INDIAN prime minister Narendra Modi urged global chief executive officers (CEOs) and top American executives to leverage the 'Startup India' innovation platforms to formulate solutions for the entire world on challenging issues like nutrition and waste management.
Chairing an exclusive roundtable with 42 global CEOs and top executives from across 20 sectors, Modi stressed on continued political stability in India, predictability of policy, and pro-development and pro-growth policies.
He emphasised the development of tourism, plastic recycling and waste-management initiatives, and to enhance the business of MSMEs, especially those which create more opportunities for farmers and agriculture.
The CEOs appreciated the efforts made by India in striving towards ease of doing business and many reforms that have led to a conducive environment for investors. They also lauded Modi for taking strong decisions and making India more investor-friendly.
"The leaders also mentioned that their companies remained committed to the growth story of India and, on the back of this, continued to grow their footprint in India," an official statement said after the meeting.
The CEOs briefly outlined their specific plans in India and put forth recommendations to aid India's efforts towards skill development, Digital India, Make in India, inclusive growth, green energy and financial inclusion.
The companies that participated in the roundtable had a combined net worth of $16.4 trillion, of which their net worth in India is $50 billion. T
The CEOs Roundtable was attended by IBM chairman, president and CEO Ginni Rometty, president and CEO of Walmart Douglas McMillon, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola James Quincey, Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson, JP Morgan chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon, CEO of American Tower Corporation and co-chair of the India-US CEO forum James Taiclet, MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga and senior executives from Apple, Google, Marriott, VISA, 3M, Warburg Pincus, AECOM, Raytheon, Bank of America and Pepsi.
Modi "urged the companies to leverage the Startup India innovation platforms in partnership with other countries — to make solutions not only for India, but for the world, including challenging issues like nutrition and waste management,” the statement said.
The DPIIT- and Invest India-organized interaction included Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and senior officials from the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade and Ministry of External Affairs.
Following the roundtable, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said it is always great to hear from the prime minister about his vision for India.
The American banking giant has been in India for several years and has 20,000 teammates who work in the country.
"We are there to help support the pro-growth agenda that says consistency in rules and regulations, ease of doing business,” he said adding that the bank's clients and customers tell it they are more and more interested so I think that bodes well for the country going forward.
Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said Modi had a very “strong and impassionate ‘Come to India' speech” and his four D's of democracy, demography, demand and decisiveness are very powerful arguments to invest in India.
“We have already been convinced years before. We are in India, it's a very important growth country for us and we continue to invest to be a leading international energy company in India. We are well on our way to meeting the prime inister's expectations.”
Coca Cola chairman and CEO James Quincey said India is a big market for the beverage giant and it likes investing in the country.
"We think it's not just an important market for us, it's the 5th most important and we think it's going to become the third most important,” he said adding that Coca Cola is very excited about continuing to invest in the country and be in line with the growth agenda for the government.
IBM CEO Ginni Rometty described the meeting with Modi as “outstanding” and said Modi is an “authentic leader who genuinely listens to everyone's input.”
She said she went into the meeting optimistic about India and came out “even more optimistic” about the country.
"His firm intent to continue to help with the ease of doing business is a win-win for both India and IBM,” she said.
Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson said the meeting the Modi was “excellent” and he was more than willing to have a dialogue with the CEOs. She congratulated India on its pro-growth policies.
(PTI)
Them performing liveNajmuddin Saifuddin Qawwal Group
Despite his growing profile, he has not previously worked on video game voice acting projectsYouTube/ IO Interactive
The cast of Marriage Material in key moments from the play, including Avita Jay, Kiran Landa, Omar Malik, Irfan Shamji and Anoushka Deshmukh
Sathnam Sanghera’s 'Marriage Material' adapted into bold new play on conformity
The play Marriage Material at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera’s novel of the same name, which first came out in 2013.
She is lucky to have Iqbal Khan direct Marriage Material. The play, a co-production with the Birmingham Rep, is set in the late 1960s. Mr and Mrs Bains (played by Jaz Singh Deol and Avita Jay) run a corner shop in Wolverhampton. Their younger daughter, Surinder (Anoushka Deshmukh), is 16, her sister Kamaljit (Kiran Landa) is just a bit older.
They have a neighbour, Patwant Dhanda (Irfan Shamji), who, as we shall soon see, is not a very pleasant man. In fact, he comes across just as racist as Enoch Powell, who represented Wolverhampton South West for the Tories from 1950 to 1974.
It will be recalled this was a time when Sikhs working on the buses were told they couldn’t wear a turban. That was a hard-fought battle that had to be won.
The Bains, meanwhile, simply want to get their girls married off.
Nothing new here, I thought.
What makes the tale different is that the plot twists and turns down the generations. Mr Dhanda, who has the makings of a paedophile, makes a pitch for one of the girls when Mr Bains dies early in the play. “A life with no man in the house is no life,” he informs the newly widowed Mrs Bains.
Mr Dhanda has a wife but she has returned to India so he considers himself to be a free man.
Surinder’s English teacher from school, Miss Flanagan (Celeste Dodwell), who is also head of the fifth form, tells Mrs Bains about her daughter: “I don’t want to embarrass you, but she is bright. Ridiculously bright.”
She adds: “Mrs Bains, I think it would be a pity if Surinder didn’t stay on at school.” The initial response from Mrs Bains is not encouraging: “Too much education makes people’s brains get mixed up, they don’t sleep at night…”
But she is finally persuaded that Surinder should be allowed to stay on for a while longer before being married off.
Mr Bains was very old school. When Surinder confides she would one day like to be “a somebody”, he is amused that “my daughter wants to be a somebody”.
“Like you,” she tells her father.
Mr Bains consoles his daughter: “We will find a somebody for you to marry.”
At the point of a possible marriage, however, Surinder is sweet-talked by chocolate salesman Jim Wilson (Tommy Belshaw) into running away with him. They share a love of literature, and he calls her “Sue Bains”. But the relationship does not end well.
Once she has left, Surinder is written off as “dead” by her family. The story that is circulated is that she was only 16 when she was killed in a car crash. That’s better than to let on that she ran off with a white man.
By the time she is reconciled with her sister towards the end of the play, a great deal has changed. Kamaljit married Tanvir Banga (Omar Malik), a young man who helped out in the Bains’ corner shop. When the two sisters meet again, Tanvir has also died. But he and Kamaljit had a son, Arjan Banga (Jaz Singh Deol doubles up for this role after the death of Mr Bains). He has come home after his father’s death to help his mother who is still running the family corner shop.
Meanwhile, Mr Dhanda’s business has prospered. He now has a son, Ranjit Dhanda (the role is taken by Omar Malik after Tanvir’s death), and he is nearly as unpleasant as his father.
Arjan has an English fiancée, Claire (Celeste Dodwell). In London, Arjan worked as a creative director. But after deciding to stay in Wolverhampton to help his mother, he decides he cannot marry Claire because she is white. In other words, Asians are not free of racism, either. Happily, at the end, the couple are reconciled.
As for Surinder, she parted company with Jim Wilson after realising he was all talk, depended on her for money and had failed to earn a penny from his literary pretensions. She had prospered, though, as a hotel owner and had been transformed in time into a well-groomed businesswoman. After being tracked down by Arjan, she decides to return to her roots in Wolverhampton and help Kamaljit run the family corner shop. Perhaps 50 years had passed during the passage of the play.
Being subjected to racism turned some Asians into racists themselves. The word goreh (white person) is repeatedly spat out with venom. Maybe it is worth remembering the play’s audience isn’t exclusively Asian – white folk are watching as well. And maybe some of the toilet humour ridiculing white people, which always makes me cringe, could be cut out.
In Sanghera’s novel, there is a quote from Enoch Powell’s speech in November 1968: “The West Indian or Asian does not, by being born in England, become an Englishman. In law he becomes a United Kingdom citizen by birth; in fact, he is a west Indian or an Asian still... he will by the very nature of things have lost one country without gaining another, lost one nationality without acquiring a new one. Time is running out against us and them. With the lapse of a generation or so we shall at last have succeeded – to the benefit of nobody – in reproducing ‘in England’s green and pleasant land’ the haunting tragedy of the US.”
In Marriage Material, where the acting is marvellous (apart from Mr Dhanda’s Indian mannerisms and accent being overdone) we do travel across a couple of generations.
There is a scene when Tanvir rejects Mr Dhanda’s vision of creating a little Punjab in Wolverhampton.
Mr Dhanda wants to take over the Bains’ corner shop and is putting pressure on Tanvir to sign the papers. He says: “In this country, money is the path to freedom.”
“Sign, please,” he instructs Tanvir. “We must make sure our children learn to behave nicely, according to our rules.”
He insists: “We maintain our identity so we can be ourselves.”
Tanvir disagrees: “We can be us here. With the goreh.”
Dhanda warns him: “Then we will be inviting chaos.”
Tanvir’s comment is telling: “You sound like Enoch.”
Kamaljit, who is expecting a baby with her husband Tanvir, says: “I would like my child to grow up knowing the history of the Gurus and to read the Granth Sahib. And to love their culture.”
Tanvir tells his wife: “I would like my child to go to the finest schools, to cheer for England in the World Cup and eat Yorkshire pudding on a Sunday.”
Kamaljit sets out a dream that has perhaps come to pass with many third and fourth generation British Asians: “Maybe our child can do both.” Much, much later, in a throwback to the past, we learn of Surinder’s O-level results: “Biology A, Chemistry A, English Language A, English Literature A, French A, History B, Latin A, Mathematics A, Physics A…”
Kamaljit tells her younger sister: “Never mind about the B.”
And that is quintessentially Asian. Their acting is outstanding.
Marriage Material is at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre until June 21, and at the Birmingham Rep from June 25-July 5