USISPF Or USIBC? Who Gets Modi's Vote?

Prime Minister Narendra D Modi's itinerary for his June 21-24 US visit could include an address to a fledgling business advocacy group, the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF).

Interestingly, the PM's team has picked the USISPF, founded six years ago, over the much older and established US-India Business Council (USIBC), for his address to the American business community on US soil.

According to sources in New Delhi privy to the minutiae of the PM's US itinerary, Modi's address to the USISPF, founded in August 2017, was in the works. If there is no change in plan, the PM addressing its members would mark the USISPF's growing influence.

Sources said the choice of the USISPF would also indicate New Delhi's lack of synergy with the USIBC's current leadership. The PM's address to the USISPF could take place at Washington, DC's Kennedy Center on June 23, they said.

Business Standard reached out to USISPF President and CEO Mukesh Aghi for details of the June 23 event. His response is awaited. The ministry of external affairs spokesperson said he was not in a position to comment on the PM's engagements in the US.

On its Web site, the USISPF has External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra, former undersecretary of defence for policy in the Trump administration John Rood, and former ambassador to India Richard Varma as its 'board members emeritus'.

Its board of directors includes Cisco Chairman Emeritus John Chambers, General Atlantic Vice Chairman (who is now the World Bank's president) Ajay Banga, ITC Managing Director Sanjiv Puri, and others. Former PepsiCo chairman Indra Nooyi and Columbia University Professor Arvind Panagariya are listed as advisors to the board.

The US Chamber of Commerce formed the USIBC at the request of the then US secretary of state Dr Henry Kissinger in 1975. In July 2017, the US Chamber of Commerce fired Aghi, who was then the USIBC president, alleging that he was not reporting to it.

The USIBC board, including Banga, Nooyi and Chambers, unanimously voted 29-0 to separate from the US Chambers of Commerce, accusing it of undue interference in its work, a report in The Washington Post said.

The US Chamber of Commerce shot back, pointing out that the USIBC had no authorisation to part ways from its parent organisation, which is when Aghi founded the USISPF. Arun Jaitley, the then finance minister, launched the USISPF in August 2017, and most USIBC board members joined the USISPF.

As the senior vice-president for the International Strategy and Global Initiatives at the US Chamber of Commerce, Nisha Biswal oversees the USIBC and the US Bangladesh Business Council. She was the president of the USIBC between October 2017 and January 2022.

On Friday, June 9, 2023, Biswal's successor at the USIBC, its president Atul Keshap, told PTI that the group would host a 'wedding mela' on the eve of Modi's US visit. The event will be held at the US Chamber of Commerce and bring American and Indian start-up enterprises in the defence space together.

The Pentagon said Modi's visit would mark some 'really big, historic and exciting' announcements on defence cooperation.

According to PTI, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner said during a discussion in the US that the visit 'will be looked back upon similarly to how the Japan two plus two earlier this year was a pivotal moment in the relationship.'

'People will be looking back on this visit by Prime Minister Modi as a real springboard for the US-India relationship.' Ratner he said.

The PM will begin his visit in New York and attend the International Yoga Day celebrations at the United Nations on June 21. He will address the joint session of the US Congress in Washington, DC. The PM will address the Indian Diaspora on June 23 and likely the USISPF on the same day.