FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

The second sub-Cabinet meeting of the India-U.S. Financial and Economic Forum will take place on Tuesday, October 1, 2002 at the Treasury Department.  The objective of this meeting is to encourage discussion between senior U.S. and Indian policymakers on how to embrace economic policies that will increase growth and productivity and deepen U.S.-India cooperation in a number of areas. 

Assistant Secretary Randy Quarles and Federal Reserve Governor Donald Kohn will lead discussions on recent U.S. fiscal policies, financial sector developments and U.S. initiatives to combat terrorist financing.  Secretary for Economic Affairs S. Narayan from the Indian Ministry of Finance and Deputy Governor Muniappan from the Reserve Bank of India will lead the discussion on developments in the Indian economy and recent policy initiatives in the areas of fiscal policies, banking and capital market developments.  Finally, both sides will review global efforts to combat terrorist financing.

Today’s discussion will also lay the foundation for the Cabinet-level meeting under the India-U.S. Financial and Economic Forum, which is expected to take place later this year.  This meeting is part of the overall U.S.-India Economic Dialogue which was expanded in November 2001 by President Bush and Prime Minister Vajpayee.  The last sub-Cabinet meeting took place in June 2000.

The meetings will begin at 9:30AM and conclude at 3:45PM; a press conference will follow at 4:00PM.

US Participants: Treasury, Federal Reserve, SEC, OCC

India Participants: Ministry of Finance, Reserve Bank of and the Securities Exchange

Board of India