Out of the total 45 trillion dollars investment, around 12 trillion dollars of investment comes under ESG (environmental, social and governmental) category

India should focus on attracting foreign investments on the basis of environmental, social and governmental (ESG) factors if it wants its economy to grow at a rate of eight to nine per cent, Mukesh Aghi, president of US India Strategic and Partnership Forum (US-ISPF) has said.

A PTI report carried by The Economic Times highlights Aghi’s views on the same. He said that India needs to get the sustained foreign direct investment of 100 billion dollars on ESG factors per annum to get back to the growth rate of eight to nine per cent.

“If India is going to focus on attracting large scale, long term institutional investors, then it needs to look at the ESG factors. Today is around 130-133 on the ESG factors. It needs to start coordinating. It’s no longer World Bank ranking (on ease of doing business). Investors are rewarding companies that are looking at ESG factors,” Aghi said.

According to the US-ISPF president, around 12 trillion dollars of investment out of the total 45 trillion dollars comes under ESG. He said that the investors are now focusing on ESG factors of the countries in order to increase their share of investments in the countries.

Commenting on the third US-ISPF leadership summit to be held later this month, Aghi said that India can use America’s trade tensions with other countries to attract its investments in India. He said that India can play a helpful role for the US companies, especially healthcare to attract investments.

He said that India can also push for a resolution on H-1B visa saying that it can help the US companies in recruiting top professionals from India who will contribute to their growth.

He said, “It's important for India to come to understand the mobility of its professionals. So, it's important, whichever the administration comes in seriously looks at H-1B visa issues because it does impact the US companies in a positive way and you want to be able to provide those resources to the US companies. That is a plus factor.”

India can also use the anti-China sentiment in its allies to attract investments, PTI quoted him as saying.

The report said that US-ISPF will hold its third leadership summit later this month which would be addressed jointly by US Vice President Mike Pence and External Affairs Minister of India, S Jaishankar.