The appointment of former Warburg Pincus partner Kenneth Juster as the U.S. Ambassador to India will encourage other American investors to invest in the country, said U.S. India Business Council (USIBC) president Mukesh Aghi.
Mr. Juster, who earlier served on the USIBC board and played a key role in the negotiation of the Indo-U.S. civil nuclear co-operation deal, oversaw a significant scaling up of the private equity firm Warburg Pincus’ investments in India in recent years.
He was the firm’s managing director and partner till he was appointed as deputy secretary to Trump, and will have the advantage of knowing India well and coming here directly from the White House, Mr. Aghi said, dismissing any potential conflict of interests in his role due to his former firm’s exposure to India.
“Mr. Juster left Warburg Pincus last year to join the White House and I don’t think there’s any conflict of interest there.
In fact, his experience at Warburg will encourage other U.S. companies to look at India more seriously. What could be better for India?” said Mr. Aghi.
“ As an old hand on India, he understands the country well and I think this is a very positive announcement for both India and the U.S. Mr. Juster will be coming straight from the White House and has access to everybody. More important is his strong understanding of India and the fact that Indo-U.S. ties are not just about defence, but also business,” said the USIBC president who has known Mr. Juster ‘for a long time’
Nuclear deal
While Mr. Juster played a key role in the nuclear deal negotiations, U.S. businesses in the nuclear energy space like Westinghouse have been unable to make much headway in terms of setting up new nuclear installations in India.
“India, as per its commitment to the Paris Accord, has embarked on an ambitious nuclear energy implementation plan to build ten new plants. (But) the whole Westinghouse deal is caught up in the procedure of Toshiba’s bankruptcy issue,” Mr. Aghi said.
“That needs to be sorted out before Westinghouse can move forward on the six nuclear plants they were thinking of building in India. Till then, it is stuck here,” he said.
When asked how U.S. companies are coping with the Donald Trump administration’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate change accord, Mr. Aghi hinted the U.S. government’s stance won’t impact corporate plans. “It’s all about the market actually. In the U.S. today, the price of natural gas is lower than coal and what we are seeing is coal-fired plants shutting down here. Renewable energy has more employees than coal, with much faster growth,” he pointed out.
“This is the same story in India, where the last renewable bids were for ₹2.44 per unit – below thermal. So the train is moving and you just can’t turn it back anymore,” Mr. Aghi said.
