India's IT talent and Canada's initiatives on innovations could make a significant impact in helping jump start Indian economy, India's
envoy to Canada Vikas Swarup has said.
Addressing a brainstorming session on Canada-India:The Road Ahead here yesterday, he said India was well placed to surpass China in several fields.
The meeting saw the participation from eminent businessmen and entrepreneurs who gave India an 'One Up' status over China to forge ahead with its bilateral relations with Canada in various fields.
Canadian initiatives on innovation, combined with India's IT strength could produce surprising results, even at a global level, Swarup said.
The gathering cheered when Swarup said the opportunities in India were of "Elephantine proportions".
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He linked the alphabets, E-L-E-P-H-A-N-T and listed the emerging fields for investment opportunities. He said the letter E stood for Energy, L- for Life Sciences, E- for Entertainment, P-for Programming (IT), H- for Higher education, A-for Agriculture and N-for New technologies like Artificial intelligence.
He said innovation backed by technology was the core strength of Canada in different fields and Indian IT talent could make a significant impact helping India jump start its economy.
The High Commissioner said small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were still on the periphery of the attention by all concerned and he lauded the initiative of the Indo-Canadian Business Chamber to bring in such delegates as part of the Business Mission.
Potential partners in Canada should be made aware of the four D's - Democracy, Demand, Dialect and Demography, as unique and major strengths of India. There was unlimited market, English for effective communication, and a large working population, he added.
High Commissioner of Canada in India, Nadir Patel, in a video address said that the "tangible follow-up" of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's recent visit to India would unfold an array of steps revealing Canadian commitment for strengthening India's growth story.
He said the prime ministers of both countries are likely to meet again in a few weeks when there would be "tangible outcomes" about the Indo-Canadian bilateral relations.
Consul General of Canada to India (Mumbai) Jordan Reeves noted that India had transformed itself at a "dizzy pace", and several new opportunities were getting opened up, particularly for the small and medium enterprises.
He said India was rising at a pace faster than China which in 10 years rose as an economic giant when the world did not realise it.
Alastair Summerlee, Interim President and Vice-Chancellor of the Carleton University, said the future of Canada-India relationship was rooted in the cooperation in several areas including scientific research and education with the spirit of innovation as the driving force.
Nadira Hamid, President, Indo-Canadian Business Chamber (ICBC) said there was a fresh momentum in enhancing the business relations between the two countries with SME sector getting its due recognition.
Women entrepreneurs in India and Canada were in the forefront in tune with the global trend of more and more women taking to entrepreneurship, she added.
Announcing the the first annual competition under the new Canada-India Acceleration Programme (CIAP) to support women-led companies, Harish Sharma, Head of Canada International Conference on Education, said the programme helped Canadian women entrepreneurs to scale-up their companies in untapped markets in cities across India.
They could access with mentorship from 200 incubators, connections to corporations, seed funding and internship opportunities, he said.
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