Date:24/10/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/10/24/stories/2005102402300200.htm

Back India is the flavour of the season with global honchos — Ford chief coming to launch Fiesta here

Neha Kaushik

New Delhi , Oct 23

TOP global honchos seem to have reserved this season for a date with India. The month has already seen at least six global chieftains on strategic visits to the Indian market, with several others expected in the coming weeks.

Mr Bill Ford Jr, Chairman of Ford Motor Corp, will be in the Capital on Tuesday to unveil the latest offering from the company, the Ford Fiesta. The chief of the US auto major would also be visiting Ford's facility in Tamil Nadu during his two-day visit to India.

Next in line would be the top management of HSBC, who, according to sources, would be in India in November to attend the bank's global board meeting, to be held in the country for the first time.

Earlier this month, the CEO of Citibank, Mr Charles O. Prince, was in the country for a two-day visit. During his whistlestop tour, Mr Prince held a series of meetings including one with the Prime Minister, Mr Manmohan Singh, and another with the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram.

The President and CEO of the US-based Cisco Systems Inc., Mr John Chambers, was on a visit to the country earlier this month, during which he announced major plans for the Indian market.

Mr Chambers said that his company would invest over $1 billion in India over three years, making it the largest investment by the company outside the US.

Mr John Browne, Chairman of oil giant BP Plc (formerly British Petroleum), was also on his first official visit to India, to explore opportunities in oil and gas.

During his visit, BP and HPCL signed a letter of intent to form a 50:50 strategic joint venture to construct a $3-billion refinery in Punjab to start with, and later cover the entire refining and marketing sectors.

Mr Daniel Borel, Chairman & Founder of Logitech, visited India earlier this month and met up with key distributors and channel partners of Logitech India.

He also launched Logitech's next-generation line of cordless products in the country.

Mr Howard Stringer, Chairman and CEO of Sony Corporation, also visited the country last week.

"The honcho visits reflect the growing importance of India as a strategic market in the future," said an industry analyst, adding that the past few months have also seen a number of global political personalities touring India, many with the agenda of growing economic linkages with the country.