Rio de Janeiro [Brazil], July 4 : Indian business leaders attending the BRICS Summit in Brazil have expressed optimism ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit, saying they expect a fruitful outcome in terms of trade, investment, and strategic collaboration.
PM Modi will participate in the BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro on July 6-7, followed by a bilateral visit to Brasilia -- the first by an Indian Prime Minister in nearly six decades. He will also hold meetings with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and other global leaders on the sidelines of the summit.
Ahead of the visit, Indian business leaders in Brazil on Friday said they expect the trip to yield meaningful outcomes in areas ranging from trade and investment to agribusiness, energy, and startup collaborations.
Sameep Shastri, Vice Chairman, BRICS Chamber of Commerce and Industry, talking to ANI from Brazil, said they were proud and looking forward to India's BRICS presidency next year. "We are eagerly waiting for our Prime Minister to come and address the business forum as well as we've got to know he'll be addressing all the businessmen, and the industry experts are looking forward to hearing him. And as Indian, it is always a proud moment, like we hosted the G20 in the best and grand manner. We're looking forward to host the BRICS next year in a very grand manner," Shastri said while speaking to ANI.
VP Nandakumar, Chair of the FICCI Kerala State Council, and Md Manappuram Finance Limited said they have already participated in some of the business discussions. "We have seen areas where Brazil has the strength, India has the strength, as well as weakness. We can have a SWOT analysis on either side. India has opportunities...there are opportunities and also to learn many things here," Nandakumar said while speaking to ANI.
"This is an opportunity to understand each other. Definitely, this will bring a lot of value on either side. The Prime Minister's presence here will motivate the teams on either side, and it will lend a lot of confidence, and we are expecting a good outcome of that," he added.
Archana Jahagirdar, Founder and Managing Partner, Rukam Capital and Member, National Startup Advisory Council, underlined BRICS as a platform for global startup engagement. "BRICS is really a meeting ground for business, trade, and to develop all the emerging economies that are part of BRICS. Startups are the core fundamental programme to the Prime Minister's vision for India, and that's what I'm trying to popularise over here so that we get investments and the stage for Indian startups," she said.
Hemil Kiri, Head Supply Chain Management, Indoasia Copper Limited, said Brazil has been growing pretty good in terms of energy and other sources as well. "So one of the reasons we are over here is to see what Brazil is about, you know, co-invest in companies over here, and this has been a really good event for India and Brazil. He (PM Modi) has been promoting our nation. He's been leading us in a new direction, helping investors in all ways possible...I don't think we would we would have gone forward as a country and investing in other countries without his help in his direction altogether."
Navneet Ravikar, Chairman and Managing Director, Leads Connect Services, said they have been involved with Brazil in the last 2 or 3 years. "We have been continuously coming here for collaboration. I think Brazil, in particular, out of BRICS, provides very diverse business opportunities not only for us but also for businessmen from India, specifically in agribusiness. What we believe is that the technology that Brazilians have developed in terms of animal husbandry, in terms of breed multiplication, can be replicated in India to improve the outcome, which I think is one of the major objectives of our team as well. Along with increasing the agribusiness category, which is basically because we both Brazil as well as India want to become the food basket of the world," he said while speaking to ANI.
"What we believe is that because of the fact that we have a huge output as well as because of the land that Brazil has, there is a huge possibility of transactional business, as well as collaborative business where we can grow crops which we are not very good at and basically in terms which I particularly call about pulses and soybean crops... we know that there are very few food processing companies from Brazil. Who have actually invested into India, so we plan to bring those industries into India, and we believe that the Prime Minister's initiative by coming here and taking BRICS back to India, we would be able to take the initiative and we would be able to work together," Ravikar added.
Bijoy Devadas, Regional Director, ERAM Group, said, "We are happy to explore the new market like Brazil...so we are very much excited and we learned very, very new things like, you know, the people doesn't know more about Brazil. At the same time, the Brazilians, the business people, doesn't know more about India, so there is a good potential for both countries, and I'm excited to see more on this and the Group is exploring the business opportunities, especially in the renewable energy, the skill development training, which is also the focus sectors. And we are also very strong in power electronics. We have R&D centre in Bangalore and similarly there are immense opportunities in Brazil."