NEW DELHI: Within days of the US Senate endorsing the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, the Bush administration has advised top American energy firms to start negotiations with their Indian counterparts without waiting for the final approval of the agreement.
"We have advised the US companies to start their business negotiations right away because we do not know when the final green signal comes through", US Under Secretary of International Trade Franklin L Lavin said.
In a video conference with Indian journalists, he said Washington would like hardcore business negotiations to start without any further delay.
CEOs of US nuclear energy majors would be coming to India on November 28. American companies and organisations interested to do business in the nuclear energy area include GE Energy, Nuclear Energy Institute, Thorium Power, Westinghouse Electric, BWXT, ConverDyn and WM Mining Company. These firms are engaged in different areas like fuels and power generation.
The itinerary of the CEOs would include the US-India business summit in Mumbai being jointly organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Referring to insurance and financial services, Lavin said Indian businesses could benefit immensely if the ownership in these sectors was liberalised. While he praised strong Indian Intellectual Property Right laws, he said there were some gaps that were required to be filled.
