Why corporate America is watching India's election

Welcome back. Time for the story abroad. India in focus today, CEOs of the Magnificent 7 will be watching whether Prime Minister Modi gets re-elected for a third term with interest. Tarsima Modi has more. What do we need to know? Seema? Well, Sarah, this election matters to corporate America. We’ve seen the CEOs of Apple, Alphabet and Video among others. They’ve all plotted their expansion right into the country. They have vested interest in seeing Prime Minister Modi’s economic reforms pan out. The opposition seen as less business friendly. Modi has been credited for boosting growth, cutting red tape and also upgrading the country’s infrastructure at a time when China’s economy remains weak. The election, this is the world’s largest democratic exercise. It kicks off today. Goes until early June, 968 million people go to the polls. Modi has been meeting with US tech CEO’s meantime for the last several years. But in the past one year, CEOs of tech have all taken special trips to the country. And in turn, we’ve seen Modi reduce some barriers that previously made it difficult to expand in India. He also met with several CEOs last June with President Biden at the White House. Now, just in March, India reduced import taxes on electric vehicles. And I’m hearing Tesla CEO Elon Musk is planning to visit the leader next Monday in New Delhi to discuss plans to build a gigafactory and find a pathway to sell electric vehicles there. Some of Modi’s promises, we should point out, though, have fallen short. If you look at manufacturing, it only makes up 18% of the countries GDP. The goal was 25. And guys, there’s youth unemployment of 44%. That’s creating all sorts of issues. Land laws and labor laws are very onerous for global companies. In India it’s it’s hard to acquire land, it’s hard to hire workers, it’s hard to fire workers. That could hurt Modi. In this election. 1/5 of voters are under the age of 30, so expect that to be a talking point. This would be his third term. That’s right. And is there any mystery going into the election as to what will happen? You know, all the polls suggest right now that this is going to be a sweep for Modi, who’s been in power since 2014, so 10 years. But you know, with any election, we never know. The opposition, of course, is seen as less business friendly. Rahul Gandhi, who has more of an anti US stance. And that’s yet another reason why Silicon Valley and US CEOs that have plotted their expansion, they are so. Or not only watching this election, but I, you know, I imagine much more supportive of Modi just given the economic reforms that are underway there.