'Palpable change in mood of Intl biz community for India'

The US today said there is a "palpable change" in the mood of international business community towards India after the new government led by Narendra Modi came to power.

"There seems to be a quite palpable change in mood here among government officials, among business people, both foreign and domestic, and in the international business community.

"I think there is a great deal of interest in India and people are looking, as I have said, with cautious optimism about the sentiments that are leading to their mood change and (would) also lead to concrete actions that have an effect on the ground," United States Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman told reporters here.

He was replying to a question on what kind of change in mood he sees after the new government came to power. Referring to the recent visit of Prime Minister NarendraModi to the US, Froman said the visit has created a lot of momentum in the relationship between the two countries. The visit was successful from all levels, he added.

On the steps taken by India to relax foreign direct investments, Froman, who is here for Trade Policy Forum meeting, said that was a lot of interest about the insurance sector.

"I think there is lot of interest in the draft insurance law that is before the Parliament which is I understand (want to) raise the FDI cap in that sector (insurance). It has been discussed for a long time.

"We do know the actions taken in defence and railways and we hope that there will be further steps taken in the future as more sectors will be liberalised," he added.

At present, Indo-US bilateral trade is around USD 100 billion. India has received about USD 12 billion in FDI from the US companies during April 2000 to March 2014.