Governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley on Friday said United States companies are "nervous" about investing in India, because a "powerful" official system and the need to “know someone” in the government were absolute prerequisites to do business in the country, reported The Indian Express. India ranks 139 in the World Bank list of 189 countries, graded on the basis of ease of doing business.

“Firms who want to do business in India very much realise that in India you have to know people to get things done. That is scary for them. That is scary for the fact that the government is much more powerful than it is here [in the US]. Here, we are servants. In India, governments are very strong and you have to know someone in the government to be able to be successful in business and that makes American companies nervous,” the Republican party member said.

Her statement comes only days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US, scheduled for June 7. “It is not for him [Modi] to just come here and say he is an ally… I think a lot of people want to know what he is doing to really spur business between the two countries,” Haley said about Modi's upcoming US trip.