Obama to Meet US CEOs in India to Boost Exports.

PRESIDENT Barack Obama will meet in India next month with a group of US chief executive officers including Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric and Jim McNerney of Boeing, as the administration seeks to boost exports.

Obama will address a conference sponsored by the US-India Business Council on November 6 in Mumbai.

Other executives expected to meet with Obama in India are Honeywell International CEO David Cote, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi and McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw III, said Jen Psaki, a White House spokeswoman. United Technologies CEO Louis Chenevert also plans to attend, the company said. The president will use the meetings with the executives as an opportunity to discuss the opportunities and challenges of doing business in India, Psaki said.

Obama has vowed to double US exports in five years.

India offers a rapidly growing market for US companies selling such products as retail goods and power-plant technology.

Commerce secretary Gary Locke also will be in the meeting.

It's a wonderful tactic, because it's an action-forcing event, said William Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council in Washington. When a cabinet official, or even better a president shows up, everybody knows that's the time to get the deal done. The US-India Business Council is based at the Washington headquarters of US Chamber of Commerce, which has been at odds with the Obama administration in the weeks before the US midterm elections. White House aides said the chamber is using money from overseas sources to help fund an advertising campaign directed mostly against Democrats.

The chamber has criticised Obama for regulatory and legislative actions that it says are anti-business.

India is in negotiations to buy as many as 10 Boeing military transport aircraft.

The sale of 10 C-17 Globemaster III aircraft may be valued at as much as $5.8 billion, according to the US Defence Security Cooperation Agency. Boeing expects to bid for $31 billion worth of military contracts over the next 10 years as it competes with Bethesda, Lockheed Martin and other suppliers for orders.

The US and India in 2005 signed a pact that allowed US nuclear suppliers to resume trade after the ban over testing of an atomic bomb by India in 1974.

The government aims to expand its nuclear capacity to 60,000 mw by 2030 from 4,560 mw at the end of July.

GE Hitachi, a venture between GE and Hitachi, and Westinghouse Electric are among the companies competing for contracts to build nuclear power plants. GE won India's biggest single order for gas and steam turbines. The deal, which the company valued at more than $750 million, will be used in the expansion of a Reliance Power plant.

United Technologies, the maker of Otis elevators, Carrier air-conditioners, Sikorsky helicopters and Pratt & Whitney jets is seeking to add sales in India. Wal-Mart Stores CEO . Michael Duke is in New Delhi, where he said he was hopeful and optimistic that e India will allow foreign investment in retail .

Some of the CEOs Obama will meet in India e serve as advisers to White House. Immelt sits on the e president's outside ecoe nomic board, and McNere ney heads the export couna cil that the president formed in March. Obama , appointed Cote to his com, mission on cutting the fed, eral deficit, and White House officials have said he is one of the executives Obama most admires.

Source : mydigitalfc.com