The Hindu Business Line : CEOs of 15 Fortune-100 firms were here in 2005 — Buoyancy in manufacturing, services attracting attention

So did another 15 from the Fortune-100 list make a strategic visit here, going to show that India is climbing high on the CEO agenda across the globe.

Some were here to announce investments and others seemed to be on lobbying mode for changes in the policy framework. Wal-Mart, which tops the Fortune-500 list, had its Vice-Chairman, Mr John B Menzer, stop over after which sourcing from the country increased as did the tenor of the retail FDI debate. The BP Plc group Chief Executive, Lord John Browne, the Chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation, Mr Okuda Hiroshi, The Ford Motor Company Chairman and CEO, Mr Bill Ford, and the Chairman and CEO of GE, Mr Jeffrey R. Immelt, were the others who added India to their business itinerary.

The top-level visits ranged from sectors such as information technology (Microsoft, IBM, AMD, Dell, Intel, Cisco, Logitech), automotive (Toyota, Ford), banking (HSBC, Citigroup), retail (Wal-Mart, Tesco, Metro), petroleum (BP), electronics (Siemens, Philips, Sony) and telecom (Vodafone, Nokia).

Surely, the buoyancy seen in the manufacturing and services sectors is attracting more attention than ever before. In fact, two Fortune 500 companies - HSBC and Philips - even held their board meetings in India in 2005.

Further, in his recent visit, Mr Hiroshi who is Chairman of the world's most profitable car company, Toyota, noted the rising quality consciousness in Indian manufacturing and said Indian companies might soon overtake even Japanese ones in the quality sweepstakes.

Information technology companies, however, took the lead in investments, with foreign IT majors committing over $9 billion investments in the country.

This includes $3 billion by SemIndia and chip maker AMD, $1.7 billion by Microsoft Corp and $1 billion-plus each by Intel Corp and Cisco Systems Inc.

Market watchers point out that the figure could even double next year. The enthusiasm is, however, evident across all sectors.

In fact, Mr Richard Parsons, the Chief Executive of the world's largest media company, Time Warner, recently stated that he found India to be a better market than China for immediate growth for his firm because the country offers stronger rule of law and less censorship.

"India is also catching up in infrastructure and technology to distribute media content, setting the stage for Time Warner Inc to build a significant presence quickly," he said.