New Delhi : The 2nd Indo-US Services Summit, organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC), in collaboration with theServices Export Promotion Council (SEPC), commenced on 31st July 2021 from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM. The theme of the webinar was ‘Leveraging Services Sector to Trigger Post-COVID 19 Economic Recovery’. The webinar focused on various sectors in the service industry, including IT, travel, tourism and hospitality, healthcare, energy, and media entertainment. SEPC has been conducting regular monthly webinars that bring various contemporary issues to light and add value to every sector.

The webinar explored the possibilities of leveraging the service industry through numerous sessions. Through such an exploration, it uncovered transformative solutions through discussions centred around ‘Digital Transformation: Leveraging digital technologies to enable post-COVID business recovery’ for the IT industry, ‘Living with COVID – Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow’ for the travel, tourism and hospitality industry, ‘Can Healthcare sector become an enabler to steer clear of COVID-19 blues’ for the healthcare industry, ‘India’s 450GW renewable plan for Climate Change Mitigation a holy grail’ for the energy sector, and ‘Creative Industries – Catalyst to Revive Economic Growth’ for the media entertainment industry.

The various eminent speakers who voiced their beliefs on the leveraging of the service sector included the Chief Guest, Mr Piyush Goyal, Hon’ble Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Government of India, the Guest of Honour, Mr Michael Rosenthal, Director – North India, US Embassy, Dr. Naresh Trehan – Cardiologist in Medanta Hospital, Mr Raman Roy, Regional President, IACC-NIC & Managing Director, Quatrro, Mr Rohit Kochhar, Regional Vice President, IACC-NIC & Founding Member & Managing Partner, Kochhar & Co., Dr Vivek Lall, Chief Executive, General Atomics Global Corporation, USA, and the Summit Chair, Dr Lalit Bhasin, with closing remarks by Mr Kapil Kaul, Executive Vice President, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce.

The Chief Guest, Mr Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, expressed his admiration to the organisers for facilitating such a dialogue on a critical subject and time. He established the promise of the services sectors in aiding a post-COVID recovery. He also cited the Y2K virus as “the cusp of India’s engagement with the world on the IT side.” He recollected how India provided services globally to cope with the Y2K bug, noting that “the world saw in India skills, capabilities, deep commitment, confidence, abilities never before experienced by the world… And, from there, we have seen the rapid growth of the IT sector.” He established a bright vision for India’s future partnership with the US and emphasised the role of India’s youth and bold entrepreneurship in taking the country from “a low-cost service provider to becoming a high-value add partner.”

As the Founder Chair of SEPC and Summit Chair, Dr Lalit Bhasin welcomed the chief guest, Mr Piyush Goyal. He relayed the Minister’s views about establishing stronger trade relations with Indo-Pacific nations, stating, “IACC and SEPC have joined hands to promote services sectors in India and the US, and this is the product of this cooperation that exists between IACC and SEPC.” Strongly endorsing these statements, Dr Bhasin advocated for these ideas to become “a major initiative in the post-COVID-19 [world], to leverage [the] services sector to bail out the world economy from disruptions caused by the pandemic, and, more importantly, to catalyse the brick and mortar industries, which are facing the brunt of the onslaught.”

The session raised questions about every sector, discussing areas where India could tap into the vast offerings of the services sector to aid a smooth post-COVID economic recovery. The panellists agreed on the sector’s abilities, especially considering India’s growing position as a centre for design, innovation, and modern thinking. As the Minister noted, the Indo-US partnership is a “win-win” for both countries. In this vein, the panellists also advocated for policy innovations by the government to promote growth across some of India’s most lucrative industries.

SEPC and IACC’s goal through this webinar was to establish the unflinching importance of the service sector. By bringing together with several respected thought-leaders and personalities, the webinar could envision what a post-COVID world looked like for the concerned sectors while discussing how India could successfully bounce back from such a standstill with a strong US partnership.