NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged top executives of some of the world’s largest food makers and sellers, including Nestle GlaxoSmithKline , The Hershey Company, Amazon and Walmart to have at least one global board meeting in India in 2018 so they get a sense of what the country is all about and the changes that are taking place.Comments made by the executives point to new hope, interest and enthusiasm in the country, Modi said at a meeting on Friday that lasted over an hour with heads of more than 25 global and Indian companies as part of the World Food India event.He said work on food processing had been limited, not done at the national level and the country needed to create wealth from waste. “The impact of consumerism is most with the middle class, there is huge opportunity with the middle class,” he said.The PM said the head of Nestle, the world’s largest packaged foods maker, had spoken about food safety and food security. He cited midday meals in schools and sought suggestions on how more nutritious products can be provided in packaged form.Three persons directly involved with the meeting confirmed the comments. There was no response to a detailed email query sent to the Prime Minister’s Office.The PM referred to the comments by diversified conglomerate ITC’s CEO Sanjiv Puri on the welfare of farmers. Modi said he wants to reduce agricultural input costs and reduce harvest wastage, as both will improve farmers’ livelihoods.He also pointed to Tata International managing director and Trent chairman Noel Tata’s suggestion on a food processing policy and said the government was working on it.On the goods and services tax (GST), he said it marked a shift from an old system to a new one, and when such a big change was made, it was not possible to think through every issue and scenario.Welcoming feedback on improving GST, parts of which have already been tweaked, he said the government is working on all suggestions. He also added that the objective of GST is not to improve revenue. That was a secondary priority after streamlining tax, he said.The meeting was attended by food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, GSK Consumer’s global CEO Brian McNamara, and Nestle’s global chairman Paul Bulcke. PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Mondelez were represented by the CEOs of local units.Top executives of Amazon India, ITC, Trent, Walmart, Amway, Britannia, Cargill, Hershey, Metro Cash & Carry and McCain were present. Also attending were executives of Danfoss, Future Group, Ise Foods, Kikkoman, LuLu Group, OSI Group, Sealed Air, Sharaf Group, Spar International and The Wain Celestial Group.The PM said the government was considering suggestions on imposing lower GST on nutraceuticals, aerated water and aerated juices. While Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have sought lower taxes on beverages, direct-seller Amway and other nutraceutical makers have asked for a reversal of the hike in GST from 28% to 12%.Modi urged companies to consider packaging and exporting herbal products, and added that the government is looking at a treaty with the EU for food product exports from India. He urged companies to think of exporting Indian products that are tasty, nutritious and have medicinal value.He said food security and food wastage were critical, adding that wastage was as much as 30% between the stage of production and consumption.The November 3-5 World Food India event saw foods giants announcing MoUs for investments amounting to $10.24 billion in manufacturing, infrastructure, food processing, retail, exports and financing.