Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga elected New Chairman of the US-India Business Council (USIBC)

Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga was on 15 April 2012 elected next chairman of the US-India Business Council (USIBC). USIBC is a trade association made of 350 top American and Indian companies. Banga succeeded Terry McGraw III, president, chairman, and CEO of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

Banga had become the president and CEO of global payments and technology company, Mastercard in July. Banga currently serves on the board of Kraft Foods and is a member of such prestigious groups as the Council on Foreign Relations, the Business Roundtable, and the Foreign Policy Association.

Banga's business experience in India and his global business acumen and leadership is expected to prove extremely helpful as we move forward to realise the full potential of closer US-India relations.

USIBC is a leading advocacy group for US and Indian business and trade ties set up at the behest of the two governments, and counts 350 leading companies as members. Trade between India and the US had stood at $57.79 billion in 2011, growing manifold from the modest $5.6 billion in 1990.

However in the recent past certain niggling disputes with respect to trade between the countries surfaced. India was to complain to the World Trade Organisation against the US visa system that discriminated against its IT workers. A visa fee hike mandated by a 2010 US law doubling it to $4,500 affected Indian companies such as Infosys and Wipro, who together paid and estimated $200 million in extra fees. The US on the other hand went to the WTO complaining against India’s failure to open up with poultry sector to its exports, calling it discriminatory.