President's View
Pramod Goyal
Enhancing bilateral trade
Last week, I had the honour of moderating a discussion between Hon. Mary Ng, Canada’s Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade and Hon. Hardeep Singh Puri, India’s Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, Civil Aviation and Housing and Urban Affairs. Your Chamber organised this dialogue between the two ministers on enhancing Canada – India trade.
Earlier this month, the Executive Team of the ICCC met His Excellency Ajay Bisaria, the High Commissioner of India in Canada. During the meeting, he emphasized the significance of transforming the bilateral relations between our two democracies.
We informed the High Commissioner of the three initiatives that ICCC has undertaken to achieve the common objective of enhancing trade. These include:
- The Ministerial dialogue, which occurred last week, and there will be iterations in the future.
- Province-State Cooperation: Our Chamber will facilitate a dialog between Canadian provinces and Indian states to explore collaboration. The first such session is expected next month and will bring together Ontario and Uttar Pradesh.
- Small Business Cooperation: Our Chamber will also be collaborating with the SME Chamber of India to bring small businesses from Canada and India on a common platform to explore, investment possibilities and joint ventures collaborations.
Read more: Enhancing bilateral trade
Programs & Events
ICCC's Leaders Talk Web Series
Hon. Mary Ng & Hon. Hardeep Singh Puri
Canada – India relations have never been as good they are right now, and it’s the right time to get into an overdrive to enhance trade. This was the consensus opinion of all the eminent speakers and panelists at the web program ‘Canada – India Trade by 2025 – Enabling Variety. Volume. Velocity.’ organised by the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) Thursday 17 September.
Hon. Mary Ng, Canada’s Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion, and International Trade and Hon. Hardeep Singh Puri, India’s Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Civil Aviation, and Housing and Urban Affairs were the main speakers at the program. Following their interaction, the High Commissioners of Canada and India – Nadir Patel and Ajay Bisaria gave their perspective on enhancing bilateral trade.
The program concluded with a scintillating panel discussion moderated by Ravi Seethapathy, former President of ICCC, an energy sector expert, and a corporate director; the panelists included Goldy Hyder, President and CEO, Business Council of Canada; Vikram Khurana, Chair, Toronto Business Development Corporation; Mohit Singla, Chair, Trade Promotion Council of India; and Rupa Naik, Senior Director, Projects, World Trade Centre – Mumbai.
Minister Hon. Mary Ng
In her opening remarks, Minister Ng congratulated the ICCC for its tireless efforts to foster bilateral trade relations between Canada and India. “I laud the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce for the good work that it continues to do to promote trade and forge linkages in the small business sector in both Canada and India,” she said.
She emphasized that the overall ties between Canada and India have never been as good as they are at present. The two Prime Ministers have had several interactions, the foreign ministers have met and discussed issues of significance for both the countries. “I have had four meetings with Minister Piyush Goyal to discuss trade,” and a significant momentum has been built for cooperation.
Minister Ng said that while trade in traditional sectors such as pulp and paper and agri-food continues to grow, new sectors that have tremendous promise for the future are rising fast. These include clean energy, education, skills and training, urban infrastructure, and transportation. The Minister gave the example of an Ottawa-based company providing technical knowhow to Gujarat for low cost wastewater treatment.
Minister Hon. Hardeep Singh Puri
Hon. Piyush Goyal, India’s Minister of Railways and Minister of Commerce and Industry was originally slated to participate in the web program. However, he was called to deal with an urgent matter in the Rajya Sabha, Indian Parliament’s Upper House, where he is the Deputy Leader.
In his place, Hon. Hardeep Singh Puri, India’s Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Civil Aviation, and Housing and Urban Affairs, participated. A career diplomat prior to entering public life, Minister Puri provided a panoramic view of the bilateral trade ties between Canada and India, and emphasized that there is a commitment on both sides to create and sustain an environment that is conducive for better trade. “We draw great strength from people to people relations,” Minister Puri said.
He said India has pushed through significant economic reforms and liberalised investment norms in several key sectors such as pharmaceuticals and defence during the pandemic.
Read more and watch video: Talking Trade
In the News
Mission Karmayogi
Mission Karmayogi to radically improve the Human Resource management in the Government says PM
Says iGOT platform will enable the transition to a role-based HR management & continuous learning
India’s Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions informed the Indian Parliament that the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (‘NPCSCB’) – “Mission Karmayogi” has been launched with the objective of enhancing governance through Civil Service Capacity Building.Mission Karmayogi will have the following six pillars:-
- Policy Framework
- Institutional Framework
- Competency Framework
- Digital Learning Framework (Integrated Government Online Training Karmayogi Platform (iGOT-Karmayogi)
- Electronic Human Resource Management System (e-HRMS)
- Monitoring and Evaluation Framework.
Read more: In the News
ICCC President Pramod Goyal appointed on
SME Chamber of India's Advisory Board
Pramod Goyal, BS, MBA, PFP, President, Indo Canada Chamber of Commerce has been appointed as an Overseas Board Member to the SME Chamber of India National Advisory Board for a three-year-term (2020-2023). He has also been appointed as the Vice President of India-Canada SME Business Council, a new venture of the SME Chamber of India.
SME Chamber of India is a MoU Partner of Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce. It is a Mumbai-based premier national Chamber that has been working for the development of SMEs from manufacturing, service sectors and allied industrial / business sectors for the last 26 years. The Chamber integrates SMEs, large corporates, MNCs, banks, investors, policy makers, Young & Women entrepreneurs and Start–Ups to establish and enhance contacts for better business growth and expansion.
ICCC Leaders on RBC Top 25
Canadian Immigrant Award list
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| Shanthi Johnson |
Kanwar Dhanjal |
Dr. Shanthi Johnson, ICCC's Advisory Board Member and Kanwar Dhanjal, former President, ICCC, are on the 2020 RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award list.
They join an illustrative list of ICCC leaders who have been similarly honoured with this recognition in the past years. The ICCC leaders who have won this award in the past are:
2010: Aditya Jha (Advisory Board Member 2019 onward)
2010: Asha Seth (Advisory Board Member 2010-11)
2012: Satish Thakkar (President, 2011-12)
2013: Gini Sethi (Board Member 2015-16)
2013: Steve Gupta (Advisory Board Member 2012-13)
2014: Naval Bajaj (President 2012-14)
2015: Bob Dhillon (Advisory Board Member 2013-16)
2017: Kuldeep Sharma (Advisory Board member 2017-18)
2018: Kundan Joshi (Board Member 2008-2011)
Read more: In the News
Appointment
Sonia Ojha
Senior Manager, Corporate Relations & Partnerships
Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce
Sonia Ojha has joined Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce as Senior Manager, Corporate Relations and Partnerships. An engaging and highly motivated professional with exceptional communication skills, Sonia has had an illustrious career in managing corporate relations. Prior to joining the ICCC, she was the Manager, Executive Corporate Relations, at the Mississauga Board of Trade for 12 years.
At the ICCC, Sonia will be responsible for business development, corporate membership augmentation, and developing and maintaining ICCC’s relations with Greater Toronto Area municipalities.
Insight
Financing India's Innovation
By Chandrajit Banerjee
India has embarked on a journey towards creating an enabling environment by putting in place an ecosystem that breeds innovation. The Government of India has launched several significant initiatives for propelling innovation, such as the Start-up India initiative, Accelerating Growth of New India’s Innovations (AGNIi), Atal Tinkering Labs, new intellectual property rights (IPR) policy, Smart City Mission, Uchchatar Avishkaar Yojana, etc. All these initiatives, coupled with phenomenal research and innovation from the institutions, industry, and society, are cementing India’s position as an innovation and knowledge hub. However, the financial dimension plays a critical role in fructifying these innovation efforts.
Various fiscal incentives are offered by the Government of India’s Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) for R&D activities performed by institutions, academia, and industry for supporting, nurturing, and leading their innovations towards fruition. Technology Development Board (TDB), an important stakeholder in the Indian innovation ecosystem, provides soft loans and promotes the equity of Indian industry through the development and commercialization of indigenous technology and by adapting imported technology for domestic applications.
Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) supports high-risk, early starters from academia, start-ups, or incubators that have exciting ideas in the nascent or planning stage. In India, there has been phenomenal growth of the private and foreign-owned private equity/venture capital (PE/VC) industry. The government has also played an important role in establishing and nurturing the industry segment by various fiscal concessions.
Read more: Insight
