News: ‘India Inc need not be afraid of free mkt’

(PTI 23/06/2006) Washington - Noting that India is emerging as a "viable" partner of the United States, Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata has said the two countries can work together as they have no fundamental differences.

The Indian business leader was speaking at the leadership summit of the United States India Business Council (USIBC) here last night where the Tata Group of companies bagged the leadership award for being "India's most respected multinational business conglomerate".

The association between India and the United States is "very dear to me", he said adding his passion was to "see our two countries come together" and in a context of putting away decades of mistrust and suspicions.

Tata stressed that Indian industry "does not need to be afraid or apprehensive about free market and that India was emerging as a viable partner to the United States."

Referring to the opportunities that have come by way of some of the landmark agreements that have been signed by the two countries, he said "it is a conviction that the United States and India can work together as there were no fundamental differences or different agendas".

In his welcoming remarks, the President of the USIBC Ron Summers said the bilateral relationship has a "very extraordinary bright future" with this month being a "defining moment", a reference to the markups or the fine-tuning of the legislation in US Congress to implement the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.