CEOs heap praise on Modi, express keenness to invest in India

The CEOs of global companies, who took part in the roundtable with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Wednesday, lauded him for spending two hours with them to hear their perspective and highlight the steps being taken by his government to create a more favourable investment climate in India.

"We had a fantastic meeting with the Prime Minister. Very productive. The US companies were quite encouraged to invest in India. The focus was on defence, supply chain, food, agriculture and digital space. I think it was a very, very positive meeting. US companies look forward to increasing their investment in India," Mukesh Aghi, the President and CEO of US-India Strategic Partnership Forum told ANI.

MetLife Michel Khalaf CEO told ANI said that Modi's willingness to listen to various perspectives and to take them into consideration in policy-making is very encouraging.

"He was very open to listening to various perspectives from business leaders. He provided responses emphasising his government's focus on encouraging investment in India. We consider India a strategic growth market for us," he said.

Punit Renjen, CEO of Deloitte Global, said the Prime Minister spoke of growth opportunities for India. ."It was an excellent meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The PM laid out the growth opportunity in India. It was a very good meeting," he said.

Modi met at least 42 CEOs on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. He is apparently the only leader to have held meeting with such a large number of CEOs of top global companies at an event coinciding with the UNGA meeting.

Bob Switz, Chairman, Micron Corporation said it was a very positive meeting. "The PM was soliciting inputs on things he can do to improve business in India. It was a very good conversation and very good comments were made," he said.