in Washington said. Geithner would not travel with the US President from Washington. However, he would join Obama in New Delhi from Kyoto, Japan, where he will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Meeting of Finance Ministers on November 5-6.

The Treasury Secretary would also not travel to Mumbai, the first leg of Obama’s trip, which is mostly focused on the economic aspects of the bilateral relationship.
In New Delhi, Geithner would be attending the Indo-US CEOs Forum meeting on the sidelines of the presidential visit. The CEOs Forum is expected to submit its set of recommendations to Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.