Barriers in trade have fallen due to NDA govt's reforms: US corporate body

Barriers in trade have fallen and many processes have been simplified as a result of the series of key reforms instituted by the Indian government, a top corporate body from Silicon Valley has said. The Bay Area Council, in its latest report on India, said that sustained economic growth and national strategies that push digitization across a range of sectors and services are creating unique synergies with the Bay Area that open the door to new opportunities, as Bay Area companies expand their global footprint and diversify their market presence in Asia. "On the Indian side, government proposals to require data generated in India to be exclusively stored in India, and proposed data privacy regulations that are among the most stringent in the world, have drawn strong opposition from both Indian and US IT and financial services companies," the report said. Noting that India is a large untapped market for financial services, the report said that the Modi government sees mobility, fintech and a cashless society as keys to financial empowerment and business growth, providing access for ordinary Indians to credit, insurance, digital payments, and e-commerce. Bay Area companies like Visa, PayPal, WhatsApp and Google have made inroads in financial services markets but face competition from local service providers as well as regulatory challenges, said the report, which was released in the presence of India's Ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla last week.