WEF 2024: 'India has already established itself, going to shape the future,' says Atlantic Council CEO

WEF 2024: ‘India has already established itself, going to shape the future,’ says Atlantic Council CEO

India will be right at the top of the list of countries that are going to shape the future, said Fred Kempe, CEO of Atlantic Council. “There is no place you look in the world any longer where you don’t find India present in business, in politics and technology – whether it is Africa, Latin America, the United States, and the Gulf,” Kempe said while speaking to Business Today’s Executive Director Rahul Kanwal on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2024.

When asked what excites and concerns him more about India and its growth story, the American think tank CEO talked about the strength of the Indian diaspora in the US but said it had not yet discovered its voice in terms of its relationship with India. “And this doesn’t mean they’re not going to be loyal to the United States, of course they are. But Italian Americans love working with Italy and German Americans with Germany and, and Greek Americans and so forth.”

Kempe said India’s demographics, education, and technological know-how excite him the most. “The global presence of India is on its way up, no doubt about it. It’s already established, but I think it’s going to become a more important player over time and it’s a more important player that doesn’t have a lot of people that are opposed to it being an important player. India embraces the global South. The global south embraces India. The United States wants to work with India. Europe wants to work with India. So I think that’s good.”

The CEO, however, said that India, in a situation like Ukraine, has to make a value judgment. “With global influence comes global responsibility. The United States doesn’t always handle it properly, but it’s going to be. More and more difficult choices are going to be faced in the future. There’s nothing in it that frustrates me. I just think it’s going to be a reality and it’s going to be interesting to see how India develops in that direction.”

Speaking on the US wanting to engage with India and bi-partition support from Washington, Asha Jadeja Motwani, who was also in the panel discussion, said that the relationship has taken off and there is no stopping it now. “And what you find right now is impatience on the US side to close on a few deals in India, both from the private sector, from the company perspective, and the policy perspective,” she said.

Motwani, who is an investor and philanthropist, said Washington wants to close a few things that are in the pipeline right now. “But It’s India, which is slow. So I feel that this momentum of closing on a few partnerships, few policy decisions, some long-term partnership activities, all those things can be done if there was a set of actors working on it.”

She said there was active participation from the diaspora, think tanks, universities, and the Indian government. “I wish the bureaucracy was more on board towards accelerating this partnership. I also feel that this is the time to start, speaking about a free trade agreement between the two countries because both the United States and India are looking to expand their GDP fast. And the fastest way to do this is if there was an FTA between the two nations.”

Motwani, however, anticipates that there would be pushback in India from the rural sectors and in the US, from the manufacturing. “But the imperative of serious wealth creation if there was an FTA is so huge right now and the momentum has begun. I don’t think that there’s going to be any slowdown on that. So I hope that we have serious participation from all stakeholders on this.”

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