AMN / WEB DESK
India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met Chief Executive Officers of Accenture, Deloitte, FedEx and Mastercard in Washington DC today. They discussed a range of issues including setting up R&D Centres in India, upskilling talent, training and digitisation of small businesses, climate action and financial inclusion.
During the meeting with the Finance Minister, CEO of the multinational IT company Accenture Julie Sweet backed the Government of India’s proactive and transparent approach.
Ms Sweet further noted that the company is increasing its presence in more Tier-2 cities in India and is also focusing on upskilling talent to prepare for emerging opportunities. The Accenture boss also informed Ms Sitharaman that 47 per cent of their workforce in India comprises women.
Ms Sweet said the company is fortunate to have great talent from an amazing group of people of 1,00,000 in India and the company truly appreciates the government’s focus on making India a great place to do business.
Ms Sitharaman also met the CEO of Deloitte Punit Renjen and discussed issues like expanding Deloitte’s operations to smaller cities in India like Coimbatore and Bhubaneswar. Mr Renjen also said that Deloitte has developed tools to improve the access of rural poor to health facilities and is also committed to Climate action in India.
During his meeting with the Finance Minister, FedEx’s President and CEO-elect Raj Subramanian mentioned that he has significant expansion plans, including skilling. FedEx is also looking at R&D Centres in India. He also backed the Government of India’s commitment to integrated development via the PM Gati Shakti Master Plan.
Ms Sitharaman also met the CEO of Mastercard Miebach Micheal, who told the Finance Minister that Mastercard has set up huge data centres in India and is focused on training and digitisation of small businesses.
The Finance Minister talked about the government’s commitment to digital financial inclusion with a focus on women and SMEs through world-class and indigenously developed technology solutions. She also talked about using lessons from India’s financial inclusion programmes to develop global solutions.