ICCC’s six-city India Mission 2013

Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC)’s India Mission 2013 which started on January 3 from Toronto has completed its first leg and has so far visited three of the six cities on its itinerary. These cities include Mumbai, Bangalore and Kochi. Led by ICCC’s President Naval Bajaj, the India Mission 2013comprises over a 100 small businesses from Canada and also includes a team from the Cities of Brampton and Markham led by their respective mayors – Her Worship Susan Fennell (Brampton) and His Worship Frank Scarpitti (Markham).

In Mumbai, which was the first city on the itinerary, the delegates had eight interactive sessions during the two-day stay (January 4 and 5) in the commercial capital of India that included meetings with the diplomatic corps, government officials, briefing sessions, luncheon receptions and seminars on small businesses, and B2B meetings with leading private banking institutions, chambers of commerce, industry association and visits to movie studio and movie industry institutions.

Dr. Subadha Rao, Chief Economist, Yes Bank, was the keynote speaker at the first event – a briefing session – organized by the Consulate General of Canada in India. Dr. Rao’s presentation on the emerging global and Indian economic scenario was followed by another sterling presentation by Nicolas LePage, Senior Trade Commissioner, Consulate General of Canada in Mumbai.

At a luncheon reception of the Mission delegates organized by ICCC’s partner All India Association of Industries (AIAI) at the World Trade Centre – Mumbai, Naval Bajaj emphasized that the role that organizations such as ICCC, the AIAI and WTC-Mumbai perform helps in building more integrated socio-economic, cultural and political relations between Canada and India and directly benefit the people.

The delegates comprising Naval Bajaj, Mayor Fennell and Mayor Scarpitti then met Hon. Suresh Shetty, the Health Minister of Maharashtra. At the meeting Naval Bajaj explained to the Minister the twin mandates of the ICCC – of promoting bilateral trade and creating opportunities for the Indian Diaspora. The Mayors gave information of their cities to the Minister.

Later that evening, senior officials of Yes Bank interacted with the Mission delegates at a special dinner that the bank had organized. Naval Bajaj recalled ICCC’s growing relationship with Yes Bank. He observed, “Just last month our Chamber collaborated with Yes Bank when Tushar Panday, Ashish Chandak and Kangan Mehta participated in ICCC’s Canada-India Mining Forum. The Yes Bank team will again be in Canada in March to attend the annual PDAC convention. We look forward to a long working relationship with Yes Bank in the future on mutually beneficial areas in addition to mining.”

Speaking on the creation of a Global Entrepreneur Network, while participating in the Indian Leaders’ Summit organized by the SME Chamber of India, Naval Bajaj said the need is to create a network of entrepreneurs of Indian origin (both within and outside India) as such a network would go a long way in creating a better entrepreneurial environment in India. He also delivered a keynote address on creating an entrepreneurial network between Canada and India. Both ICCC and the City of Brampton signed a MoU with the SME Chamber for future collaborations. Hon. Narayan Rane, Maharashtra’s Ministry for Industries and Hon. Mahdev Naik, Goa’s Minister Industries also participated in the seminar.

The delegates then visited three film industry sites – a studio, a film school and a visual entertainment service centre. The first stopover was at Reliance Media Works Studio where the Brampton’s Mayor Susan Fennell discussed the possibilities of collaboration between the Indian film industry and the City of Brampton where Brampton can become a venue for movie shootings. The delegates then visited Whistling Woods International Institute for Films, Media, Animation and Media Arts, and the last leg of the day’s visit was to Prime Focus, a visual entertainment centre that has operations in Vancouver and plans to start operations in Toronto.

At Reliance Media works the delegates received a briefing and a theatre presentation of the studio’s major projects followed by a visit to the studio. At Whistling Woods, the delegates had an informal discussion with Chiatanya Chinchlikar, Business Head of the institute and at Prime Focus, another studio doing projects for foreign clients, the delegates received a brief 3D presentation at the studio and business interaction thereafter followed by visits to their sound studio and picture studio.