Education has emerged as one of the biggest contributors to economic growth globally. Rise in literacy is an important indicator of a growing economy. The link between education and economic growth is spurring the demand for quality education, and leading to a spurt in globalization of education both in terms of students going to foreign destination to access better educational facilities and educational institutions becoming transnational service providers.

In the Canada-India landscape, the education sector is comprehensively developed in both the Canadian and the Indian economy. In Canada, the GDP in the Educational Services sector increased from $51.6b in 2002 to $63.2b in 2011. The increase in GDP reported between 2002 and 2011 represented a compound annual rate of 2.3%.

In view of the burgeoning significance of the sector, the Associated Chambers of Commerce of India (Assocham) led an education sector delegation recently to Canada, and the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce held an interactive session with the delegation at its global headquarters in Toronto in November.

The interactive session organized on November 25 attracted several prominent ICCC members engaged in the education sector. The Assocham delegation led by Dalip Sharma, a director of the trade organization, and the theme of the delegation was ‘Building and Strengthening Education Linkages’.         Delegation represented different universities and technical training institutes.

ICCC & Assocham participants at the session	ICCC & Assocham participants at the session

During the interaction, Mr. Dalip Sharma emphasized that Assocham was looking forward to establishing strong linkages with the ICCC to promote the education sector.   

In his remarks, Sanjay Makkar, President, ICCC, said that the Chamber was eager to collaborate with Assocham in the education sector. He said the Chamber has an established track record of several initiatives in the education sector. He said there was a tremendous opportunity for collaboration between Canada and India in the sector.

“After Canada and India signed a memorandum of understanding in 2010, both countries have redoubled their collaboration efforts. The number of Indian students choosing Canada as a study destination grew to 23,504 in 2011, representing an increase of more than 145% from 2009,” he said.

The ICCC President said that the Chamber would be focusing upon the sector once again in the upcoming India Mission in January 2016. The Chamber will be looking to exploring partnership with organizations in the sector. On previous missions, the Chamber explored opportunities of collaborating through twinning programs between Canadian and Indian institutions.

Mr. Makkar also said that the Chamber has been advocating Canada-India Partnership in academic-industry-business interface and mobilisation of the Indian diaspora resources and knowledge networks to utilize the educational linkages already established over the past five years. He said there is an urgent need for policy modification that ensures linkages between the educational sector and the immigration policies.