Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram is currently on a four-day-visit to the United States in a bid to sell India's growth story and attract more investments to combat the dramatic fall of the Indian rupee in recent weeks.
The minister is scheduled to meet officials of top American companies such as Wal-Mart, Boeing, Microsoft and Lockheed Martin. The minister held a consultative meeting with the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other top economic advisors before leaving for the United States, according to the Indian news papers.
Chidambaram's visit comes at a time when India's currency, the Rupee, is facing an all-time record-breaking fall of 61 to one U.S. dollar.
"The Finance Minister is likely to discuss the issue of investment by US companies in India especially in infra sector, various policy measures taken by the Government to boost investment in the country and tax related matters among others," said a statement issued ahead of his visit to the United States.
The minister will also meet with his U.S. counterpart, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, during the four-day trip this week.
Some top American lawmakers and business representatives have been complaining against India's alleged "restrictive" and "protectionist" trade and investment policies in recent months.
"We're very concerned about the innovation and the investment environment in India at the moment," said Mike Froman, the National Deputy Security Advisor on economic policies to President Barack Obama.
"We have a lot of concerns about what's going on today in India especially their emerging market access barriers, protectionist measures," said Senator Rob Portman, complaining against India's compulsory licensing, patent issues, preferential market access and localization, which he said were great concerns to the Obama administration.
"One is the lack of respect for patents. Basic intellectual property protections are being set aside," said the senator. "They've invalidated and broken American drug patents, as I say. These actions are in disregard of WTO rules; they're fundamentally disruptive to innovation. I think, frankly, it's a major concern, because it could spread."
Recently, Indian domestic solar companies complained that a lot of foreign companies were exporting solar equipment to India at "ridiculously low prices," which they said was "bleeding the local industry."
A grievance hearing is scheduled to take place on July 18 and if the Indian government is convinced then it is most likely to impose anti-dumping duty on solar cell-importers including U.S. and China.
