Governors of four Midwest region States of Chicago are keen on exploring business opportunities in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh apart from Gujarat and Karnataka.
The Governors of Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan plan to lead business delegations during 2015-16. The Missouri-based Indian Chambers of Commerce too is keen on mobilising a consortium of US investors who are expected to invest $7 billion in India. Their investment will be more in infrastructure, power, IT and biotechnology sectors, said Ausaf Sayeed, Indian Consul-General in Chicago.
The New Generation Power Company of Chicago is interested in making investments in the solar sector in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. “After Prime Minister Narender Modi’s visit of the US, there is a lot of interest among investors to explore business opportunities in India,” Dr. Sayeed told The Hindu .
Dr. Sayeed, who called on Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday and his AP counterpart earlier, conveyed the eagerness of the US investors to invest in India, particularly in the southern States. Both the Chief Ministers welcomed the idea and promised to extend all possible facilities to the investors.
The Hyderabadi diplomat’s consular jurisdiction spreads across nine States of Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Indiana, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota. The Indian population in Chicago is 3.86-lakh strong and half of it belongs to AP and Telangana. The Indian students number nearly a lakh and again 50 per cent of them are from AP and Telangana.
“Following bifurcation of AP, there is a lot of interest among investors in power, infrastructure, water management, manufacturing and agriculture besides IT and Pharma,” Dr. Sayeed said.
Several US universities like Kellogg Business School, Booth Business School, Purdue University are keen on collaborating with Indian varsities. Indian students will stand to gain from high-level scientific research going on in US universities. This apart, the Chicago State University, which has a tie-up with JNTU, Kakinada, propose to extend the same to JNTU, Anantapur, he said.
There is good news for ‘unregulated’ Indian immigrants in Chicago. Dr. Sayeed has decided to facilitate renewal of passports of Indians who have not done so for more than three years. A large number of such cases are mostly related to those who immigrated on HI B Visa. The Indian Consulate in Chicago is also holding consular camps twice a month at community centres, besides being available round the clock for emergencies.
Dr. Sayeed plans to set up an Urdu chair in a US university on the lines of the Vivekananda chair set up in the University of Chicago.
