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  • ICCC-CIBC’s offers for Newcomers to Canada -05-05-15

    05 May 2015 6:30 PM | Anonymous

    CIBC’s offers for Newcomers to Canada
     
    From L to R: Tony Chawla, Rajeev Misra, Hassan Pirnia, Dharma P Jain, Raza Hasan, Rajni Tekriwal & Sanjay Makkar

    		  

    Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce organized an interactive session on Opportunities available with the CIBC for the newcomers to Canada on 05-May 2015 at the ICCC headquarter.

    Mr. Hassan Pirnia, Vice President of Marketing Solutions and Client Offers at CIBC responsible for direct marketing, analytics, and offer development across the retail bank was the guest speaker. 

    He focused his discussion on the simple topics pertaining to the new immigrants and started with the overview of Immigration in Canada from different parts of the world. Ontario is the recipient of highest number of new immigrants every year followed by Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia. He also throw light on economic impact on the new immigrants and how it is impacting the newcomers Profile & Insights. South Asians being the largest visible minority will have the highest purchasing power and consumer spending in the coming years, he said. 

    He stated that CIBC in their welcome to Canada Package offered the newcomers with free bank account for first year, safety deposit box for Newcomers to store up valuables, credit card with no deposit or credit history required, overdraft protection and most important the mortgage with no Canadian history required. 

    Mr. Dharma P Jain, President, ICCC in his welcome remarks conveyed thanks to Mr. Hassan Pirnia for sparing his time to interact with the ICCC members. He further said that CIBC is chamber’s lead corporate sponsor. 

    Mrs. Rajni Tekriwal, Vice President & Corporate Secretary ICCC said, that the session was aimed to create awareness among the Chamber’s membership regarding the opportunities available with the CIBC’s for the new comers to Canada. 

    Mr. Tony Chawla, Vice President ICCC gave a vote of thanks. ICCC board members Mr. Sanjay Makkar, Ms. Ginni Sethi, Mr. Hardesh Marwaha were also present at the event. 

    Mr. Rajeev Misra introduced the speaker to the audience. 
     

    Session in progress


  • ICCC: Post budget roundtable with Minister Tim Uppal & Minister Bal Gosal - 01-05-2015

    01 May 2015 12:30 PM | Anonymous

    ICCC: Post budget roundtable with Minister Tim Uppal & Minister Bal Gosal
     
    Minister Tim Uppal and Minister Bal Gosal with Pramod Goyal, Jaspal Singh, Rakesh Joshi, Ritesh Malik, Rajni Tekriwal, Dharma P Jain & Sanjay Brahmbhatt

    		  

    Indo-Canada Chamber Commerce (ICCC) held an interactive post budget session with Hon. Tim Uppal, Minister of State (Multiculturalism) and Hon. Bal Gosal, Minister of State (Sports) at ICCC head office, Toronto on 1 May 2015.

    Dharma P Jain, President ICCC chaired the roundtable. He welcomed the economic action plan 2015 aimed to create well-paying and secure jobs for Canadians, lower taxes for Canadian families and businesses, tax relief for low- and middle-income Canadians, new Family Tax Cut and Universal Child Care Benefit enhancements and balance the budget.

    “The chamber welcomes the government’s effort to reduce the budget deficit from $55.6 billion at the height of the global economic and financial crisis to a projected surplus of $1.4 billion for 2015–16,” Jain said.

    Minister Uppal in his remarks affirmed that the small and medium businesses are the major drivers of our economy and we have taken care of them so the Canadians will get the maximum return of their tax dollars. 

    Minister lauded the efforts of ICCC for developing deep business relations with emerging markets like India. The signing of CEPA with India will open up the new avenues for the businesses to develop more robust trade ties with India.  

    Minister Gosal said that our government is committed to more growth with lower tax rates and more benefits to our citizens. Government has delivered what has been committed in the past for families and small businesses. “The government adopted an all inclusive approach to consult the people through different channels prior to our budget drafting”, Minister said. 

    Rajni Tekriwal, ICCC Vice President & Corporate Secretary said that the ICCC is working to promote the Canada India bilateral trade ties and also raised the issue of amortization period as it is very hard for the new immigrants. 

    Apart from this Mr. Kanwar Dhanjal, Chair ICCC Gala Committee, Mr. Jagmohan Nanda, Mr. Rakesh Joshi and Mr. Sanjay Brahmbhatt also actively participated in the roundtable discussion.



    Roundtable in progress    		  
    Roundtable in progress


  • ICCC-Hard hat tour-Sheridan 02-04-15

    02 Apr 2015 5:30 PM | Anonymous

    ICCC organised its hard tour to Sheridan’s Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Design Technologies
     
    From L to R: Iain McNab, Kanwar Dhanjal, Farzad Reyegani, Dharma P Jain, Tony Chawla, Naval Bajaj, Manjit Singh & Jayne Pilot

    		  

    Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) in collaboration with Brampton Board of Trade (BBOT) organised its hard hats tour of the Sheridan’s Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Design Technologies on 02 April 2015, which was attended by ICCC members. This was an innovative learning opportunity for the members as they were given a privileged “behind the scenes” tour of Sheridan.

    Mr. Dharma P Jain, President of the Chamber welcome all participants and thanked Sheridan for cordially accepting Chamber's request for arranging a tour of Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Design Technologies. Mr. Jain said that Centre is providing state of the art training to the new students and getting them ready with future skills which will become backbone of Canadian industries. President also welcomed the joint initiative taken by Chamber and BBOT and urged organizing more such joint events in future.

    Dr. Jeff Zabudsky, President & CEO Sheridan College welcomed all the guests and said that Sheridan is a very old and dynamic institute and always comes to forefront for adapting new techniques for imparting training to the students. 

    Dr. Farzad Rayegani, Associate Dean and Professor, Sheridan College in his remarks briefed that the Sheridan college has the most sophisticated 3D Production System (based on FDM material) in the market, positioning its Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Design Technologies (CAMDT) to better help Canadian manufacturers achieve and maintain competitiveness, while training the next generation of manufacturing professionals.

    The members of the chamber visited the ABB Robotics training lab and chemical engineering lab at Sheridan college which features over 15 robots and related work cells, software and controllers, and will allow students and industry partners to gain training in applications that include robotic welding; picking, packing and palletizing; machine tending, material handling and product assembly, and advanced vision related programming. 

    Mr. Tony Chawla, Vice President Events, Mr. Naval Bajaj, Immediate past president, Mr. Todd Letts B. SC., MBA, CEP BBOT, Mr. Badar Shamim, BBOT were also present along with over 50 participants from chamber and BBOT.

     
     ICCC members at Sheridan    ICCC members at Sheridan
     


  • ICCC-Economics and Strategies following the Budget -25-03-15

    25 Mar 2015 6:30 PM | Anonymous

    Economics and Strategies following the Budget
       

    from L to R: Hari Panday, Dharma P Jain, Avery Shenfeld, Brij K Sharma, Rajeev Misra & Naval Bajaj
       

    Indo- Canada Chamber of Commerce organized an interactive session on Economics and Strategies following the Budget on 25-March 2015 at the ICCC headquarter.

    Mr. Avery Shenfeld, Managing Director and Chief Economist CIBC World Markets Inc was the guest speaker. He said that after the recession; economies of major countries has started gaining its momentum but the lower crude oil prices affected it adversely whereas some oil importing countries got benefit. BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries will contribute more in the international economy to move further.


    The consumer market in USA which has a direct impact on Canadian economy; has started gearing up and this is a positive signal for the Canadian economy. US market is a key target for Canadian exporters. Interest rates will be at its lower level in the coming years which is a very good sign for the investors seeking safe yields in equity investments, he said.


    Mr. Dharma P Jain, President, ICCC in his remarks said conveyed thanks to Mr. Shenfeld for sparing his time to interact with the ICCC members. He further said that CIBC is chamber’s lead sponsor. He also informed the audience regarding the visit of Indian Prime Minister Modi to Canada from 14-16 April 2015 which will further strengthen the trade ties between the two countries.


    Mr. Brij K Sharma, Vice President, ICCC said, that the session was aimed to create awareness among the Chamber’s membership regarding the trends in the international economy and how they can strategies their financial planning.


    Mr. Rajeev Misra introduced the speaker to the audience.


       
    participants at the event


  • ICCC-International Women's Day Panel Discussion - 12-03-15

    12 Mar 2015 6:30 PM | Anonymous

    ICCC-International Women's Day Panel Discussion

    Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) organized the fourth annual International Women’s Day panel discussion on Thursday March 12, 2015, at the Marriott Hotel, to discuss the role of women’s in active politics. The theme of the panel discussion was Women in Politics.
     
    Panelist from L to R: Hon. Dr. Asha Seth, Ms. Harinder Malhi, Ms. Nirmala Armstrong & Dr. Ananya Mukherjee
    		 

    		 
    The panelists and the audience included highly successful women entrepreneurs, professionals, and public figures. The panelists were: Hon. Asha Seth, former senator, Senate of Canada, Ms. Harinder Malhi, Member of Provincial Parliament, Ontario, Ms. Nirmala Armstrong, Regional Councilor, City of Markham and Dr. Ananya Mukherjee, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, York University. 

    Ginni Sethi, Director, Women Entrepreneurs & Professionals (WEP) committee, said that condition of women's can only be transformed when a proper place of women should be provided in the decision making process of the government. She also moderated the session.


    		  
     
    From L to R: Tony Chawla, Rajni Tekriwal, Ravi Malhi, Sunita Malik, Ginni Sethi, Dharma P Jain, Shelly Srivastav, Sunita Vyas, Shibani Sahney & Mini Khurana    		  
       
    Mr. Dharma P Jain, President ICCC in his welcome remarks said that the modern day challenge world faces in the 21st century is to give women their rightful place in society because by denying women their rightful place we cannot move forward to achieve a just social system. Our Chamber started to celebrate the international women’s day from 2012 onwards in recognition of the growing contribution of women to the world of politics, businesses and other professions and in 2013, we launched Women Entrepreneurs and Professionals committee to get women on board for the ICCC activities.

    Dr. Asha Seth during her presentation spoke about the condition of women around the world. Women’s representation in the political power structure is limited and they are not given their due rights. However, she said, politics is a rewarding career and one can feel proud for working for the society.

    Ms. Harinder Malhi, shared her experiences as a young politician who is working for the welfare of women. She emphasized that she learned the tactics of politics from her home environment as her family is involved in the political process. She love to work for the causes of women especially violence against them in the society.

    Ms. Nirmala Armstrong shared her own life experiences as she came from Trinidad & Tobago and completed her degree in law. As practicing lawyer in Canada she realized that if she wanted to see the major changes in the policies for the improvement of society then one must be a part of the decision making process.

    Dr. Ananya Mukherjee in her presentation said that the women’s are doing wonderful work and coming forward in all spheres of life. She quoted some examples of social movements in India where women’s determination makes things happen. Hard work and self-confidence are the major drivers of women’s progress.

    The panel discussion drew tremendous response from the Indo-Canadian community, and was attended by an overwhelming number.     Ms. Rajni Tekriwal, Corproate Secretary & Vice president ICCC and Mr. Tony Chawla, Vice President ICCC were also present at the event. Ms. Shibani Sahney, Chair WEP committee gave a vote of thanks.
    		  
       
     
    Session in progress    		  
       
    ______________________________________________________________________________________________________


  • ICCC- Foreign Reporting Requirements: A Tax Landmine for the Unwary-09-03-15

    09 Mar 2015 6:30 PM | Anonymous

    ICCC- Foreign Reporting Requirements:

    A Tax Landmine for the Unwary

    		  
     
    From L to R: Imtiaz Seyid, Raza Hasan, Dharma P Jain, Vinay Khosla, Brij K Sharma & Tony Chawla

    		  
    Indo- Canada Chamber of Commerce organised an interactive session on Foreign Reporting Requirements – A Tax Landmine for the Unwary on 09 March 2015 at the ICCC headquarter.

    Mr. Vinay Khosla, Tax Partner, Bateman MacKay LLP was the guest speaker at the session. In his presentation, he discussed in detail the T1135 requirements, definition of specified foreign property, determining cost, excluded properties, penalties and extended reassessment. Its mandatory to report foreign properties and income from those properties for Canadian residents who have specified foreign properties worth over $100,000 CDN at any time in the reporting period, said, Khosla.

    The individuals who have Mutual Fund Corporation or mutual fund trust; or a non-resident owned Investment Corporation need not to file T1135. Form T1135 filing requirements do not apply to investments held within a registered plan, such as a Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA), Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP), Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF) or Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP), personal use property, such as a foreign vacation property used primarily as a personal residence.

    Mr. Khosla also told that starting from 2015 form T1135 can be e-filed. He did reply questions raised by audiences in detail to make the session more interesting and interactive.

    Mr. Dharma P Jain, President, ICCC in his welcome remarks said the reporting obligations were there since long but recent changes by Canada Revenue Agency to the reporting requirements and a more stringent compliance have increased the reporting obligations for those who owns andinvest in foreign properties. Failure to file any required foreign reporting forms with Canada Revenue Agency may result in significant penalties. He suggested audiences to see a tax expert when it comes to tax matters and follow the law.

    This is in line with Chamber's objective of providing a platform to its members for networking, education and sharpen their skills, Mr. Jain said.

    Brij K Sharma, Vice President, ICCC said, that the session this evening is aimed to create awareness among the Chamber’s continuing effort to provide first-hand information from an expert to benefit them in filing their tax returns.

    The response to the event was overwhelming and members liked the topic. Among present were Raza Hassan, SVP, CIBC, Imtiaz Seyid, Director, RBC, and others.


    		  
     

    Participants at the session    		  
    Participants at the session


  • ICCC- Business reception for Indian delegation to PDAC - 02-03-2015

    02 Mar 2015 6:30 PM | Anonymous

    ICCC- Business reception for Indian delegation to PDAC
     
    From L to R: Tony Chawla, Akhilesh Mishra, Dharma P Jain, Ajay Gupta, R Sridharan & Stanley Hartt    		  
       
    Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) organized a business reception for the Indian mining delegation visiting the annual Prospectors and Developers Association Convention (PDAC) in Toronto on 2nd March, 2015.

    Dharma P Jain    		   In his welcome remarks, Dharma P Jain, President, ICCC, emphasized the significance of the PDAC convention and the role chamber has played in promoting bilateral trade and investment between Canada and India in the mining sector.

    Mining committee of the chamber is working hard to promote the Canada India relations in mining sector. Chamber wanted to share the above 100 years of Canadian mining experience with the state of the art technology to tap the unlocked potential in the mining sector of India, said Jain.

     R. Sridharan
    		  R. Sridharan, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Mines, Government of India, led the Indian delegation comprising over 24 representatives from the government and the private sector. He said that it’s his second visit to the ICCC reception. The mining sector is undergoing a fundamental transformation in India and the government has set the priorities for the sector for future role. The government of India has amended the mining legislation to attract the private players and foreign direct investment in the sector. “Transparency in the entire process of grant of mineral concessions and their administration should be given the utmost priority”, said Sridharan.
         

    Akhilesh Mishra    		   Akhilesh Mishra, Consul General of India in Toronto, lauded the remarkable work of ICCC in promoting bilateral trade between Canada and India, and its focused initiatives in the mining sector. 

    He further said that Canada’s total export share in India’s import bill of US$ 480 is only US$ 2.5 billion. Canada has much more potential in helping India in hydro carbon, nuclear energy, mining etc. Canadian universities and mining industry can help in Indian capacity building program in the sector.

    Stanley Hartt, Counsel, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, introduced the speakers to the audience and also spoke about the tremendous opportunities of collaboration in the mining sector between Canada and India.

    Several prominent members of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC), including Tony Chawla Vice President ICCC and Indira Singh, Chair of ICCC’s Mining Committee, R K Perindia, Commercial Consul, Rahool P. Agarwal, Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright were present on the occasion.

    Ajay Gupta, Director Mining of ICCC gave vote of thanks.

    		  
     
    Participants at the reception    		  
     


  • ICCC-Interactive session with Minister Chris Alexander-27-02-15

    27 Feb 2015 12:30 PM | Anonymous

    Interactive session with Minister Chris Alexander 

    		  


     
    From L to R: Naval Bajaj, Dharma P Jain, Minister Chris Alexander, Tony Chawla & Brij K Sharma    		  

    Hon. Chris Alexander, Canada’s minister for Citizenship and Immigration emphasized that the government is promoting the immigration under ‘Express Entry Scheme’ to get required skilled category workers for Canada. The Minister was addressing members of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce at an interactive session last week in Toronto.

    Dharma P Jain, President, ICCC welcomed the minister and introduced him to the members of the chamber. He said that the ICCC is a 38 year year-old business organization with twin objectives of fostering bilateral trade between Canada and India, and creating business and professional opportunities for the Indian Diaspora in Canada,” Jain said.

    He lauded the government’s efforts to speed up the process for student visa and super visa for the parents and grandparents and regulating the immigration for incoming immigrants to match the requirement of the Canadian labour market.

    		  
     

    ICCC President Dharma P Jain with Minister Chris Alexander    		   Minister Alexander expressed confidence in ICCC’s leadership and its commitment to fostering bilateral ties between Canada and India and said that India is very important to cater the future Canadian needs. “India is one of the biggest source country for economic immigration and attracting new investors, Canada is focusing on Indian market so the active support of community leaders is badly needed to take this relations to the next level,” the Minister said.

    He also emphasized that the upcoming visit of Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi to Canada will be a milestone in promoting the Canada India relations. Ties between the two countries will be help in promoting bilateral trade and investment and also set the course of movement of capital and human resources at a large scale.
    		 

    While answering the questions of the ICCC members, Hon. Minister Alexander stressed on making the visa process easy with lesser time for processing to fulfill the future immigration needs; target of getting 50, 000 application processed in the express entry scheme this year; 6-30 days for processing visitor visa; granting of 10 years visitor visa has been started for businesses and families; Opening up more visa centres in India to speed up the process; 20, 000 students has been granted permanent residency last year in which Indians have substantial number; CEPA is priority for the government; attracting Bollywood to shoot here for the films.

    Mr. Tony Chawla, Vice President & Director ICCC, introduced the minister and appreciated the ministry’s efforts in speeding up the process of fast track visa for students.

    Members of ICCC board Mr. Tony Chawla, Mr. Brij K Sharma and ICCC's Immediate Past President Mr. Naval Bajaj along with ICCC sponsors and media persons were also present at the session. Several prominent members of the Chamber and community leaders attended the interactive session.

    		  
     
    Participants at the session     		  
     


  • ICCC-EHSP – A Business Solution for Health Risks- 25-02-15

    25 Feb 2015 6:30 PM | Anonymous

    EHSP – A Business Solution for Health Risks

    		  
     
    From L to R: Surjit Babra, Tony Chawla, Dharma P Jain, Rajeev Misra, Dawit Hamilton & Percy Dastur    		  


    Indo- Canada Chamber of Commerce organized an interactive session on an interactive session on The Executive Health Savings Plan (EHSP) on 25-February 2015 at the ICCC headquarter.


    Mr. Dawit Hamilton, Regional Sales Director – Individual Insurance and Mr. Percy Dastur, Chartered Financial Advisor from Desjardins Financial Security Independent Network were the main speakers.


    Mr. Hamilton gave a detailed presentation on the benefits of executive health saving plans. It is an advanced sales concept offering critical illness coverage through a company. The success of a company depends largely on the contribution of key leaders, employees and partners. The sudden loss of one of these key contributors, even temporarily, can threaten the future of the company. The EHSP helps hedge this risk to enable business leaders to protect against the economic risk caused by the serious illness of a shareholder or key employee. And if the key employee remains healthy, he can claim the health benefit.


    Mr. Dharma P Jain, President, ICCC in his welcome remarks said that in case of a small business the success of a company depends largely on the contribution of shareholders, who eventually are key leaders in most of the cases, employees and partners. The sudden loss of one of these key contributor, even temporarily, can threaten the future of the company. The beauty of this plan is that if the key employee remains healthy, he can claim the health benefit. This potentially substantial benefit is an effective and innovative way to reward and retain a key employee

    Mr. Tony Chawla, Vice President, ICCC said, that the session on EHSP is aimed to create awareness among the Chamber’s membership to make future planning.


    		  
     
    Participants at the event

  • ICCC - Pre Budget Consultation with Hon Minister Kevin Sorenson-23-02-15

    23 Feb 2015 8:30 AM | Anonymous

    ICCC - Pre Budget Consultation with Hon Minister Kevin Sorenson

    		  


     
    From L to R (sitting): Jay Banerjei, Minister Kevin Sorenson, Dharma P Jain, Sampat Poddar, Yogesh Sharma, Anu Jain & Shreyaa Chawla
    Standing: Harmandeep Singh, Sanjay Brahmbhatt, Pramod Goyal, Ashok Baghwala, Tony Chawla, Murarilal Thapliyal, Kanwar Dhanjal & Anil Thapa    		  
       
    Canadian government’s 2015 budget will focus on four major areas of supporting family, business development, trade & culture and balancing the budget announced Hon. Kevin Sorenson, Minister of State for Finance during a pre-budget consultation round table with the members of Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) on 23 February, 2015 in Brampton. The other focus areas would be creating more jobs, promoting trade, developing, skill development, manufacturing, infrastructure and energy in promoting its relations with India.

    Minister Sorenson added “the government started negotiations with 43 countries for free trade agreement in which most of them have been signed or in near conclusion to get signed shortly.” He also said that the government is cutting its expenditure to lessen the burden on the economy and to utilize the saved money for family health benefits. It will not put any extra burden on the tax payers.

    Speaking on the occasion Mr. Dharma P Jain, President, ICCC stated the chamber’s initiative during the India Mission 2015 to promote Canadian businesses in India and promoting the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector. ICCC led over fifty small businesses to help them forge links with the Indian stakeholders. Low growth rate, reducing GDP, increased consumer debt, unemployment, and low oil prices are some of the major challenges our economy has been facing, Jain said.

    ICCC president invited Minister Sorenson to attend the ICCC’s Annual Awards and Gala Night on June 6th 2015.

    Participants at the round table made a series of recommendations some of which included the following.
    • Small and medium businesses are major source of employment generation so more incentives for the sector especially by creating special economic zones.
    • Creating special funds for the emerging sports in Canada like Cricket to generate revenue through sports tourism.
    • Special incentives for the manufacturing sector to produce and market the Made in Canada products in the international market.
    • Export of high end technology and their consultation for generating more jobs and revenues.
    • Emphasis on skilled worker program in the education sector to help Canada as there is going to be a great shortage in the future.
    • Housing sector is strong and it will continue to grow.
    • Loopholes in the tax system needs to be rectified.
    Mr. Tony Chawla, Vice President ICCC introduced the Minister.

    		  
     
    Round table in progress


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