About the U.S. India SME Council
We were founded in 2017 on a simple observation: the U.S.–India relationship was being built by very large companies, and almost nobody was building it for everyone else.
Who we serve
We are deliberately not for everyone. Here is exactly who we are built for — and what changes for you if you join.
Three groups get the most out of the Council, and everything we build is designed around them: U.S. small and mid-sized businesses, Indian companies entering the United States, and governments, agencies and institutions. See who we serve
Leadership & Board
The Council is led by founders and executives who have built businesses in both countries — and by public servants who know how the doors open.
Executive Committee
Board of Directors
We are always interested in leaders who have built across both markets.
What we are for
We open access, build capability and create opportunity for small and mid-sized businesses across the United States and India. We do it by connecting our members to government buyers and state governments, by equipping them with the training and partnerships they need to compete, and by advocating for policies that let smaller firms trade across borders on fair terms.
A U.S.–India economic relationship in which a company of fifty people has the same access to opportunity as a company of fifty thousand.
A meeting is not a result. We measure ourselves in contracts signed, markets entered and capability built — not in photographs taken.
We are not an American organisation looking at India, nor an Indian organisation looking at America. We were founded in Hyderabad, headquartered in Washington, and we keep offices in both. Neither side is the guest.
Every programme we design is tested against one question: would this work for a company of forty people with no government affairs function? If not, we redesign it.
Why we exist
In November 2017, a group of Indian American business owners met in Hyderabad with a shared frustration. The United States and India were signing agreements and announcing partnerships worth billions — meanwhile the companies they actually ran, twenty people, eighty people, three hundred people, could not get a meeting with a state procurement officer or find a distributor in Chennai.
The large corporations already had advocates. The startups had accelerators. The businesses in between — the ones employing most of the people and doing most of the work — had nobody. So they built the U.S. India SME Council.
Today the Council operates from Washington, DC, Ashburn, Virginia and Hyderabad. We have delivered more than thirty programmes since 2020 — federal procurement briefings, state-to-state business matchmaking, sector roundtables, trade missions to New Delhi, and five editions of our Incredible Inc. 50 Awards across two continents.
“Large corporations have their own advocates. We exist for the businesses that do not.”
Milestones
Founded in Hyderabad, headquartered in Washington, DC
MoU signed with the Government of Tamil Nadu
State-to-state programmes launched: Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Virginia & Indiana
Partnerships formed with ESC India and the University of Maryland Smith School
First Incredible Inc. 50 Awards launched
Trade mission to IndiaSoft, New Delhi; fifth Incredible Inc. 50 Awards
Governance and compliance
We operate with transparency, accountability, and the highest standards of governance.
Our Board of Directors, chaired by Sudhakar Gande and led operationally by President & CEO Elisha B. Pulivarti, provides strategic oversight and governance.
We adhere to all legal requirements and best practices, including our conflict of interest, code of conduct, anti-discrimination, data protection and privacy, and whistleblower policies.
There is no membership fee. The Council is funded through its programmes, events, and corporate and institutional sponsorship.