From farm support to CEOs: Obama to see it all today

St Xavier’s College ground has been converted into a village farm, with a display of tractors, irrigation piping and mobile refrigerators used for a cold chain storage. The makeshift village and agri expo have been created for US President Barack Obama, visiting the institution on Saturday, to give him an idea of the present state of and new techniques in agriculture.

Further, in the premises, Obama would hold a roundtable with five tycoons — Shashi Ruia, chairman of Essar Group; Ashok Gulati, director of the International Food Policy Research Institute; Rajan Mittal, managing director of Bharti Enterprises and Ficci president; Hari Bhartiya, CII president, and Amitabh Jhunjhunwala, vice-chairman of Reliance Capital.

Trade and commerce issues, bilateral and global, are expected to come up for debate.

A senior protocol officer involved in the preparation told Business Standard that Mahindra & Mahindra, Pepsico, ITC, Ingersoll Rand, the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Ltd and Jain Irrigation are the major participants at tomorrow’s agri expo. The US President is expected to discuss with senior executives of these companies about their products and agricultural equipment and their applications.

The later round table with Indian CEOs is expected to be dominate by monetary and fiscal issues, apart from those such as China, protectionism, bilateral trade and investments and so forth. The Mumbai police brass visited and extensively reviewed the arrangements at and around St Xavier’s.

US consulate apologises
Earlier, the US Consulate gave an unconditional apology for having asked invitees to the President’s functions to first provide personal details such as the income-tax like PAN numbers. That was after Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister, Chhagan Bhujbal, reacted strongly.

“I have visited Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and the deputy chief minister, Chhagan Bhujbal, personally to apologise. It was a clerical error,” said Consul General Paul Folmsbee.

An official in the state secretariat said a form attached to the invite sent to Chavan, other ministers and senior bureaucrats had “a huge list of questions, including blood group, date of birth, official designation and this too for those holding constitutional posts”.

Bhujbal told Business Standard: “I raised the issue and categorically said we would prefer not to attend the function. How can we agree to these conditions in my motherland?”

In view of the apology, the chief minister and deputy chief minister may attend the business summit to be addressed by Obama at 6 pm tomorrow. “There is a possibility that the duo may skip it, as they would have to attend as delegates and be in the front row,” an official said.