"India has been a fantastic market" for the $40 billion PepsiCo, Indra K Nooyi, chairman and CEO said, and this is the feedback she has received from other CEOs of American companies doing business in India.
She interacted with the media following the 33rd anniversary summit of the US-India Business Council, of which she took charge as the new chairman. She is also the first woman to head this organisation which now boasts of more than 280 members, including a majority of Fortune 500 companies. Nooyi said, "India is one of our most important markets. We have discussions going on a bilateral investment trade agreement."
Lauding the efforts of Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Nooyi said, "If you work with Kamal Nath for example, he actually gets things done in the Ministry and things do happen, and we've made enormous commitment to India as have most of the other consumer product companies we work with."
She said that consequently, "Doing business in India has been relatively easy. I mean, it's all relative, because it's relative to other developing and emerging markets, who all have their issues."
Nooyi said that "India has been growing at 20-30 percent a year for all of us. So, we actually like doing business in India and all the other CEOs I talk to, feel exactly the same way."
Ron Somers, the president of USIBC, who participated with Nooyi in the briefing, pointed out that, "In 2004, the USIBC had 60 member companies, now after four years, we have 280 member companies. We've seen two-way trade increase from $25 to $41 billion just in the last two-and-a-half years."
"The growth is extraordinary and if you were to take a poll all of the CEOs - both Indians and Americans in the USIBC membership - they would tell you that it's never been better. That it's improving, that the issues are fewer and fewer and the opportunity is enormous," he said.
Asked what her greatest concern about the Indian economy is in terms of what could torpedo that country's sustained growth and as a result knock the huge market it offers to companies like PepsiCo and other American heavyweights doing business in India, Nooyi said, "The one issue that everybody worries about today is the price of oil."
"India to fuel