india

Updated: Sep 23, 2019 00:35 IST

Union minister Anurag Thakur on Sunday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US and the ‘Howdy, Modi’ event will bring in more investment opportunities for the country.

“Today when PM Modi will address the ‘Howdy, Modi!’ event in Houston, over 50,000 people will be there to hear him. It is going to be a landmark event. President Donald Trump will also share the stage with PM Modi and this clearly shows how powerful our PM is. PM Modi’s popularity strengthens our nation as well,” said Thakur while addressing a rally on the occasion of Maharaja Hari Singh’s birth anniversary in Jammu.

On day one of his US visit, PM Modi, had a roundtable with the CEOs from the US oil and gas sectors and discussed how to harness opportunities in the area to address India’s growing energy needs.

The Prime Minister also witnessed the signing of MoU between US natural gas company Tellurian Inc. and Petronet LNG Limited (PLL) of India after the meeting.

As per the MoU, PLL will invest USD 2.5 billion in Tellurian’s proposed Driftwood LNG export terminal, in exchange for the rights to 5 million metric tons of LNG per year over 40 years. The two companies will endeavour to finalise the transaction agreements by March 31, 2020.

The junior minister in the finance ministry, spotlighted Modi’s visit as an opportunity to bring in more investment to the country and said, “India should use this opportunity to take our policies overseas and bring in fresh investments”.

“PM Modi and Trump share a good relationship which has further strengthened the bilateral ties between the two nations. Such strong ties convey a positive message to our nation which will strengthen the scope of trade and investment in our country,” he added.

Earlier this week, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced corporate tax cuts, bringing India on par with peers in Asia and across the globe. India’s statutory rate for corporate tax is 22 per cent now, down from 30 per cent.

It is expected that the Finance Minister’s corporate tax cut will aid Indian companies to compete better globally.