Google CEO Sundar Pichai was one of the invitees at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s round table conference with the CEOs of 20 high-ranking American firms, at Washington, DC on Sunday.
Pichai said after the meeting that PM Modi had wanted to gain perspective on how to draw more foreign investors towards India. “It (the conference) was a discussion across many industries and I think the PM was looking for insights into how India can attract more foreign investment... many good ideas discussed and... everyone is excited to invest more in India," the Google chief told ANI.
When asked about the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Pichai said that while he knows the tax has “been a very difficult thing to do,” he is excited to see this tax reform become a reality.
We are all looking forward to the 1 July roll out. I know it has been a very difficult thing to do so I’m excited to see it happen. Shows that you can achieve reform by pushing hard for it and I hope it is just the beginning.
GST is the Result of NDA's Policies: Modi
At Sunday’s meeting, Modi said India has now emerged as a business-friendly destination, more so with the upcoming implementation of landmark GST beginning next month, while asking CEOs of top US companies to invest in the country.
Modi also said that India attracted largest foreign direct investment (FDI) as a result of the NDA government's policies in the last three years. PTI reported Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Gopal Bagley as quoting the prime minister:
The whole world is looking at India. 7,000 reforms alone by GOI for ease of (doing) business and minimum government, maximum governance.
In the round table interaction with the group that included Tim Cook of Apple, John Chambers from Cisco and Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Modi enlisted steps taken by his government in the last three years and its next moves.
(With inputs from ANI and PTI)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)