Ahluwalia, who was here with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the G-20 summit, said India has posted a robust growth rate of about 8 percent despite the adverse global economic situation.

Interacting with Canadian businessmen and corporate executives at a breakfast meeting by the Canada-India Business Council here, Ahluwalia said he was hopeful that India’s growth rate will touch 10 percent in the next four to five years. He said India has a vibrant private sector and young professional manpower and the sustained growth will turn it into very different country in the next five to 10 years.

Canadian businesses should take advantage of the huge opportunities opening up in India, he added.

Ahluwalia said nuclear deals signed by India with other countries, including the one with Canada inked Sunday, will help it raise its nuclear power generation capacity from over 4,000 MW to 50,000 MW in the coming years.

With India embarking on an ambitious solar energy plan to generate clean electricity, he said Canadian green energy companies should join bids for projects under the plan.

Calling Canada the world’s “mining guru”, he said the MoU signed between the two countries Sunday will help India exploit Canadian expertise and technical know-how in this vital sector for his country. Private investors and executives from many top Canadian companies, including BlackBerry and Cubex, attended the breakfast meeting.

Still, Sarkar said Canada has to be more present in places like India. “We have to move away from traditional dependence on the U.S. market and into global markets,” he said. India will be forced to invest approximately $200 billion in infrastructure over the next 10 years to support its ballooning middle-class population and that’s good news for Canada, according to a recent Foreign Affairs trade document posted online.

“Canadian companies have much to offer India, particularly in construction, architecture, design, engineering and telecommunications,” it said. “It’s no longer simply a case of India catching up to the world; it’s becoming a case of the world catching up to India.” Although trade numbers between the two countries have swelled in recent years, they still come up short, business groups say.

Canadian exports to India hit $1.7 billion in 2008 (the latest year for which data is available) representing a 55% increase over 2005. And despite being one of this country’s largest consumers of fertilizer, buying $689.6 million worth in 2008, Canada still doesn’t make India’s top five import sources, a list that includes China, Saudia Arabia, United Arab Emirates, the U.S. and Iran.

Imports from India climbed 7.4% over 2005 to $1.9 billion. While two-way foreign direct investment has increased more than 17% to $528 million. Sarkar did say the trade goods-heavy data might overlook some inroads made into service industries. The two appear to be a natural fit in the business world considering more than one million Canadians share Indian descent and India’s large skilled and highly-educated English speaking workforce. Some, including the Canada-India Business Council, have said a shortage of regular flights to Asia has hindered trade between the two countries. A recent InterVISTAS Consulting study, commissioned by Emirates Airlines, said daily flights to the Gulf region gateway city of Dubai would see $480 million in economic benefits and create more than 2,800 jobs to Canada.

Another problem, according former clerk of the Privy Council and secretary to the cabinet Kevin Lynch, is Canada’s lack of exposure in India. “We need to build a Canada brand’ in India, whose potential payoffs are evident from successful Australian efforts throughout Asia,” Lynch wrote recently. The federal Conservatives named China and India “priority markets” earlier this year.

India is on track to be the second largest economy by 2050. Similar to China, India avoided the brunt of the recession and is expected to grow 6.5% this year. The Canadian government sees agriculture, food and beverages, the services industry, information and communication technology, oil and gas, electrical power, aerospace and defence as particular business areas to strengthen. Flaherty will visit officials, including his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee, in New Delhi and Mumbai during his three-day stay started Monday.

The more interchange at the top level, such as ministerial and CEO visits, the better off we are, Sarkar said.

For Canada, the “advantage of proximity” to the U.S. marketplace will be increasingly counterbalanced by the “tyranny of distance” as we decide how best to connect to these emerging powerhouses, and them to us.

In this changing dynamic, Canada’s national interests call for a stronger focus on India.

Canadian and Indian shared experiences run deep, rooted in our parliamentary democracies, federal systems of government, common legal codes, Commonwealth heritage, English as a national language, and pluralistic societies. (More than one million Canadian are of Indian descent.)

India is emerging as an economic powerhouse, achieving average real annual growth of 8.75 per cent over the 2003-to-2007 period, and combined this strong growth with poverty reduction. The main driver of India’s growth has been domestic demand, particularly investment (not exports, as in China).

India’s financial system also avoided the worst of the banking woes experienced by U.S. and European financial institutions. Like China, India avoided recession in the global downturn – healthy growth of 6.5 per cent is expected this year, and stronger thereafter.

Yet the trade and investment links between India and Canada are surprisingly small for two $1.5-trillion economies. Annual trade in each direction is just over $2-billion; investment flows have been modest until recently; and science and technology links are only beginning to grow since the signing of an agreement in 2005.

Equally striking is the absence of a “Canada brand” in India and the lack of knowledge about our country. Whatever the reasons, surely the extent of our commonality demands a stronger relationship in the national interests of both countries.

India is a country with amazing physical, social and economic diversity. It is a developing country with world-class high-tech industries, where globally successful entrepreneurs coexist with advocates of statist policies and protectionism.

It is the world’s most populist democracy, but the bane of India’s political process is fragmented coalitions. The infrastructure is problematic, but the ability of Indians to work around it is astounding. The seeming chaos of overcrowded Indian cities reflects an extraordinary energy and dynamism. Despite its many challenges, India has an enormous potential to unleash.

The growing middle class, concentrated in those burgeoning urban centres, is demanding better infrastructure, more transparent local administration, and more efficient rule of law.

India offers much potential for Canadian business. But the Indian infrastructure deficit is an increasing choke point on growth; the country must invest massively in its public and private infrastructure.

The growing middle class wants modern shopping facilities, better housing, communications and financial services. Businesses need modern commercial buildings and sophisticated capital markets. Energy production and transmission are inefficient and expensive, and natural resource facilities are outdated.

What might the architecture of a new Canada-India partnership look like? It would begin, as both governments have done recently, by removing historical impediments, such as tensions over nuclear safeguards.

But lasting partnerships start with relationships. Stronger networks are needed between India and Canada, anchored by political leaders, business CEOs, public servants, and university heads. An “eminent persons” advisory group could assist in transforming the relationship.

An innovative Canada-India economic partnership agreement should be considered. It could leave trade in goods, particularly agriculture, to multilateral efforts and focus on services, investment protection, intellectual property rights, and a deeper science and technology agreement, as well as dispute resolution mechanisms and worker mobility provisions.

We need to build a “Canada brand” in India, whose potential payoffs are evident from successful Australian efforts throughout Asia. Canada has much to work with: strong cultural links, including Bollywood; high-tech companies; a strong university research system; natural resource strengths; and a multicultural society and work force.

Canada’s economy can benefit enormously from a deeper relationship, and so, too, can the Indian economy. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to India last December was an important first step. Now is the time for Canadian companies to strengthen ties with India.

During his visit, Mr. Nath will meet Canadian International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan, Transport Minister John Baird, and corporate leaders to give further push to economic ties between the two countries.

He will also hold discussions with premiers (chief ministers) of Ontario and Quebec — the two most powerful provinces of Canada — and Indian—born investor Prem Watsa who is known as the Warren Buffet of Canada. Watsa’s financial company Fairfax Financial Holdings has currently assets worth $27 billion.

Mr. Nath’s meetings with Premier Dalton McGuinty of Ontario and Premier Jean Charest of Quebec assumes significance as these come close on the heels of the visit of two premiers to India in December and January respectively.

The two premiers had signed multiple agreements on clean energy, environment, research and education and supported a free trade agreement between the two countries during their visit to India.

“Canada has a huge opportunity to enter India’s infrastructure sector which needs $500 billion in the current plan. Kamal Nath will look for private partners — banks, pensions fund, etc. — to invest in India’s infrastructure development,” Canada—India Business Council (C—IBC) president Rana Sarkar told IANS.

Mr. Sarkar said the Indian minister will also address the influential Economic Club in Ottawa where he will speak on ‘The infrastructure challenge before India,’ outlining India’s infrastructure requirements to keep up the high economic growth rate.

“The minister’s mission is to involve Canadians both as investors and infrastructure providers in India. Canada is one of the most solid economic jurisdictions in the world and it has solid investor groups who can play an important role in India ‘s development,” said Mr. Sarkar.

He said North American companies are expected to meet 10 percent of India’s infrastructure requirements.

Representatives of many top Indian companies, including Hyderabad—based GVK group and Punj Lloyd, will accompany the Indian minister.

Mr. who was here as commerce minister two years ago, has been pushing for a free trade agreement between the two countries.

Speaking at a dinner gala by the Canada-India Business Council here Tuesday night, Kamal Nath said infrastructure was the buzzword globally and India offers great opportunities for investors. “Whether you look at East Asia, the US or Africa, the stress is on reinvestment in infrastructure - that is what will generate economic activity.”

Kamal Nath said, “If the last decade was the decade of IT in India, the new decade will be the decade of infrastructure. India faces the biggest deficit in infrastructure, with national highways accounting for just two percent of our total road network.”

Highlighting the government’s plans to construct 20 km of roads every day, the minister said India has “embarked on the biggest infrastructure” project which would need $500 billion in investment. “It is a huge challenge, but we have embarked on it. We have to transform the country.”

Massive investments in rural roads are needed as 70 percent of its people live in rural areas, he said. “That is where (rural areas) India’s future growth will come from.”

“We cannot maintain eight percent growth rate unless we bridge the infrastructure gap. As India moves within confines of democracy, we face challenges of growth…how to make this growth touch all Indians. One is virtual India (that you see on the internet) and then there is a real India where 300 million people live on just one dollar a day. Reaching out to this real India is our biggest challenge,” Kamal Nath said.

Referring to India’s high growth rate despite the global downturn, Kamal Nath said, “There was no collapse of the system in India unlike other countries…our banks have given money to the government while governments in other countries gave money to banks (to tide over the crisis).”

Calling upon Canada to become partner in India’s infrastructure development, Kamal Nath said economic cooperation will benefit people in both the countries. He said the two countries were working on an economic partnership agreement to boost their trade beyond $5 billion annually.

Summing up his mission here, he said, “In 2007, when I talked about the India story here, Canadians never looked beyond NAFTA (free trade agreement among Canada, the US and Mexico). But after the global crisis, Canadians are now asking questions about India. Last time, I told my story. But this time, I sold my story (to Canadians).”

Earlier, welcoming Kamal Nath to Canada, Stanley Hartt, chairman of the Macquarie Group which has created an India Infrastructure Fund to raise $2 billion for investment in India, said his group will invest in roads, airports, ports, power generation, power transmission and distribution, telecom towers, rail, and other infrastructure-related sectors in India.

One issue concerning the Sikhs emerged this week in a brief protest in Toronto and, in typical Canadian fashion, was staged peacefully. Nor did it derail the business at hand, the courting of a cabinet minister from India – in Toronto Tuesday, Ottawa Wednesday and Montreal today. The blossoming Canada-India relationship is a top priority with the federal and provincial governments, as well as with corporate Canada.

The issue of Sikh protest dates back to the 1984 Indian army attack on the Sikhs’ holiest shrine, the Golden Temple, where armed Sikh separatists were hiding; the assassination of the prime minister, Indira Gandhi, by her Sikh bodyguards in Delhi; the mob attacks on the Sikh population of that city and the killing of about 3,000; and the 1985 bombing of an Air India plane, which took off from Toronto, killing all 329 on board.

This week’s visit here by India’s Highways Minister Kamal Nath prompted some Sikhs to say he had a role in the Delhi riots and should have been barred from Canada.

He said that was an unproven allegation, dismissed by a federal commission of inquiry in India, and that he was never charged. He had officially visited Canada in 1991, ‘92, ‘93, ‘94 and in 2007 when he met Dalton McGuinty, as he did again Tuesday. “There was never a whisper against me, which makes the current flurry of allegations all the more puzzling.”

The legacy of 1984-85 lingers with Canadian Sikhs and Hindus, the latter having been a majority of the victims of the Air India bomb blast.

While Sikhs in India and Canada have moved on from the now-dead separatist movement in the Punjab, they do want a full reckoning for the Delhi riots.

For its part, India feels that Canada botched the Air India probe, which it did. Canadian Hindus think so, too. Ottawa tacitly acknowledged that by naming Justice John Major to probe outstanding issues, which he has yet to report on.

Meanwhile, India has emerged as a political and economic giant, and all sides – India and Canada as well as the diverse Indo-Canadian population of Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Zoroastrians, etc. – are focused on taking advantage.

Nath, a prominent member of the ruling Congress party, came to world prominence in 2008 at the trade talks in Doha, defending India’s right to protect small, subsistent farmers from imports.

He is also helping India’s economic liberalization, including last week’s decision to open up post-secondary education to foreign investment – a move welcomed by Canadian universities.

Nath is part of India’s $500 billion drive to build infrastructure – power generation, ports, airports, roads, storage facilities for fruit and vegetables (40 per cent of which rot between the farm and the store) through public-private and Indian-foreign partnerships.

Nath is heading “the world’s largest road building program” – hoping to pave 20 kilometres a day. “To get to 7,000 kilometres a year, we need to have 20,000 kilometres of work in progress,” he says. “That’s $50 billion a year.”

He met investors (at BMO and also Fairfax Financial Holdings, the latter headed by an Indo-Canadian, Prem Watsa), the Indian diaspora (at the Indo-Canadian Chamber of Commerce), and corporate leaders (at Canada-India Business Council, headed by an Indo-Canadian, Rana Sarkar).

In Ottawa, he met Stockwell Day, Tony Clement and John Baird. Today, he is to meet Premier Jean Charest.

Nath’s sales pitch:

Unlike China, India is a democracy and English its language of business. Its median age of 25 is younger than that of China (India has 450 million people between the ages of 18 and 35). The economy is expected to grow 8 per cent this year, 9 per cent next and 10 per cent the year after. (“In the U.S., the government is giving money to the banks, whereas in India it’s the banks that are giving money to the government.”)

Canada can fulfill many of India’s needs – oil and resources, infrastructure, services, capital, etc. That’s why 11 federal ministers have been to India since 2006, as have several premiers and a parade of business people.

On Friday, another delegation is off to India, with John Manley, former deputy prime minister and now head of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives; Roy McLaren, former trade minister and now chair of Canada-India Business Council; vice-chair Peter Sutherland, former Canadian high commissioner to India (2000-03); and council chief executive Sarkar.

Nath: “The last time I was here, I told my story; this time, I think I sold my story.”

The compliments in this case were genuine and reciprocated appropriately, with the nonchalance of old money mixed with modesty – real, not feigned.

Ratan Tata, 72, heads the largest Indian conglomerate, Tata Group. Its 110 companies include Tata Steel (world’s fifth largest); Tata Motors (also the fifth largest, makers of Jaguar, Land Rover and the Nano, the world’s cheapest car at $2,200); Tata Tea (including Tetley); Tata Telecommunications (which bought out Teleglobe in 2005); Tata Consultancy (which employs 700 in Canada); and Indian Hotels (including the Pierre in Manhattan and the fabled Taj Mahal in Mumbai, the scene of the terrorist attack in 2008).

But it is his and his company’s philanthropy that moved Sonja Bata to invite him to Toronto to deliver the first Thomas Bata Lecture on Responsible Capitalism, in cooperation with York University’s Schulich School of Business.

“We selected Mr. Tata,” she told me, “because he represents what my late husband stood for: looking after the employees and their communities. This is very relevant at this time because of the financial mess created by too many people getting too greedy for themselves.”

The Tata conglomerate, with an annual turnover of about $30 billion, gives away about 15 per cent of its profits to charities. More remarkably, two-thirds of the company’s ownership is posited in two family charitable trusts.

The Tata fame is such that when the Canada-India Business Council – started in 1982 by the late Thomas Bata, among others – announced a pre-lecture reception, all 260 spots were snapped up within 48 hours, and another 200 requests had to be turned down.

But as much as the two events were about Tata, they were also about the emergence of India as an economic and geopolitical power; the rise in the Canadian consciousness about it; the concurrent and not coincidental importance of the Indo-Canadian community (750,000 out of the 1.1 million South Asian Canadians); and about the Zoroastrians, Tata being from that tiny but remarkable minority.

The followers of Zoroaster came to India in the 9th century, fleeing persecution in Iran. They prospered in business, especially under British rule, particularly in Bombay (now Mumbai), which is where the Tata business was founded in 1868. Ratan Tata is its fifth head and chairs the Sir Ratan Tata Trust and Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, named after the sons of the original owner.

The Tatas famously funded Mahatma Gandhi and India’s independence movement, and are widely respected for using their private wealth for public good, from improving infrastructure to health care and education.

(One beneficiary was at the reception Friday – Yezdi Pavri, managing partner, Deloitte, Toronto, who had used a Tata trust loan in 1972 to go from India to the U.K. for higher studies.)

A majority of the world’s 120,000 Zoroastrians live in India, principally Mumbai, in a neighbourhood called Colaba (the birthplace of Canadian author Rohinton Mistry and the locale of his novels, he being one of Canada’s 6,500 Zoroastrians, their biggest diaspora outside India).

Colaba is where Tata, a bachelor, has lived for 30 years in a modest apartment. He drives himself around on weekends. This is in sharp contrast to some of India’s nouveau riche tycoons. For example, Mukesh Ambani, said to be worth $40 billion before the economic meltdown, has built himself a 27-storey residence at a cost of $1 billion – the total presumed personal net worth of Tata.

In 2007 Tata was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, considered the Nobel of that genre. The same year, Fortune magazine listed him as one of the 25 most influential business people on earth.

In 2008, following the terrorist attack in Mumbai, he set up trust funds for all those killed in his Taj Hotel. The families of the dead employees will be looked after for life, their children given jobs.

So it was that John Manley, former deputy prime minister and now head of the Ottawa-based Canadian Council of Chief Executives, welcomed Tata to the Bata dinner thusly: “We honour you for being exemplary in corporate integrity, social consciousness and responsible capitalism – in a nutshell, for serving as the spokesperson for integrity.”

Earlier, Rana Sarkar, head of the Canada-India Business Council, told him: “In the world of global enterprise, you, sir, are a rock star.”

The star wasn’t very star-like. He spoke softly, modestly and without notes. He said he had been to Canada once, to see Niagara Falls, at the end of his student days at Cornell University in 1962, and had promised himself never to return to the cold climes of Canada. But here he was, realizing that “in relative terms, we have ignored Canada. We are seriously looking at Canada now and our next venture here may be in iron ore mining and in storage devices for cars.”

Even for the dinner lecture, he had no prepared text – “I am a lousy speaker” – and preferred to participate in a panel with Ed Clark, head of TD Bank, and Jacques Lamarre, former president of SNC-Lavalin, with Manley moderating. That didn’t sparkle, either, partly because of poor sound. But it didn’t really matter. The assembled were grateful for who he is, his lifetime of achievements and his rarer gift of humility.

His few hours here did more for Canada-India relations than years spent by businessmen, bureaucrats and politicians. Their priority should be keeping this iconic Indian engaged in the idea of Canada.

Read the online article here

Could Hollywood North also be Bollywood West?

Toronto will be the first North American city to host the “Bollywood Oscars.”

With that may come opportunities for Toronto to see the production of more Indian films here, said the vice-chairman of the Canada-India Business Council.

Peter Sutherland, a former ambassador who advises Indian and Canadian businesses about expanding their operations in the two countries, said the awards show will mean more than just the glitz and glamour of the event.

“I think there may be some business opportunities involved in film production itself,” Sutherland said. “As you know, in Toronto in particular, in Canada in general, there’s a burgeoning film industry. A lot of American films come here to produce.

“That could conceivably happen with Bollywood as well,” Sutherland said.

Premier Dalton McGuinty was in Mumbai yesterday for the announcement that Toronto would host the International Indian Film Academy Awards from June 16-19, 2011.

“It brings with it a viewing audience in excess of 350 million, to say nothing of 60,000 tourists who are drawn to this, and the 500 or so stars and producers and the like,” McGuinty said.

IIAF director Viraf Sarkari said Toronto made sense to host the Indian film event because of previous experiences here with Bollywood stars.

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan was in Toronto in July 2008 as part of The Unforgettable Tour, a huge stage show featuring music from Indian movies that was seen by over a million people around the world in six weeks.

In an effort to promote Indian films around the world, the awards show is held in a different city outside of India each year. The inaugural 2000 show was in London and other host cities included Bangkok, Amsterdam, Dubai and Singapore.

“I think it’s a great thing for Toronto,” Sutherland said.

Coming close on the heels of the India-Canada nuclear agreement last week, the trade mission by the premier (equal to a chief minister in India) from Dec 6-11 will take him to New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad.

The visit assumes significance as Ontario with Toronto as its capital is the powerhouse of Canada, accounting for more than 40 percent of the nation’s economy and much of manufacturing and auto industries.

Before leaving for New Delhi, McGuinty told the media that his mission will have “a laser-like focus” in India.

He said, “We are very focused on what we want to do now – if you have got an interest in that, great let us talk. If you don’t, then we are moving on to the next person.” The premier said India’s “so many challenges” offered many opportunities to Canada as “we have so many solutions for them.”

He said India has “some real environmental challenges and we have got over 2,600 environmental technology companies.

“Why not put two and two together? Let us go over there and bring them some solutions.”

McGuinty has set a target of creating 50,000 “green jobs” in his province in the next three years as his government tries to promote green energy technology to check global warming. He is targeting India and China for selling green technology to create these many jobs here.

With over $200 billion needed in new investments to raise its renewable energy production capacity to 200 GW by 2030, India offers a huge market for Canadian green companies.

Canadian companies are also eyeing India’s water and wastewater treatment market which is growing at a rate of 10-12 percent.

The trade mission includes 31 people from 27 Ontario companies and universities which have expertise in green technology and infrastructure.

Economic development and trade minister Sandra Pupatello, Canada-India Business Council president Rana Sarkar, experts in green energy, sewage and water treatment and energy storage, and representatives from four universities are among those in the mission.

After meeting Indian ministers in New Delhi, the premier will visit Mumbai and Hyderabad to meet business leaders.

Though it has not been mentioned whether he will visit the Golden Temple, but a trip to Amritsar is likely because of a huge number of Sikh votes here. Traditionally, Canadian Sikhs and other immigrant communities have voted the premier’s Liberal Party.

This will be the second visit of the premier to India after his first mission in January 2007. (IANS)

Water shortages in Mumbai, a national climate change plan and cricket scores — just a few of the headlines likely to confront Premier Dalton McGuinty as he starts his six-day tour of India today.

And while the premier’s bowling is unlikely to win him applause on the trip, he can make a pitch on the first two topics that could win valuable business for Ontario firms.

“India’s made it very clear, the government has made it clear, that they are trying to find a way forward that is more environmentally responsible,” McGuinty said just prior to leaving for New Delhi.

“One of the advantages that

we enjoy is because we have in place a strong environmental regulatory system. It has forced our businesses to come up with solutions so that they’re polluting less, or they’re experts in cleaning up pollution once it has occurred.

“The great thing is they can take these technologies and these services they’ve developed and export them to the world. You want to go to the place that is hungry for these solutions and India has a real hunger for environmental technologies.”

With more than 1.1 billion mouths though, the subcontinental giant isn’t just hungry — it’s ravenous.

The World Bank says the Indian economy could hit growth rates of up to 9% a year over the next two years and the National Council of Applied Economic Research in New Delhi predicts the middle class could quadruple to 20% of the population by 2015.

As that massive population drags itself out of poverty, expectations rise along with living standards.

The demand for clean water, clean air and clean energy are expected to skyrocket, and Ontario wants to help with the launch.

“Every developed country certainly has to have an India strategy,” McGuinty said. “They’re too big, they have too much of a presence and they’re growing too quickly for us to ignore them. And there are too many opportunities there.”

That’s why he’s making his second trip to India, having made the 14 1/2-hour flight in January 2007.

But unlike that earlier visit, which included reps from 87 different companies from across the business spectrum, the premier will this time travel with about 25 firms, all involved in the clean technology sector.

‘SECTOR SPECIFIC’

That narrowed focus should help the trade mission generate better results, International Trade and Economic Development Minister Sandra Pupatello said.

“It’s very sector specific in clean technologies — clean build, clean water. That allows us to be much more focused,” Pupatello, who’s making her fourth trip to the country, said.

And there’s plenty in these areas to focus on — when Ontario’s delegates step off the plane in Mumbai, they’ll find the sprawling city struggling to deal with a water shortage from too-sparse monsoon rains.

The shortage has led to water service cuts, followed by protests.

It’s the type of problem a company like Echologics could help with; the Toronto firm travelling with the premier has developed an acoustic technique to detect leaks in water pipes and could help a city like Mumbai reduce the amount of water it loses throughout the system.

Or perhaps city leaders in Jaipur would like to talk to Bruce Linton, the president and CEO of Clearford Industries. Clearford’s patented small-bore sewer systems might be useful in a city of 2 million residents and 100 public toilets.

The big prize, though, is India’s nuclear industry, which is gearing up for a massive expansion to reduce the country’s reliance on coal and imported oil. India’s 17 reactors provide a mere 3% of generation now but plans have been drawn up to more than double that by 2012.

With Prime Minister Stephen Harper having just restored civil nuclear co-operation with India, severed in 1974 after Canada complained Candu reactor technology was used to test an atomic bomb, the possibilities are enormous.

“If you’re talking nuclear, you’re talking Ontario. Canadian nuclear is Ontario for all intents and purposes,” McGuinty said.

Rana Sarkar, president of the Canada-India Business Council, is also along for the ride and says the narrow industry focus will definitely help in making the trade mission successful.

‘NEW FACE OF ECONOMY’

“By going with clean tech, it shows the new face of Ontario’s economy,” Sarkar said. “It shows we have a sense of where India’s going in the 21st century and where the real needs are.”

And the fact it’s McGuinty’s second trip to the nation is also of great importance.

“It’s a status-conscious environment,” Sarkar said. “You get the British prime minister turning up, the French president turning up and we’re all competing for the same meetings. It’s best to go with your biggest shot, and the premier of Ontario has a lot of credibility because they realize he’s coming back.”

McGuinty will be spending his first few days in New Delhi before heading on to Mumbai on Tuesday. From there he travels to Hyderabad before returning to Canada on Saturday.