Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein here on Monday.
Besides Blankfein, Prime Minister also held one on one with a host of business leaders including Boeing CEO James McNerney, American private equity fund Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co CEO, Henry Kravis, Laurence D. Fink, CEO of the American multinational investment management firm Blackrock, CEO of IBM, Virginia Romnetty and CEO of General Electric Jeffrey R. Immelt.
Recently Goldman Sachs reportedly disclosed its willingness to invest USD 200 million (Rs 1,200 crore) to build a new campus in Bangalore that can accommodate 9,000 people.
The global investment bank’s Bangalore operations, with 5,400 people, is already the largest outside its New York headquarters, where it has 12,000 employees. The Bangalore office, established 10 years ago, has seen its headcount rise at a compounded annual growth rate of about 19% over the past five years.
Goldman Sachs resources in the Bangalore and Mumbai offices include investment banking, global investment research, operations and technology.
Earlier in the morning, Prime Minister held a breakfast meeting with CEOs of 11 top US companies, during which he is believed to have pushed India’s case as the best investment destination in Asia.
Among the eleven CEOs whom the Prime Minister had met were Google’s Larry Page; David M Rubenstein of The Carlyle Group; Michael L Corbat, CEO of Citigroup; Doug Oberhelman of Caterpillar; Cargill President and CEO David W MacLennan; Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo; Kenneth C Frazier of Merck; MasterCard President and CEO Ajaypal Singh Banga, AES Corporation CEO Andres Gluski, Charles R. Kaye of Warburg Pincus and Micheal Ball of Hospira – a US-based global pharmaceutical company.
These meetings are a part of Prime Minister Modi’s plans to increase the share of India’s manufacturing sector to 25 per cent of the GDP from 15 per cent currently. He is expected to assure the CEOs of a red carpet welcome minus the red tape.
The Prime Minister departs for Washington later in the day where he is going to have a private dinner with U.S. President Barack Obama at White House tonight.
—ANI