TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – April 26, 2012) - The Government of India plans to invest over US$1 trillion over the next five years to meet the country’s huge infrastructure demands. Over 50 percent of these funds will come from the private sector.

How can Canada get involved in this play? What Canadian products and expertise will be in demand as a result? And how should Canadian businesses and investors position themselves today, in order to benefit in upcoming years?

Join the Canada-India Business Council (C-IBC) & Aspire International Group at the largest gathering of industry leaders, corporate executives, institutional investors, planners and senior government officials on Infrastructure from both Canada and India, at:

“Infrastructure Today – India Opportunity 2012″ at the Westin Harbour Castle, Toronto on Friday May 11^th, 8:00-5:30

The conference will host over 150 participants including some of Canada’s largest pension investors and global infrastructure players, and more than 20 expert speakers, including:

• AK Upadhyay, Secretary, Ministry of Road, Transport & Highways, Government of India
• Dave Saunders, CEO, LEA Group
• Gautam Bhandari, Head, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure (MSI) Asia
• Luis Miranda, Former Chairman, IDFC Private Equity
• Nicholas Parker, Co-founder and Executive Chair, Cleantech Group
• Shahzaad Dalal, VC & MD, IL&FS Investment Managers
• Stephen Beatty, Head, Global Infrastructure (Americas), KPMG

Through a series of short presentations and expert panels, the group will analyze key issues and evolve strategies for Canadian investors and exporters. The sessions will cover urban infrastructure, transport & logistics, India’s energy needs, the policy and regulatory environment and recent developments in Indian infrastructure finance.

“The current Indian infrastructure investment and business environment is more attractive than ever, with a proven track record of success stories. Canada fulfills two prime needs: finance and technology-enriched with experience” said Pratap Padode, MD of Aspire International Group.

“Whether it’s engineering expertise, design and implementation, intelligent transport systems, green energy or a roster of leading institutional investors, Canada is well positioned to grow alongside India-if we start now and work collectively,” added Rana Sarkar, President & CEO of the Canada-India Business Council.

For more details on the agenda, speakers, sponsorship opportunities, ticket prices and registration please visit the C-IBC website at: http://canada-indiabusiness.ca/2012/05/infrastructure-today-india-opportunity-2012/.

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Economic momentum is only part of the story.

India’s growth is driven and secured in large part by its demographics. The middle class has grown to 274 million and could hit 600 million by 2020.

Canadian business and industry are beginning to realize that despite perceived difficulties, it is riskier for them to ignore emerging markets than it is to work with them.
The challenge for Canada however, is that it’s increasingly difficult to get India’s attention.

Canada is just one of many countries striving to make inroads in this rapidly emerging market. While we can claim some success (exports have doubled in recent years) Canada’s market share has fallen.

This is not from lack of effort.

The federal government is working to facilitate trade by negotiating an Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), as well as other as business related accords including a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPPA), and a Social Security Agreement to enable workers to move more easily between the two countries.
But despite the lure of our natural resources and skilled workforce, Canada is still a long way from achieving the ambitious target of reaching $15 billion in trade with India by 2015.

Where are we going wrong?

There is admittedly no single answer, but a strong start would be for Canadian industry and government to increase its focus on what India wants rather than what we think India needs. Shared values and zealous marketing will not get us where we want to be. We need to think more fundamentally about how to raise Canada’s value as a business partner.

Increasing Canadian competitiveness would be a start. A competitive economy attracts direct foreign investment, and spawns competitive companies, but at the moment Canada is losing ground. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report, Canada has dropped out of the top ten, slipping to 12th place from ninth in two years.

As the report notes, Canada needs to focus on improving productivity, innovation, and integration into global supply chains. Our low score on innovation is particularly troubling. “Frugal innovation” is a mantra in India, and Indian companies are looking for foreign partners who can offer a better mousetrap.
The Conference Board ranks Canada 14th out of 17 developed OECD countries on innovation. Lower spending on research and development, especially by businesses, is a factor, but our biggest shortcoming is failure to commercialize new technologies.

Better market access and high level commitment are two other prerequisites for success. This means a welcoming, and transparent foreign investment policy, as well as world class infrastructure to move goods across the country, and overseas. Sustained corporate and political engagement at the top level is required to show Canada is serious about winning a bigger share of India’s burgeoning market.

Addressing what can be done in Canada to improve competitiveness, innovation, investment policy, access, and engagement will raise our standing as a preferred business partner for India, China and other emerging markets that today account for the lion’s share of global growth.

By:Peter Sutherland
Senior Business Adviser, Aird & Berlis

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Some, he says, are drawn by the shift in global supply chains, but for the majority, the primary motivation is in the “incredible opportunity in India’s domestic market and in partnering with Indian firms to sell into third markets.”  Meanwhile, says the C-IBC’s Peter Sutherland, there’s no question of India’s economic ascendency. “The country’s youthful population, burgeoning middle class, open economy and entrepreneurial spirit ensure that it will happen.”

India’s challenges—electrical blackouts, shortages of resources, infrastructure, finance, food security and education—are actually opportunities for Canadians. We have expertise in those areas and India wants to business with us. But until now, Sutherland says, “Canadian companies have been dazzled by the prospects, but deterred by the known unknowns. Governments have done their part to smooth the way by opening doors, removing impediments and mitigating risk. The onus is now on the private sector to take the initiative,”

Happily Canada’s interest in India is bearing fruit. The following nine portraits, produced in association with the C-IBC, describe just nine of hundreds of Canadian companies operating in India, a demonstration of the vast range of endeavours, and opportunities and success.

CUBEX

When Winnipeg’s Cubex Ltd. supplied its first production drill to a Crown corporation in India in 1985, the infamous “licence raj” still presided over that nation’s economy. Notorious for its cumbersome business regulations, India had a largely closed economy where Canadian exports had a difficult time of it.

And yet, 27 years later, Cubex has remained in India, benefitting from the business-climate improvements that began in 1991. Cubex has manufacturing plants in Winnipeg, Calgary, Montreal and Thomson, Man. To date it has supplied seven drills and its business continues to grow through a global alliance partner, Sandwich Mining Cop. of Sweden.

Hemant Shah, a Cubex employee experienced in India warns that “Canadian businesses looking to India should be ready for the fact that success is not going to happen overnight. They must have patience and they have to take time.” Shah advises companies should devote one to two years developing their presence there. “A couple of trips will not cut it,” he says. “You have to be committed. The big companies like Bombardier, they were there when I first started going in 1980.”

Shah says that Canadian companies have to earn the trust of their Indian partners and he likens business relationships to dating. “I go on one, two, three dates with someone. Then on the fourth date, maybe I say, ‘Okay, we’re going to get engaged.’ So I give an engagement ring. And then after the fifth or sixth date, there’s a wedding. That’s how you can look at it.”

“On the first or second trip to your joint-venture partner or a private corporation, they’re not going to invite you into their home. On the third trip, when you’ve got into their good books, earned trust, shown your credibility, they will invite you home with the family for dinner. And that’s your first success. It’s a process, and Canadian businesses have to understand it.”

Ray Newal, co-founder of Jigsee Inc.

JIGSEE

Ray Newal was inspired to start his technology company, Jigsee Inc., after backpacking through rural India, where he noticed “the phone was much more than just a communication tool for the younger population. It was a television, it was a tool for self-expression. It was becoming a virtual ATM.”

Thus was born Jigsee, which enables video streaming for the mass market in BRIC countries by including compatibility with older model cellphones and shaky networks. Long commutes on public transit, says the 35-year-old entrepreneur, means “these people had a lot more downtime, and they’re never home and they’re never surrounded by TVs and broadband.”

India, he says, where mobile subscribers number 800 million but only a privileged few have BlackBerrys and iPhones, looked like the perfect beachhead market.  The mission according to Newal is to “democratize” access to video content.

Newal’s chief technology officer, Areef Reza, says Jigsee’s software is written in the internationally recognized Java programming language and can work on most phones with basic Java and programming support. Uniquely, it allows for consumers to stream high-quality video with the most basic, entry-level cellphones. Eventually, Newal says, Jigsee will turn a profit as it begins to leverage its platform as a digital marketing channel, enabling advertisers to connect with the mass-market in India.

Working in India, Newal says, always comes with cultural differences and provides surprises. To avoid getting lost in cross-cultural miscommunication, he hired Indian managers who had experience working with foreign companies and would be able to act as intermediaries between himself and the workforce. Jigsee currently has 25 employees based in both India and Canada.

Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images

TARASPAN

While a lot is said about the success of large Canadian companies in the India market, Canadian SMEs are also getting in on the Indian opportunity. TaraSpan Inc. is a market-entry consultancy that helps smaller firms, particularly in technology sectors, to get in on India.

To succeed in the India market, TaraSpan’s principals say, you need to have a commitment to the market, with local presence and patience.  You need to have a willingness to adapt to the market.  What makes your product compelling in North America might not apply in India, especially at a point in India’s evolution where bottom-of-the-pyramid sales are strongest—selling stripped-down goods with low price points to reach lower income Indians.

Headquartered in Kanata, Ontario, TaraSpan opened for business in India in December 2007 with four employees.  Today it has 150 there in two divisions, performing sales and marketing, business development, software engineering and support services to some of Canada’s leading technology companies, of all sizes.

Mike Manson, CEO and co-founder, TaraSpan Inc. says that neophyte Canadian firms may be intimidated by India at first. “To adapt to the market you need to have three P’s—presence, persistence and patience,” he says. “To navigate the local environment it is imperative to have local managers who know the business customs, local regulations and a strength in human resource management.”

XMG

Ray Sharma is just starting out in India. He’s the CEO and founder of XMG Studio Inc., a mobile gaming developer in Toronto which has scored hits with such apps as Totally Amp’d and Cows vs Aliens. Now he’s been talking to a studios in India. He says that XMG’s strategy will involve partnering with local games developers, leveraging his firm’s expertise in the iOS and Android platforms in exchange for local expertise in India’s most popular smartphones.

Once he achieves a positive return on investment, Sharma says, XMG will be in a position to scale up with a more product roll-outs and a PR campaign. Local content, avidly consumed by Indians, will help extend XMG’s range of apps. “Through this bootstrap process,” he says, “we slowly build awareness of XMG. Partnering with content we can give games for free as a Trojan horse that sells music and other digital content.”

Ultimately, Sharma hopes to build games expressly for the Indian market. He plans that by mid-2013 the Indian smartphone market will have reached a mass equivalent to the one in the United States. “Combine this with brand and local-market experience,” he says, and we hope to have the right things in place so that XMG India will come a specialized unit that serves as a beachhead for Indonesia, the “’stans” and Africa.”

HATCH

For the Mississauga, Ontario engineering, business and process-consulting and construction giant, Hatch, India has been about more than securing local contracts. It has also been about fostering an important source of talent that can be used throughout its 65-office global operations.

Hatch has been in India for more than 15 years—its first office was in Guargon. By December 2011 it was employing 90 people in India. It’s active in iron and steel, iron ore, light metals and water-management sectors for both local India firms as well as multinationals doing business in India.

To develop local expertise Hatch parachutes experienced global specialists to teach them while working along side them. Local staff learn about client service, business savvy and technical matters. In turn, Indian staff support global projects, and they develop relationships with counterparts in other countries. The result, says Hatch India’s director Mick Camilleri, is a consistent level of quality in India and worldwide.

“We take a lot of pride in developing the next generation of Hatch leaders,” Camilleri says. “These are not just senior people, but staff at all levels. We invest in just as much time recruiting junior-level staff from universities as we do identifying industry leaders for senior positions.”

SUN LIFE FINANCIAL

Sun Life is no stranger to global trade. By the end of the 19^th Century the then-Montreal-based insurance company operated in seven countries or territories, including India. In the 1950s it withdrew from that country when insurance assets were nationalized. But by 1999 it returned, forming a joint venture with the locally owned Aditya Birla Group.

Aditya Group is a major Indian conglomerate with a scale that matches Sun Life’s ambitions for India. Today Birla Sun Life sells mutual funds, life insurance and wealth management services through a network of 600 branches and 150,000 sales people, including the two generations of sellers in the photo above.

Sun Life’s experience, which much larger in its scope than most Canadian firms are capable of, nevertheless relies on the same philosophy any company would adopt: capitalizing on local knowledge and deploying its global expertise. While Sun Life, now headquartered in Toronto, has considerable international insurance expertise it still relies on its local partners for an intimate understanding of the Indian consumer.

SNC-LAVALIN

Over the past decade the Montreal construction giant SNC-Lavalin has been building up its presence in India through acquisitions. The firm had been building transportation and energy infrastructure projects. In 2005 it bought RJ Associates in Mumbai, a local engineering firm, to make its presence more permanent. That was followed in 2007 with the purchase of Span Consultants in New Delhi. Today the firm has 1,200 employees in India.

The move was propitious for Canada’s largest engineering and construction company. It was at the start of a massive modernization of India’s infrastructure. Speeding economic growth has put strains on energy and transport and distorted the marketplace (top-loading washing machines outsell front loaders because  during frequent power outages top loaders can function as a manual wash tub).

The New Delhi government is planning on a five-year US$1 trillion infrastructure-building program and while politics has caused fits and starts in construction, SNC is in a good position to bid on projects. It entered the high-end engineering, procurement and construction management business in India when it secured a mandate for Numaligargh Refinery Ltd.’s crude-oil refinery.

SNC also provided engineering work on four hydroelectric generating projects that would  cumulatively produce 10,000 megawatts of power and invested in a 189-km toll road in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

Vikram Gupta, director of business development for SNC and based in Toronto, says that SNC “sees immense potential to expand its current operations through infrastructure concession investments, mergers and acquisitions and organic growth.”

Gupta says that India’s vast human talents and its democratic and legal framework are cornerstones for Indian growth. “It is extremely important to understand decision-making, cultural nuances and the somewhat bureaucratic framework, and  to be patient.”

DATAWIND

Datawind, a provider of wireless Web access products and services, recently created the world’s most inexpensive Tablet, dubbed Aakash (“Sky” in Hindi). Aakash is a $35 Wi-Fi-only product intended for Indian university students, it comes with a data pack and internet access for less than 100 rupees a month, or $2.

With 18 million Indian Internet subscribers and 120 million users, the difference between them is a matter of affordability,” says Suneet Singh Tuli, chief executive of Datawind. “That’s a gap that needs to be addressed. We have a technology that reduces the amount of data required to go on the Internet by 30 times, that’s the core of what we do. We’re able to run [the device] on low-speed networks that are available everywhere and we can afford to buy that bandwidth and sell it at a very low cost.”13

Tuli says that while India may be wryly known as a country where everything does not always work as it truly should, the opportunities it provides are endless. “Canada needs to act globally in these types of markets. Think about it, as more devices go out, providing millions with access to information, more content will be created, imagine what it can do for them.”

TOON BOOM ANIMATION

In early 2000, Toon Boom Animation Inc. began developing the Indian animation industry. Joan Vogelesang, Toon Boom’s CEO, has visited India more than 25 times in the decade that followed and worked closely with a local distributor, meeting with business people, government officials and school representatives every time. Vogelesang’s game plan was to get businesses to invest in a set up and then ramp up production of animated products.

Among the problems to overcome were to change attitudes toward the animation industry by showing its socio-economic value. Toon Boom worked with the Canadian High Commission to India as well as with Export Development Canada. It set up small schools attached to production studios until an official animation curriculum could be put to work.

It also meant revising the educational system. Once a first set-up was in place in the various existing production hubs, Toon Boom worked closely with studios to get them up and running to meet the quality, reliability and punctuality needed by the animation industry. Toon Boom facilitated introductions to North American and European studios, positioning India as the next animation destination.

“Our continued presence in the field was essential to build strong relationships,” says Vogelesang, whose Montreal-based firm won a Business without Borders HSBC International Business Award in 2011. “Our success lies between working hand-in-hand with industry and education, as well as getting government support to facilitate the birth of new businesses.”

Today the Indian animation industry represents a strong, viable sector within the subcontinent and is positioned as a player in the global animation market. More than 100 studios are now operating, hiring thousands of trained employees and constantly requiring more qualified workforce than the educational system can supply. Globally, the Indian animation industry may to grow to $2.9 billion by 2015 from $ 1.8 billion now.

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In today’s business world, it’s riskier for Canadian businesses to give emerging markets a pass than it is to take the leap and get in there.

After a decade of steady, plodding diversification of export markets, the global economic turmoil in developed markets has re-ignited the desire of Canadian companies to tap into emerging markets.

And so whether it was by plan, necessity or desperation, Canadian companies are talking about emerging markets like never before. From a risk mitigation perspective, emerging markets are often hedged from many of the larger economic issues currently plaguing mature markets.

Take the example of India.

India’s economic growth is expected to continue at a sustained level of 8 per cent annually over the next decade.

While economic momentum is part of it, it’s the country’s demographics that are securing this growth.

Over the past two decades, India’s middle class has grown to 274 million, and could hit 600 million by 2020. Over the next ten years, the county is projected to spend $2-trillion on infrastructure.

Domestic demand will continue to fuel both innovation and growth rates — and represent a significant opportunity for Canadian companies. Bombardier and Research In Motion are just two companies that have incorporated these opportunities into their global strategies.

All too often, we assume the Canadian-Indian trade story belongs to large companies. But there is still a great deal of room to grow — particularly among Canada’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Canada’s SMEs are essential to Canada’s economic and social welfare, and we need them to lead the charge in India because they account for 45 per cent of GDP, 60 per cent of economic growth and 75 per cent of net employment growth.

And yet, a recent C-suite survey by KPMG found that 60 per cent of Canadian companies have no emerging market strategy, although the awareness and desire to enter these markets exists.

Even with the desire and the ability, many SMEs tell us that the prospect of entering emerging markets such as India can seem overwhelming. Well aware of the opportunities, they are concerned with issues of corruption, culture, distance and bureaucracy.

The good news is that there are many organizations committed to building the supportive and connective infrastructure needed to overcome these hurdles.

Export Development Canada (EDC) has developed a detailed India Strategy aimed at raising awareness, harnessing key opportunities and mitigating risks in the marketplace. Canadian companies investing in India through EDC have increased almost fivefold during the past five years.

In November, EDC partnered with the Canada-India Business Council (C-IBC) for the first annual Canada-India Business Forum in Mumbai. The Forum, which brought together more than 150 executives and government officials from both countries, is a business-focused platform to share knowledge, build relationships and deepen conversations on key business opportunities across a number of sectors.

It’s true that Canadian companies looking to tap into this promising market face unique economic, political and operational risks. Yet, for most of those currently operating in India, the risks are manageable.

There is an ever growing roster of resources and tools here to help, but the next step is for a greater number of Canadian companies to overcome the mental hurdle of getting in and using them.

And with free-trade negotiations between Canada and India set to conclude in 2013, bilateral trade flows are on course for a period of significant and sustained growth.

For Canadian companies, particularly SMEs, the time to get into India is now.

Rana Sarkar is the President & CEO of the Canada-India Business Council.

Stephen Poloz, President & CEO of Export Development Canada.

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“With 1.2 billion consumers, India is a country where there are tremendous opportunities for Canadian businesses of all sizes,” said Minister of International Trade Ed Fast.

Rana Sarkar, President and CEO, Canada-India Business Council (C-IBC), further explaining the scope of Canadian businesses in a larger perspective said, “India’s big markets of scale offer stable growth in our lifetime, adding millions to the middle class every month and will bring billions of people into cities and into the global economy within the next decade. They are building infrastructure in years that it took centuries to build elsewhere. India is particularly interesting for Canadians because it is growing at 8 to 10 per cent a year largely off the back of domestic consumer demand- not the government.”

With a booming economy, and a demand for trade, India is now in the eyes of Canadian consumer industries. This was not the case even a decade ago, simply because “India wasn’t there yet, and, more importantly, you could get faster returns in less complex markets closer to home. Even then there were trailblazers, such as Sun Life, Bombardier, Scotiabank and the EDC, who have been established in India for decades. Law firms like Bennett Jones, Torys and Heenan Blaikie have spent years building A-grade networks and are now key connectors. But in recent months we’re seeing a dramatic uptick in interest. Cameco, AECL and the rest of the nuclear supply chain are moving into the market now that we have the nuclear agreement in place. In technology, RIM and Open Text are becoming key players. Brookfield, the CPP and CDP have all made investments, and BMO has established a strong India Practice,” added Sarkar.

Me’shel Gulliver Bélanger, spokeswoman for International Trade Canada, while expanding on the trade figures between the two countries, said, “Canadian merchandize exports to India have increased by 92.2% since 2005, reaching nearly to 2.1 billion in 2010. In 2010, the stock of two-way direction investment was over $7 billion.”

The experiences of those companies that have started engaging in business with India have been very good, according to Amardeep Gill, CMA manger, International relations at the BC Premier’s office. “English is widely spoken as India used to be a British colony like Canada was. Some of the ways of doing business are different here so companies have a little bit of a learning curve, but the experience is more or less positive,” said Gill.

With many Canadian provinces striving to develop their own initiatives with India, do B.C. businesses stand a chance to carve their own niche in the Indian market? Contrary to the fact that increasing number of technology, trade, innovation, higher education, and research initiatives have been signed between India and B.C., the trade volumes between the province and B.C. are not very high as compared to other provinces.

According to 2010 Stats B.C., over 75 per cent of Canadian exports to India originate in Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec while B.C. only accounts for seven per cent ($135 million).
But efforts are on to increase the scope of trade between B.C and India especially the coming years look very promising.

Anita Huberman, CEO Surrey Board of Trade, spoke of an upcoming clean energy workshop at the Globe 2012 conference in Vancouver. The conference will bring 15-20 clean technology businesses from India and pair them up with Canadian clean technology businesses in the hopes of getting a working trade relationship going. Huberman also spoke about the importance of making an on the ground commitment in India. “When we go on trade missions to India, were showing that there are businesses that come with us who have an interest. Canada is seen as more of a visible presence in doing business,” she said.

Though this might be true, there are areas that B.C. companies are lacking in, which could be improved on. Over 83 percent of BC companies are small and medium sized enterprises (SME). A key issue for these SMEs is having the appropriate support to alleviate any uncertainties on where to start and any misperceptions that they can’t do business globally if they aren’t a large business.

Although not for profit organizations like the Surrey Board of trade may be a simpler medium to do this through, the government needs to pay more attention as well, especially in regards to financial support. SME budgets are constrained by a lack of financial resources. They will not be able to forge on the ground commitments in India if they lack the money and time to travel. “Canada as a whole has to adopt a very robust strategy to help SMEs get access to market; they need more information and travel funding for companies”, said Gill. To play the trade game, BC additionally needs to tap into sectors that have potential to grow further.

Seeing that agriculture is a third of surreys land base, it would be appropriate to consider in combination with clean energy as sustainable food crops become increasingly important. Film has a lot of potential too; it makes sense for BC to focus on because we have a large Indian Diaspora. We have to leverage on the connections we already have.

(Angela Bower and Fatimah Nahar are SFU students and part of B.C.-India Initiative project)
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But what clinched the expansion plans was that one of the engineers in Energy Advantage’s Burlington, Ontario, headquarters is originally from India. He had gone to university with Pankaj Gupta, who lives in India and had managed another international energy company’s operations there and in Dubai. Realizing the advantage of having a trusted and capable person on the ground, Energy Advantage snapped up Gupta as a vice-president to launch its new Hyderabad office in 2011.

“We were lucky we were able to make the connection,” says Kirkby. “For us, the diaspora has been a gold mine since there are so many expats here.”

Indeed. Out of Canada’s population of 34 million, there are about a million Indo-Canadians—the largest per-capita Indian diaspora in the world, beating out the U.S., Australia and even the U.K. But while the populations of India and Canada are intimately intertwined, our economies are not. In 2008, Australian trade with India was triple Canada’s, even though Australia’s economy is 50% smaller than ours. In 2010, Canada’s total trade with India—a country with which we share a common British colonial history that has shaped our legal systems, political systems and dominant language—was $4.2 billion. The same year, our total trade with China—a country with which we share none of these things—was $57.8 billion.

“For the better part of the relationship, there’s been very little interest in India,” says Ryan Touhey, director of the newly established Chanchlani India Policy Centre at the University of Waterloo. ”For a long time, if you saw a headline about India, it usually brought trepidation in terms of trade.” On everything from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty to the Cold War to human rights, Canada and India frequently found themselves on opposing sides, despite the connections on the micro level.

What’s changed is the rapid growth of India’s economy, expected to quadruple by 2020. Hundreds of millions of its 1.2-billion population will be lifted out of poverty, increasing demand for natural resources, consumer products, better food production methods and green technologies. Canadian companies are increasingly realizing that the Indo-Canadian cultural connection can help them stand out from the stampede of other countries eager to do business in the new India.

“We need to understand how much knowledge the Canadian diaspora has. They have a social and safety network that can give us an advantage,” says Aditya Jha, a Mississauga, Ont. entrepreneur and chairman of the POA Educational Foundation.

India’s current boom dates back to 1991, when the government decided to end what was called the “Licence Raj,” which restricted imports and foreign investment in order to nurture national industries. The liberalization process has been transformative but also piecemeal and gradual; late in 2010 the government decided to allow 51% foreign ownership of multi-brand retail stores, opening the door to global players like Walmart, Tesco and Carrefour, then backed away from the move.

“The biggest change I’ve noticed in the last 20 years is the number of cars,” says Peter Sutherland, vice chairman of the Canada-India Business Council, senior advisor on Asia at the law firm of Aird & Berlis LLP and formerly Canada’s High Commissioner to India. “There’s been so much middle-class growth, the highways can’t be improved fast enough to handle all the vehicles. That said, the rural sector has not changed that much.”

India’s still not an easy place to do business. As the world’s biggest democracy, the need for debate and political consensus slows things down compared to India’s main trade rival, China. In addition to the famed complexity of its various government bureaucracies, corruption can bring projects to a standstill. There has been progress. Publicity around recent scandals has made the Indian public less tolerant of corruption. In 2011, the national government moved to beef up enforcement of the 2005 Right To Information Act, which is meant to shine a light on corrupt officials. They’ve also recognized the need to win the trust of foreign companies.

“The government has started to facilitate overseas business as a separate cell with more streamlining, faster approvals, more monitoring, so it’s something they’re working on,” says Satish Thakkar, president of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce.

Once a company has found its way through the red tape, there’s India’s unique consumer culture to grapple with. Although the country’s middle class now numbers more than 200 million people, it’s not the Canadian middle class. Only the upper end can consume at Canadian levels,” says Anoop Madhok, professor of strategy at York University’s Schulich School of Business. “To make North American-oriented products for India will only take you so far.”

For example, although more Indians can afford designer clothing, those earning top incomes might prefer to fly to New York or Paris to buy them. Successful products need to recognize India’s unique Hindu-majority culture, its still-low incomes and strained infrastructure. For example, portable MRI machines that can take a beating on rough roads, single-usage packaging for shampoo or detergent, cell phones equipped with flashlights in case of power outages or minivans where the seat reclines completely so the driver can live full or part-time in the vehicle—all are India-specific innovations.

“If you’re manufacturing mousetraps, I wouldn’t waste your time in India,” says Sutherland. “Straight commodities they can do as well as we can, and cheaper. They can produce their own widgets. Maybe they’re looking for technology to make better widgets.”

New Brunswick-based McCain Foods, which now supplies all the French fries for McDonald’s in the subcontinent, is an oft-cited example of how to do India right. Despite India’s large agricultural sector, India is a net importer of food, which struggles with notoriously wasteful distribution systems. McCain spent more than four years test-growing potatoes in different regions of India to get the results they wanted and working with various players to develop a frozen-food distribution system. Their Indian product line—most of which is produced at an Indian-managed, Indian-operated plant in Gujurat state—uses traditional spices and employs easily available cooking techniques. Products like McCain’s Aloo Tikki Chaat are sold as “ethnic snacks” to Thailand, Malaysia, the UK, the Middle East and South Africa.

Brand Canada remains murky for most Indians. It’s seen as a nice place to live, not a place that’s an obvious source of, for example, green and clean technology. Indo-Canadians tend not to speak with a unified voice, partly because they’ve come in small numbers over a long period of time from very diverse regions. Touhey points out that in 2007-2008, the federal government spent all of $50,000 to promote Canada in India. Jha has seen progress in the last few years, with more trade missions, and more political visits focussing on the relationship between the two countries rather than domestic politics. Compared to fellow BRIC giant, China, Jha insists India remains the more dynamic option.

“Sure, China is more predictable. China can be dangerously predictable,” says Jha. “India is the more entrepreneurial place.”

The basics

Stereotypes do a poor job of capturing India. Although there are 30 languages spoken by more than one million speakers (and more besides that), it’s also relatively easy to do business in English. While India’s 28 states can vary as much as 28 unique countries, the world’s biggest democracy also has a strong national identity. As much as 41% of the country’s 1.2-billion people live on less than US$1.25 a day, but about 200-million people are considered to be middle class consumers—five or six times the entire population of Canada. By 2025, rising incomes are expected to create a middle class of 583 million people.

The country’s rapid rate of growth in the last decade— averaging about 7% since 1997—can be attributed, in part, to economic liberalization efforts begun in 1991. Before that, what is called the Licence Raj of protectionist policies and high tariffs created a wall between India and the rest of the world. Foreign companies faced big hurdles, though Canada’s Bata, the Bank of Nova Scotia and Sun Life Financial were early entrants, beating even Coca-Cola to the Indian market. The government has since reduced tariffs and interest rates, ended many public monopolies and allowed increased foreign direct investment in a variety of sectors.

Canada has more Indian diaspora per capita than any other country, though this has not always translated into an intimate relationship between the two countries. Distance is a key factor. From either Vancouver or Toronto, it takes at least 12 hours to get to Mumbai or New Delhi. The substantial time difference—10 and a half hours from Toronto, 13 and a half from Vancouver—is mitigated in some sectors by India’s strength in BPO (business processes outsourcing), which means that many offices operate according to North American and European clocks, rather than local time. Erasing regional accents is another Indian speciality.

With 12.5-million people, Mumbai is India’s largest city and economic engine—the New York City of the subcontinent. The capital, New Delhi, is home to about 11 million people and rivals Mumbai as an international and national transportation hub. India’s current boom is most obvious, though, in regional centres like Bangalore (8.5 million people, the country’s Silicon Valley and call-centre cluster), Hyderabad (6.8 million people and a growing technology centre) and the state of Gujarat (more than 60 million people and considered to have some of the most pro-business policies in the subcontinent). Outside industrial and cultural centres, the standard of living and quality of infrastructure drops dramatically.

The country’s GDP was estimated to be US$4.06 trillion in 2010, ranking it number five globally (Canada’s in that year was US$1.33 trillion). Per capita, India drops to 163th place, with a GDP of $3,500. Its Gini index, which measures social economic equality, was 36.8 in 2004, according to the CIA World Handbook, compared to Canada’s more equitable 32.1, measured in 2005.

India’s currency is called the rupee and bears the ISO 4217/SWIFT CODE of INR. One Canadian dollar was worth about 50.1183 rupees in the fourth quarter of 2011. Officially, the Indian rupee has a market-determined exchange rate but it is actually a de facto controlled exchange rate tied to the US dollar. Foreign nationals are forbidden from importing or exporting rupees. Indian nationals can import and export up to 5,000 rupees at a time.

Demographics

The primary tongue of 41% of the population, Hindi is the most widely spoken language. With 14 other official languages (Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi and Sanskrit), English enjoys the status of subsidiary official language for interstate and international business.

The nation’s median age is 26.2 years. In terms of literacy, 73.4% of males can read and write; 47.8% of females can. About 52% of its 478.3 million-strong labour force is devoted to agriculture, while 34% work in services and 14% in industry.

Hindus make up 80.5% of the population, Muslims 13.4%, Christians 2.3% and Sikhs 1.9%. (By contrast, according to 2001 statistics, 34% of Indo-Canadians are Sikh, 27% Hindus, 17% Muslims and 16% Christians.)

Canada-India trade

Considering India’s size, the shared Commonwealth history and the Indo-Canadian immigrant connection, Canada’s trade numbers with India are strikingly small. Bilateral merchandise trade between Canada and India totalled approximately CDN$4.2 billion in 2010. Although that represents an increase of 46.6% since 2005, it is less than one-tenth of the trade Canada does with China. In 2008, India was Canada’s 16th merchandise trade partner; Canada ranked 30th for India. In 2009, the prime ministers of Canada and India set a combined annual trade target of CDN$15 billion to be reached by 2015.

Canada and India initiated negotiations toward a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in 2010. The second round of negotiations concluded in July 2011. Canada’s goal is to have an agreement by 2013.

In 2010, Canadian exports made up $2.12 billion of the $4.2-billion trade relationship. Of the $3.57 billion in direct investment between the two countries, Indian investment in Canada, at $2.97 billion, far outstripped the reverse. In 2010, Canada’s top exports to India were potassium chloride (15.68%), dried and shelled peas (14.44%), newsprint (13.95%), wood pulp (5.37%), dried and shelled lentils (5.36%) and unwrought gold (3.99%). Top imports to Canada from India were much more diversified, with diamonds (4.56%), organic heterocyclic compounds (4.26%), jewellry composed of precious metals other than silver (3.77%), measured-dose medication (2.92%), petroleum oils (2.37%) and rice (2.11%) at the top of the list.

Tariffs and Customs

Although India has liberalized its economy dramatically in the past 20 years, it still has an array of tariff and custom duties; DVDs, CDs, video cameras, medication and sunglasses, for example, are taxed at 26.849%, while imported books are tax-free. The Central Board of Excise and Customs is a clearinghouse for these policies. Interstate trade is also subject to taxes and tariffs. Sudden policy changes are not unusual. In 2009, as a response to the global financial crisis, India initiated 42 trade restriction measures to check imports in order to protect domestic industry.

India is a member of the World Trade Organization, the United Nations, the Commonwealth and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

In 2005, the Indian government passed the Special Economic Zone Act, which has spawned several hundred SEZs across the country, offering a variety of tax and tariff reductions and, in some cases, fast-tracking of imports and exports. Any part of India that is not inside an SEZ is referred to as a Domestic Tariff Area (DTA).

Immigration

Foreign Affairs and International Trade’s most recent travel advisory on India recommends a high degree of caution.

All foreign nationals require a visa to visit India. Since July 2011, these visas are obtained by filling out an online form, which should be printed and taken to the closest office of outsourcing agent VFS Global for processing. Tourist visas, which cost $62 plus a VFS processing fee, usually max out at six months, though they can be renewed for another six months. Business visas can cover a visit of one year or more. For business visas, a letter from the applicant’s company or organization in Canada is required, as well as an invitation letter from an Indian partner indicating the nature of applicant’s business, probable duration of stay and a list of the places and firms to be visited in India. There is a range of visa fees (usually C$183 for a one-year business visa, C$306 for five years) and a processing fee paid to VFS Global.

Business Etiquette

As with much of the non-Anglo Saxon world, building relationships is very important. Indians prefer to conduct business with people they know through long-standing friendships. You can build short-term credibility through introductions via someone your counterpart already trusts but do no scrimp on demonstrating you are in India for the long term and that you wish to play by Indian rules.

Like the Chinese and Japanese, Indians prefer to avoid American-style confrontation during negotiations. Watch for more subtle indicators of disagreement. Decisions can be slow and only get made by the highest authorities in an organization. However frustrating this may be, don’t show your temper; you will only appear inept and lacking in self-control, and don’t disagree with in public with members of your team—dissent appears as disarray. Expect concessions to be made on both sides and don’t rely on technicalities. Indians don’t trust legalities as much they do someone’s word.

Men should wear conservative business suits and Western women will want similarly conservative business attire. Because Indians respect titles if you have a university degree be sure to indicate it on your business cards. Always shake hands with the right, the so-called clean hand.

THE PRIVATE SIDE OF BUSINESS IN INDIA

Overview

India’s vast size, the startling gap between the rich and the poor and its unique and diverse cultural composition makes the country both intriguing and infuriating for visitors. Though the private sector has boomed in the last two decades, federal and state government services frequently have not kept pace; with some exceptions, India’s infrastructure lags behind that of its main BRIC rival, China. Electricity blackouts or water shortages can be a part of everyday life. Still, for many foreigners earning at Western salary levels, the affordability of domestic servants, domestically sourced food and consumer products, as well as luxurious accommodations, can balance out the inconveniences.

Historic megacities like Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta) have been home to expat populations dating back to before the British Raj. Canadians seeking familiar products, food, cultural groups and traditions (high tea, for example) are likely to find them in these established expat spots, though often with an Indian twist. Cities that have been dramatically shaped by more recent growth—like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad—often make up what they lack in historic expat amenities with modern facilities and a more globalized culture. Life in rural areas can be rough. Signage is usually bilingual or even trilingual, almost always including English. Outside major centres, English is not as widely spoken, even when it’s used on signs and formal documents.

Until the mid-1990s, protectionist policies made foreign products scarce and expensive. Gillette razors, for example, were only for sale on city streets. Now, international brands are everywhere. Men usually wear Western style clothing: suits and ties in business settings, light pants and shorts in casual settings. Women can wear either Western or Indian-style clothing; both are widely available in the major centres. Food-wise, India remains a vegetarian’s paradise; many restaurants operate separate veg and non-veg kitchens. Out of respect for Hindu and Muslim beliefs, beef and pork are not widely available; even MacDonald’s burgers are veggie patties. Western food is more common in major cities and in places frequently by tourists, like the beach resort areas of Goa and Kovalam.

Although India has a (strained) national healthcare funded by national and state governments, about 80% of healthcare is provided by private facilities. Quality of care varies dramatically, as do prices; at the top end, some hospitals even attract health tourists. In New Delhi, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences is the largest government-run hospital. Fast-growing Fortis Healthcare is a national, privately run hospital chain with facilities in Amritsar, Kolkata, Mumbai, Mohali, Jaipur, Chennai, Kota and Bangalore.

Social life and kids

India’s a big, colourful, vibrant country—and it seldom lets you forget it. While customs and manners can differ greatly from those in Canada—and from region to region—patience, open-mindedness and humour go a long way. Family is the focus for most social activities. Pub culture and after-work drinks are not common except in more Western-influenced cities like Bangalore.

In New Delhi, expats tend to live in the south of the city. Posh golf links are full of diplomats and CEOs, while the Jor Bagh and South Extension districts are popular and more affordable. In Mumbai, neighbourhoods like Bandra West, Khar West or Powai are full of expats. Bangalore, where international companies frequently provide housing for their non-Indian employees, doesn’t have an established expat district.

With so much of the transportation system maxed out, choosing an area close to work and school is especially important. A colonial history has given India a strong tradition of private, international schools, mostly British and American. This website lists schools for New Delhi and Mumbai. Bangalore has a Canadian International school.

Cricket bats loom larger than hockey sticks in the hearts of Indians. Although hockey is played in the colder regions, close to the Himalayas (the hill town of Dehradun has the country’s largest artificial ice skating rink), it is not common. Canadian expats in India are typically return immigrants—and thus have existing family and school-based networks—so social networks tend to be casual rather than formal. In Mumbai, there’s an established expat group for women. Bangalore hosted a Terry Fox Run in 2011.

PROFILE: DATAWIND

When Montreal-based tech company DataWind signed an unusual deal last year to produce eight to 10 million tablet computers for the Indian government, there were no requirements regarding where the tablets would be produced. But DataWind decided to produce them in India—and got a crash course in doing business in the subcontinent.

The tender, first announced in July 2010, called for companies to produce a $35 tablet the government hoped would be affordable enough to boost education levels and access to information amongst the country’s poorest citizens. Although there are 900-million mobile phone users in the country of 1.2 billion, only 200-million people use the Internet and only 18 million subscribe to Internet services. Considering the Apple, Samsung and Blackberry tablets all retail for $200 to $500, the $35 price point at first seemed impossible; there was so little interest in the first tender, the government had to issue a second one several months later.

DataWind, which had already had some success in India and the UK with a line of pocket-sized Internet devices, bid on the second round. Not only did they beat the next lowest bidder by about 15%, they also decided they would manufacture the tablets in India. This despite already having strong relationships with suppliers in China—and none in India.

“We could have made it anywhere in the world,” says DataWind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli. “And India’s certainly the land of Murphy’s Law. But we still feel we made the right decision.”

Singh Tuli’s family moved to Canada from India when he was 11 (back in the 1980s, he famously sued his high school in order to wear his kirpan, a ceremonial dagger carried by Sikh men, to school). After earning his engineering degree at University of Toronto, he launched his first tech company, WideCom, with his brother in the early 1990s. He founded DataWind in Montreal in 2000 and, though it’s registered as a UK company, most of its research and development and half of its 150-person labour force is still located there.

DataWind’s first product to market was a handheld device called PocketSurfer, which requires a much smaller data package than other portable Internet devices and runs on mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) network, a service which uses bandwidth leased from traditional licence-holders. Neither Canadian nor American operators were interested in a deal, but DataWind signed one in the UK offering free Internet access with the purchase of a CDN$250 device. In three years, DataWind signed 150,000 subscribers.

The tablet market presents an interesting opportunity, says Singh Tuli, because Google provides its Android operating system for free. Android can also run on microprocessors made by companies other than Intel and AMD, which have a stranglehold on the PC market. Meanwhile, India devoted $1 billion in funding toward its National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology to put information technology in the hands of the poor.

Just a few years ago, experts were forecasting that the Indian market for computers would be about 250,000 annually. If DataWind got 10% of that, Singh Tuli figured, that’s only 25,000 units—hardly worth the effort. By nabbing the government tender, though, the company is starting with eight million units for the government contract, plus however many tablets it can sell in the marketplace, where, without a subsidy, they will retail for about $50.

With components sourced from all over the world, the tablets are being assembled in Hyderabad, India. Marketing was the main reason for the choice of location—Singh Tuli predicted the Indian media would love the story, generating free publicity, and that Indian consumers would welcome a locally made product.

“Despite other shortcomings, Indians get patriotic about products of this nature. We knew we’d get a good reaction,” says Singh Tuli. “It was a strategic decision but not an economic decision.”

But then there’s Murphy’s Law. Although Hyderabad has a strong IT sector, good infrastructure, good bandwidth and efficient customs clearance, the state, Andrha Pradesh, has been going through political turmoil, which disrupted production for several months. As well, because of the way federal and state taxes are applied, a product imported from China or Thailand, for example, would have been subject to fewer taxes than DataWind’s made-in-India tablet.

India’s currency restrictions were yet another obstacle.

“We had become a UK entity in order to fundraise in the UK, so what we had was dollars,” says Singh Tuli. “But in India, you can’t pay in dollars for something sourced locally…. We had letters of credit but the mechanism the government had set up to pay us was not legal.” The solution was a waiver that allows the government to buy in dollars from a foreign entity that’s paying its suppliers in dollars, so that the net outflow of foreign of exchange is just the profit margin.

Despite hiccups, Singh Tuli says the size of the contract and the size of the market will make the tablet project a success.

“There are so many opportunities here that you can’t imagine until you’re here. The biggest obstacle is deciding what you want to pursue,” he says.

PROFILE: KOMTECH PLASTIC TECHNOLOGIES INDIA

A couple of years ago, Komtech India, an offshoot of Pickering, Ont.-based plastic injection molding company Komtech Enterprises, signed a contract to buy transformers from an Indian supplier. When the three-month delivery date passed, the supplier told Komtech it would have to wait another few months.

“The reason why they didn’t want to deliver is that copper prices had gone up, so they took our transformers and sold them to somebody at a higher price,” says Bipin Khimasia, director and CEO of Komtech’s Indian operations. “A lot of things that Canadians would take as a given, here you always have to ask the question.”

To launch Komtech India, Khimasia moved to Bangalore from Toronto, where he had been long-time director of Komtech and a director at the Great Canadian Sox company. It wasn’t in his plans to return to the country of his birth, but he recognized the automotive sector was floundering in North America while the Indian market was taking off. Four years into the venture, the Indian company is designing and manufacturing its own custom product line, tapping into the Canadian company only for technical expertise. Through trial and error, Khimasia has been learning what it takes to get things done in India, while leveraging Canadian management strategies for a competitive edge.

Adapting to Indian bureaucracy has been the first challenge. “There’s not a central system like in Canada. There’s every kind of control, licences, five or six types of taxes, registration. If you miss something and they find it, then you have to pay people to fix the problem,” says Khimasia. Where industrial parks in China often offer all-in-one turn-key-like services, each service in an Indian industrial park is usually offered independently. “You have to run from one agency to another for every little thing.”

Komtech started with a no-bribes policy. It found that decisions that should have been taking two weeks were taking two months. “Most companies don’t want to offer bribes directly, so they hire consultants,” says Khimasia.

Because the demand for skilled workers is high, so is staff turnover. Especially in booming Bangalore, it’s typical for skilled employees to change jobs for salary increases as little as 20%. Komtech has tried to retain employees by creating an empowering work environment, but the Canadian approach has also required an education process in a country where companies tend to be top down. Khimasia’s leadership team encourages employees to ask questions about what’s going on, rather than just taking orders. “Sometimes they don’t understand why everybody needs access to information. When there are [problems], they don’t want to highlight it, but in the end, that’s how you solve them.”

Because labour is cheap in India, job descriptions tend to be very narrow, staffing levels high. Komtech India took a “leaner is better” approach. Rather than hire people to serve tea and biscuits at employees’ work stations, for example, Komtech built a self-serve snack station. “To them, it was, ‘Why do I have to get my own tea? That’s not my job.’ But it keeps the organization flat and it gives them a break from their work,” says Khimasia.

If he avoids pricey imports like olive oil and European cheeses, Khimasia finds his pay goes much further than it would in Canada. But it’s still a trade-off. Finding a full-time maid who would clean their whole home was a chore in itself (bathrooms are typically done by a specialist maid). Having a driver is simply a practical response to the awful roads. “India’s not for everyone, but if you have any adventure in you, spending a few years here can be a good time,” says Khimasia.

MORE ON INDIA FROM BUSINESS WITHOUT BORDERS

India has been assigned a moderate level of risk by Business without Borders’ proprietary Global Opportunity Tool (GO). Prepared for us by the Economist Intelligence Unit and regularly updated, the GO Tool’s country overview says that India deserves top marks for its political stability. Through thick and thin the nation has remained a fully functional democracy save once (in the 1970s) since independence in 1947. Transfers of power are orderly although the GO Tool notes that there has been a devolution of power toward the states as the central government has wandered to ineffectiveness in recent years. This results in a high-risk level for government effectiveness. You can count on the professionalism of senior bureaucrats, but the lower-downs are highly resistant to changing their ways and vested interests, like anywhere, resist giving up control of state-owned enterprises. And India’s well-known corruption remains a problem.

The courts are relatively impartial, the GO Tool reports, but slow, and cases can take decades to resolve. And while the country is racing to upgrade its infrastructure with new roads and shipping facilities ports remain gravely overstretched. The country’s notorious blackouts even distort the consumer market, with front-end washing machines eschewed in favour of top-loaders that can be worked manually in a blackout.

The financial sector is dominated by state-owned banks and there is relatively healthy capital inflows. Although the rupee is stable, inflation could drive it downward unless the government takes more effective action. Special import licences have been abolished and there is little to impede imports quantitatively but there remain high tariffs in certain sectors. Outbound investment and hedging are getting easier.

The nation has suffered grievous high-profile terrorist attacks including one in Mumbai’s financial district in 2008. But while its decades-long disputes with neighbouring Pakistan over issues such as sovereignty over Kashmir, the two nations are slowing working at normalizing bilateral ties.

Of all risk areas measured by the GO Tool, taxation remains the highest. India continues to rely heavily on excise and customs duties and consumption taxes are vexingly complicated. Corporate taxes for foreign companies are a relatively encouraging 33% and the national government has signalled it wants to reform its tax code. The GO Tool is not the only publication to indicate concern over India’s taxation.

PwC notes in its 2011 report on total tax rates, Paying Taxes, that India managed in the previous year to clean up just one tax, a fringe-benefit tax. The good news is that India (like Canada) allows self-assessment and has eased electronic filing and payment. But overall, PwC total-tax study ranked India 164 for ease of paying taxes compared to Canada at No. 10. Companies are expected to file 167 payments, consuming 104 days a year (Canada’s numbers are 15 and 34 respectively). India has a total tax rate of 63.3%. Total tax rates are a combination of profit taxes, labour and other business taxes, earning it a rank of 157 (Canada’s total tax rate is 29.2%, earning this nation a rank of 37). For more information on total tax rates and the Indian situation, see PwC’s annual survey.

There’s more information available online about India, including Export Development Canada’s valuable overview. The World Bank can provide statistical information on India. Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade has information on Ottawa’s trade strategy for India.

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The First Annual Canada-India Business Forum organized last month by the Canada-India Business Council in India (Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata) and Dubai lent fresh impetus to ongoing business engagement between the two sides.

The Forum brought together over 140 senior executives, government officials and academics from both countries including Stockwell Day, PC former Canadian Minister of International Trade, Christy Clark, the Premier of British Columbia, David Denison, CEO, Canada Pension Plan, among others.

India’s infrastructure sector was a key focus, said C-IBC president and CEO Rana Sarkar.

Amitabh Kant, CEO, Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, expressed India’s needs to build over 200 new cities, with Canadian firms well-placed to participate.

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