SAN FRANCISCO -- Violence in Kashmir and nuclear proliferation are dominating the mainstream headlines on President Clinton's trip to South Asia. And while security issues are clearly on the agenda in Clinton's meetings with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the press is ignoring an equally significant part of the trip: trade. Traveling along with the Clinton family and US officials is a large corporate contingent. Behind the scenes of the first official state visit to India by a US president in 22 years, more than 50 US corporate executives are meeting with Indian officials and business representatives. The goal of these CEO's and other executives is to gain more access to Indian markets.
The Washington, D.C. based US-India Business Council (USIBC) is hosting many of the events for the corporate delegates in India. The USIBC's Board of Directors includes Frank Wisner, former Ambassador to India, currently representing the American International Group Inc. (AIG), one of the largest insurance companies in the US. Also on the Council's board is Joseph W. Sutton of Enron, a Houston-based natural gas giant whose power projects in India have come under attack from environmental and community groups. Others on the board include Peter Howell of banking conglomerate Citigroup, Dinesh Keskar of Boeing India, Boyd Montgomery of UNOCAL and Charles Saris of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, to name a few.
The large corporate delegation accompanying Clinton includes former ambassador to India Frank Wisner, Lou Gestner, IBM's Chairman, Arun Netraveli, President of Bell Laboratories/Lucent Technologies, John Smith, CEO of General Motors, Kenneth Lay, Chairman and CEO of Enron and General Electric's CEO, John Welch.
Many US corporations have increasingly come under fire from Indian activists, whose concerns range from human rights to the environment. Last year, Enron, the single largest foreign investor in India, was implicated in human rights violations in India by a Human Rights Watch report. A lawsuit was recently filed against Union Carbide by victims of one of the worst industrial disasters in history fifteen years ago in Bhopal, India. Warren M. Anderson, chairman of the Union Carbide Corporation during the 1984 Bhopal chemical disaster has apparently gone into hiding to avoid a summons to appear in a Manhattan federal court as part of civil proceedings against him and the company.
The following is a list of participants attending events hosted by the US-India Business Council during the Clinton visit, and includes corporate executives from both India and the US.
Anil Srivastava, CEO and President, AcrossWorld Communication
Anat Bernstein-Reich, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development AcrossWorld Communications
Kailash Kapur, President, India Operations Adaptive Broadband
Ashok Bhatt Kumar, President & Commissioner, AIMS Inc./Resource Soft Tech Inc./Public Utilities Comm.
Sunil Mehta, Country Head, India American International Group
Frank Wisner, Vice Chairman, External Affairs American International Group, Inc.
Jon Arthur Sherk, Chief Counsel, Amway Corporation
Shashanka Sharma, Deputy Geeral Manager, Amway India Enterprises
Sudershan Banerjee, Managing Director and CEO, Amway India Enterprises
Rajiv Maliwal, Director & Head, Corporate & Investment Banking Anz Banking Group Ltd.
Dr. P.B. Ram Reddy, President, Apex Technologies, Inc.
Mohan Shah, Chairman, Appletree Group
Arun Bhumitra, CEO, Arjay.Net
Nirmal Sinha, President, Asian Indian American Business Group
Vinayak Mahajan, Managing Director, Asian Gas Ventures Limited
Virat Bhatia, Managing Director, AT&T India Ltd.
N. Anthony Wakim, International Export Sales Manager, Athey Products Corp
Arun Duggal, Bank of America
Paul Prager, President, BBI Power Corporation
Swadesh Chatterjee, President, Brandt Instruments, Inc.
Amrit Kiran Singh, Vice President & area Director-South Asia, Brown-Forman Worldwide L.L.C.
Murray Jans, Executive Director, Canada-India Business Council
Donald Conover, President, CBay Systems
V.Raman Kumar, Chairman, CBay Systems
Hitesh Shah, Sr Director, Product Marketing, Centigram Communications Corp.
Brant Free, Sr VP The Chubb Corporation
Prem Jain, Vice President & General Manager, Cisco Systems, Inc.
Chander Mittal, President, Founder & CEO, CM Automotive Systems, Inc.
David Mengebier, VP, Gov't and Int'l Affairs, CMS Energy
Brian Corbin, Vice President and Managing Director, CMS Energy Asia PTE Ltd.
Robert Vastine, President, Coalition of Service Industries
Alex VonBehr, President, CocaCola India
Joel Peres, Legal Counsel, CocaCola India
Raj Vattikuti, President & CEO, Complete Business Solutions, Inc.
Sudipta Sen, CEO, Comsat Max
Nitin Kulkarni, Regional Director, South Asia Corning, Inc.
Raj Rama, President CSG, Inc.
Anshuman Mishra, Executive Vice President, Deepak Chopra Center
Deepak Talwar, President and CEO, Deepak Talwar & Associates Inc.
Mukesh "Mike" Patel, President, Diplomat Hotels/ AA.HOA
Vikram Rajadhyaksha, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, DLZ Corp.
Hemendra Kothari, Chairman DSP, Merrill Lynch
Davinder Dogra, President & CEO, E-Indiabiz.com, Inc.
Pankaj Vyas M.D, Eastern Carolina Medical Center
Ramesh K. Motwane, President & CEO, Eastern Contractors, Inc.
Inderjit Motwane, Chief Financial Officer, Eastern Contractors, Inc.
Edward Hoppe, General Manager, Asia/Pacific Region, Eastman Kodak Co.
Carl F. Kohrt, Assistant COO & Executive Vice President, Eastman Kodak Co.
Joseph Sutton, Vice Chairman, Enron Corporation
Wade Cline, CEO, Enron India Pvt. Ltd.
Sanjay Bhatnagar, CEO, Enron, South Asia
Kashi Memani, Chairman, Ernst & Young India
Manu Sawhne, Managing Director, ESPN Software India Ltd.
Sambhu Banik, President, Family Diagnostic and Theraputic Center
Chandulal K. Patel, Former President and Chairman, Federation of Indo-American Associations
Sanjay Mundra, President & CEO, First American Hotels, Inc.
Prakesh Shah, Chairman, First Growth Group, Inc.
Sunil Puri, President & CEO, First Rockford Group
Jack Cotton, Regional Vice President, Foster Wheeler Corporation
David F. Wolf, President, Fremont Group
Richard Swando, President and Managing Director, General Motors India, Ltd.
Sri Palasamudram, President, Geotouch.com
Paresh A. Shah, CEO, Global Innovations, Inc.
Chacko Verghese, President & CEO, Global Market Resources, Inc.
Niranjan Shah, CEO & Chairman, Globetrotter Engineering Company
Abraham Robinson, President, Health Management Inc.
Pavan Nigam, Co-Founder, Healtheon-Web MD
Ganesh Ayyar, President, Hewlett-Packard India Ltd.
T.V. Krishnamurthy, Managing Director, Huber Chemicals India Private Ltd.
Gopal Basisht M.D., IAAFPE & The Spirit of India
Ashok K. Trivedi, President & Co-Founder, iGate Capital Corporation
Sunil Aghi, Founder/President, Indo-American Political Foundation
Prabhat K. Andleigh, President & CEO, InfoDream Corporation
Lalatendu Mohapatra, President, Infotel International, Inc.
Jay Desai, President, CEO and Founder, Institute of Global Competitiveness, Inc.
Suresh L. Malik, Vice President, International Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.
Walter Barber, Group President, Asia, Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.
J. Bennett Johnston, President, Johnston and Associates, LLC
Bharat Raut, Constituted Attorney, KPMG Peat Marwick
Jay Kumar Patel, President, Kumar Enterprises, Inc.
Robert Ziegenhagen, Managing Director, Lever Johnson Limited
Dayanand Rachakonda M.D., Lung Institute of Nevada
Dinesh Patel, Chief of Arthroscopic surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital
Ramesh Kapur, President, Medical-Technical Gases, Inc.
Gordon Young, Senior Advisor, Merrill Lynch
Rajir Nair, President, Microsoft Corporation
Sanjay Mirchandani, Microsoft Corporation
Gopal Prasad, President, Minerals and Fertilizers Limited
Mody Mukund, M.D.
Haresh Panchal, President, National Federation of Indian American Association
Jaskaran S. Teja, Chief Representative Director, India Nationwide Global
Craig A. Alvey, Associate VP & Director, Business Development Asia Nationwide Global
Gary G. Benanav, Chairman and CEO, New York Life International, Inc.
Raymond Sander, Vice President, New York Life International, Inc.
Georges Ugeux, Group Executive Vice President, New York Stock Exchange
A.J. Patel, CEO Odyssey Enterprises, Inc/The Indus Entreprenuers
Kent Burton, Senior V.P., Ogden Energy
T. Srinivasan, Sales Director, Oracle
Shekhar Dasgupta, Country Manager, Oracle
Lauren Lenfest, Vice President, Oracle Corp.
Ranjan Chak, Executive Director, Oracle India Development Oracle Corp.
Krishna Srinivasa, President, PCS
Robert A. Lewis, Director International Sales and Services Pratt & Whitney, Division of United Technologies Corporation
Neil Mehta, President and CEO, Premier Medical Corp.
Ashok Chhabra, Director, Legal &Public Affairs, Proctor & Gamble Hygene & Healthcare, Ltd.
Arun Savkur, President, Quantum Leap Systems, Inc.
Mahesh Veerina, CEO/President, Ramp Networks
Viru Raparthi, President and CEO, RBCA Services, Inc.
Dr. Devendra Verma, General Partner, Redwood Venture Partners, III, LLC
Atul Thakrar, Managing Director, Rohm and Haas India Pvt. Ltd.
Ravi Subramanian, Chairman, Silverline Technologies Inc.
Anu Yallapragada, Regional Director, Sinclair Group
Ravi Patel, President &CEO, SREE Hospitality Group
Sudhir Parikh, President, Sudhir Parikh, M.D.
Deepak Bhagat, Director, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Anant Agarawal, Sr. Vice President, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Avinash Agrawal, Director, India Design Center Sun Microsystems, Inc.
AC Gupta, Country Manager, Swagelok Company
Kenny Desai, President, TAK Group
Ashok Mehta, President, TATA, Inc.
Hari Nath, Chief Executive Officer, Technology Planning and Management Corp. (TPMC)
Alan Weinberger, CEO, TechnologyNet, Inc.
Shriramkumar Rajha, President and CEO, Telesis Technologies, Inc.
Suhas Patil, Former President, The Indus Entreprenuers
Kailash Joshi, Charter member, The Indus Entreprenuers
K.B. Chandrasekhar, The Indus Entreprenuers
Kanwa Rekhi, The Indus Entreprenuers
Mark J. Reidy, Partner, Thelen Reid & Preist LLP
Shan K. Thever, President, Senior Partner Thever & Associates
Kanwal Rehki, President TIE
Hasmukh R. Shah, Chairman TV Asia
Polly Holcombe, Director, Asia Pacific Unisys
Sampat Shivangi, President, US Infosystems
Nalluru Murthy, Ventue Capital and Investor
Pradeep Saraogi, Vice President of Marketing, Water Systems International, Ltd.
N. Krishnan, Vice President of India Operations, Water Systems International, Ltd.
Myrna K. Creek, CFO, Water Systems International, Ltd.
Howard J. Siemers, CEO, Water Systems International, Ltd.
