Everything going right in India; see big investments: CISCO

Ajay Banga, Board Member & CEO, MasterCard and John Chambers, Executive Chairman, CISCO are bullish on India and expect investments of around USD 40 billion in two-three-five years and there is every possibility of bettering that number over the next five-seven years if India keeps doing all the right things.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan, Chambers says if there is one emerging market that one has to bet on then that is India. "We see everything going right in India," he says. According to him the country is better positioned than any other country for GDP growth over the next two years.

Banga says the relationship between India and US is reaching a stage and level where we can be strategic friends and allies of each other- a level that takes the relationship to all kinds of new possibilities.Yesterday at the Make in India event, Chambers had said: "If you still haven't invested in India you may miss the bus." "India will become a country that will leapfrog your counterpart in global basis and India will be a country that no longer follows what others have done but leads in terms of innovation and leadership," he said.

Below is the transcript of Ajay Banga and John Chambers's interview with CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan.Q: Can you tell us more about this investment?Banga: We had polled 15 percent of our membership base and they had come back with between USD 41-42 billion of investments coming in over the next few years. We have already got USD 14 billion in the first year. In next period of time, another USD 22 billion will come in. So, we should be getting to close to USD 40 billion over these two or three years. So, that is just the 15 percent. We will probably cross that number.Q: So, you are saying we could better that number?Banga: We could but it is a big number in some ways for a country of the size of India and for the opportunities that India represents there is more that can come. over the next 5-10 years if India keeps doing all the things it is trying.Q: You have been an old India bull, your love affair with India has only intensified?Chambers: It has. 10 years ago we bet on India as our second world head quarters. 18 months ago we said that if you are going to bet on one emerging market in the world it should be India. A lot of people hesitated when we said that. Today that looks pretty smart. Today however we are betting one more time on India. We announced our manufacturing, our growth here in India and we said we are going to be committing to manufacturing. We are completely aligned with the digital agenda of the Prime Minister.If you watch India is further ahead than any major large country in terms of what digital India means,  in terms of GDP growth, job creation, inclusion, smart cities, how you change the economy, how you become a start-up India, how you become perhaps the one country in the world that really grows GDP growth at 7-11 percent and does so not at the expense of the environment. So, we see all the things going right in India, we are realistic on the challenges but India is so much better positioned than any other country in the world for GDP growth over the next two years. It is exciting. So, yes the love affair is actually intensifying and getting stronger.Q: Another sticky issue which may be a sticky issue as far as investor sentiment is concerned and the Indian government has raised this with the US government the F-16 sales to Pakistan, ambassador Verma was called by the Indian government to express India's displeasure on this. Was this an issue that was brought up at all? I understand this may have come up at your dinner last night as well.Banga: It has come up in all levels of government meetings because it is a topical issue. John and I have both a  very similar perspective on this. We believe that the relationship between the United States and India is reaching a level and stage where we can be strategic friends and allies of each other at a level that takes the relationship to all kinds of new possibilities. A transactions where the United States were to sell helicopters to somebody and planes to somebody else does not change the level of strategic partnership in defence, security, in geo-political commonality of thinking between the two countries. That is where our mind is. However we have heard everybody and we are certainly going to go back and discuss what we have heard when we go back there. However I think you need to take a look at the bigger picture here. I doubt that any one transaction impact the way all of us think about each other, there is just too much going on between these two countries for one transaction to make a difference.Q: Let me end by asking you, 41 to 48 which is what your current target is and you believe that you can actually better that quite significantly. Which are the sectors that see most of that money coming into?Banga: It depends where the demand is from. From what we have just spent the last couple of days on is an example. There is enormous opportunity and energy and I don't mean only renewable energy but even in clean coal, in the financing of the need for India's energy infrastructure and of course renewables. Today Mr Piyush Goyal made me understand a series of priorities by talking to all of us that I had never heard as clearly articulated as I got today. One of the things we are going to go back and do - John is going to do - when I have I lay out the manner in which those priorities could be met by companies from India has a clear space. Defence, definitely moving, moving even faster in my opinion. Food and agriculture is another huge area that fits what you need and of course just fitting into digital. Digital impacts everybody. It impacts defence, it impacts food, it impacts technology, it impacts all of us. I am very excited about that space. (Interview transcribed by Swapnil Deshpande and Binu Panicker)