Shri Sachin Pilot, Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Corporate Affairs accompanied by Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, Director General and CEO of the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, Shri Mohan Joseph, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Shri Akash Tomar, APS to Hon’ble Minister visited New York from June 15-17, 2013. The visit was part of bilateral exchanges held in Washington from June 13-14, 2013 (prior to New York).

In New York, the Hon’ble Minister held a press interaction with representatives of print and electronic media. During these interactions, he briefed the media, inter alia, regarding Government’s efforts on streamlining rules for multilevel marketing companies. He stressed the need to protect the smallest investor against fraudulent entities and encouraged newspapers not to entertain paid advertisements from illegal companies. He also stressed the need to clearly define what constituted legal corporate lobbying activities by business corporates in India.

On June 17, the Hon’ble Minister gave a keynote address to the members of the US-India Business Council (USIBC) at the Harvard Club. He outlined the New Companies Act, which is currently pending approval in Rajya Sabha (Upper House), and which envisages new guidelines for CSR for all companies based in India. These guidelines would assist in synergizing partnerships within corporate governance, civil society organizations, academic institutions and social entrepreneurs. The Hon’ble Minister clarified that the guidelines only encouraged companies to disclose their CSR activities. Companies were free to undertake any area of CSR work provided that they put 2% of their profits into CSR.

The issues of concerns raised by USIBC members included the Immigration Bill, currently being discussed in the US Senate; preferential marketing access, transfer pricing and tax issues in India.

The Hon’ble Minister also had a one-on-one meeting with Ambassador Nick Burns of the Cohen Group where they discussed issues, such as, Syria, Afghanistan and the forthcoming India-USStragetic Dialogue.