|
|
India Canada Biz Digest
(Delivering news impacting India-Canada economic relations)
Compiled by the High Commission of India, Ottawa
15 October - 15 November, 2020
Issue 133
|
|
|
|
Prime Minister Modi chairs Virtual Global Investor Roundtable 2020
On 5 November 2020, Prime Minister of India, H.E Narendra Modi chaired a Virtual Global Investor Roundtable, organized by the Ministry of Finance and the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF).
The roundtable witnessed participation from 20 of the world’s largest pension and sovereign wealth funds with a total asset under management of about USD 6 trillion. Representatives (Presidents & CEOs) from major Canadian pension funds such as CPPIB, CDPQ, OTPP, PSP Investments and BCIMC also participated in the event.
The Prime Minister said India offers the investors Democracy, Demography, Demand as well as Diversity. He said “Such is our diversity that you get multiple markets within one market. These come with multiple pocket sizes & multiple preferences. These come with multiple weathers and multiple levels of development.”
After the event Mr. Mark Machin, President & CEO of CPP Investments remarked “The VGIR 2020 roundtable was a very productive and helpful forum which provided us insight into the government’s vision to build out the India economy and accelerate the growth of international institutional investment in India. India is key to our long-horizon investment strategy, focused on growth markets, and we have a strong appetite to build on our existing investments across infrastructure, industrial and consumer sectors”.
Mr. Charles Emond, President & CEO of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) while talking about India said, “India is an important market for CDPQ—we have invested several billions in sectors such as renewables, logistics, financial services and technology-enabled services—and we aim to strengthen our presence over the coming years. I’d like to sincerely thank Prime Minister Modi and his government for taking the lead on organizing this roundtable where global investors and business leaders could discuss opportunities to support a stronger economy for India.”
|
|
|
|
|
Prime Minister Modi delivers inaugural address at 4th India Energy Forum
On 26 October 2020, Prime Minister of India, H.E Narendra Modi delivered inaugural address at 4th India Energy Forum CERAWeek through video conference. The theme of this edition is “India’s Energy Future in a world of Change”. He was joined by HRH Prince Abdulaziz, Minister of Energy, Saudi Arabia and H.E. Mr. Dan Brouillette, US Secretary of Energy.
Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said India is full of energy and its energy future is bright and secure. He elaborated that in spite of various challenges like fall in energy demand by almost one third, prevailing price instability, impacted investment decisions, projected contraction in global energy demand over the next few years, India was projected to emerge as a leading energy consumer and is projected to nearly double its energy consumption over the long term.
|
|
|
|
|
High Commissioner's commercial engagement with Canadian Ministers/Premiers
High Commissioner Ajay Bisaria and Consul General Apoorva Srivastava had a virtual conversation with Ontario Premier Doug Ford. The topics of discussion ranged from pandemic management, stellar role of the strong 800,000 Indo-Canadian community and Indian students in Ontario. They also discussed vast potential of collaborations in Information Technology, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, critical mineral, artificial intelligence, start-ups, etc. In 2019, Ontario accounted for over 33 percent of India's total trade with Canada.
|
|
|
India among most attractive destinations for MNCs
India has emerged as one of the favourite investment destinations for multinational companies. A survey of over 100 MNCs conducted jointly by industry body CII and Ernst Young showed more than two-thirds of them favour India as their number one for future investments. At least 25% of MNCs, who do not have their headquarters in India, viewed India as the first choice for future investments. About 30% of them planned to invest more than USD 500 million.
Half of the respondents of the survey saw India among the top three economies or leading manufacturing destinations by 2025. The respondents said market potential, skilled workforce, and political stability as the top three reasons to make India their favoured destination.
|
|
|
|
Canada thanks India for helping world in Covid fight
The Canadian government has underscored the “critical role” that India is playing with regard to the requirements globally for medicines needed to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. This was conveyed by Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne to the Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar as India joined, for the first time, the Canada-led Ministerial Coordination Group on Covid-19 (MCGC). A readout issued by Global Affairs Canada, the country’s foreign ministry, stated that Champagne “welcomed” India’s participation in the MCGC “noting the recent developments in India and emphasising the critical role India plays in addressing global Covid-19 vaccine and pharmaceutical needs.”
|
|
|
Canada's Brookfield invests USD 2 billion in biggest India property deal
Canada's Brookfield Asset Management will buy an Indian developer’s commercial properties for USD 2 billion, the biggest real estate deal in the country. The Canadian asset manager is acquiring 12.5 million square feet of rent-yielding offices and co-working spaces from RMZ Corp., the privately held developer said in a statement. Large foreign investors are buying into the Indian office market in recent years. Since 2011, the segment has garnered USD 15.4 billion of equity investments, according to property research firm Knight Frank.
|
Saudi Arabia’s PIF to invest USD 1.3 billion in Reliance Retail Ventures
The Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia will invest USD 1.3 billion in India's Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd, the retail arm of Reliance Industries Ltd. The Gulf kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund will get a 2.04 percent stake in Reliance Retail Ventures and the investment will strengthen PIF’s presence in India's “promising” retail market, RIL said. PIF’s investment comes exactly a month after RIL announced that the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) would invest USD 751.35 million for a 1.2 percent stake in its retail unit.
|
|
|
WhatsApp rolls out payments in India
WhatsApp, which began testing its payments service in India with 1 million users in 2018, has finally started to expand the feature to more users in the world’s second largest internet market. The Facebook -owned service said that it is rolling out payments in ten Indian regional languages in the latest stable version of WhatsApp app on Android and iOS. The announcement came soonafter National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the body that operates the popular UPI payments infrastructure, said that it had granted approval to WhatsApp to roll out UPI-powered payments.
|
Mercedes-Benz aims to boost Make-In-India programme
To benefit from lower tax rates and improve sales, Mercedes-Benz, the country's biggest luxury car producer, aims to assemble more cars in India. The company rolled out its first AMG vehicle from its Pune factory recently, making India one of the brand's group of countries to manufacture. In India, BMW and Audi also have assembly facility that have been operational for over a decade. From its Chennai-based factory, BMW currently produces eight models. One of the models assembled by Audi is the A6 sedan version, in Aurangabad.
|
|
|
India's Jubilant Life unit to pick up 25% stake in US radiopharmaceutical firm
India's Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd said one of its units will acquire a 25 percent stake in US-based radiopharmaceutical supplier Sofie Biosciences Inc. for USD 25 million in cash. The deal will enable the two companies to collaborate in the development, manufacturing and distribution of radiopharmaceuticals, which will help in the diagnosis and treatment of a wide variety of oncology diseases, Jubilant Life said. The Indian company is making the investment through wholly owned unit Jubilant Pharma Ltd’s business division Jubilant Radiopharma.
|
India's TCS inks deal to acquire Deutsche Bank’s IT unit
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd has agreed to acquire Postbank Systems AG from Deutsche Bank AG in a deal that will ramp up the European business of India’s largest software services exporter. Germany’s largest lender and TCS said Postbank Systems and its around 1,500 employees will become part of the Mumbai-based company. The deal will deepen the relationship between the two organisations as Deutsche Bank is already a TCS client. This will also add to TCS’ scale in Germany and strengthen its growth outlook.
|
|
|
India's Tech Mahindra to buy Australian firm in latest acquisition
Tech Mahindra Ltd said it has agreed to acquire a 100 percent stake in Momenton Pty Ltd as part of efforts to strengthen its financial services presence in the Australian market. Tech Mahindra acquired the Melbourne, Australia-headquartered company in a USD 10.22 million deal that will enhance its digital transformation capabilities and provide a scaled-up presence in the Australian BFS (banking and financial services) market, according to a stock exchange announcement. Momenton is a cloud and engineering services provider with a BFS focus.
|
India's Wipro to acquire American engineering services firm Eximius
Wipro Ltd, India’s third-largest software services exporter, has agreed to acquire California-headquartered Eximius Design for USD 80 million in an all-cash deal. The acquisition will strengthen Wipro's market presence and technical leadership in the semiconductor ecosystem. It will enable Wipro to strengthen market leadership in systems designs and very-large-scale integration (VLSI), a process of creating an integrated circuit (IC) by combining thousands of transistors into a single chip. Wipro aims to complete the acquisition by the end of 2020.
|
|
|
|
VC investments in India more than doubled in September quarter: KPMG Report
According to Venture Pulse – a quarterly report published by KPMG Private Enterprise, the venture capital (VC) investments was robust world over, despite the pandemic-led disruptions during July-September quarter. The VC investments In India, grew to USD 3.6 billion in July-September from USD 1.5 billion in the June quarter, supported by mega deals including the USD 1.3 billion raised by online retailer Flipkart. Mr. Amarjeet Singh, partner, KPMG in India quoted that India continues to be attractive market for VC investors and there is huge demand in the edtech, healthtech and fintech segments.
|
|
|
WHO chief lauds Aarogya Setu app, says it helped health departments identify coronavirus clusters
World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has lauded India’s Aarogya Setu app, saying the government has been using it to notify users about the Covid-19 infections. The WHO chief also said that the coronavirus contact tracing app developed by the Government of India is one among several tech tools to help public health authorities identify clusters and expand testing in those areas. The Covid-19 tracing app was launched by PM Modi back in April 2020.
|
Indian scientists develop synthetic material that opens up prospects of smart materials for energy and biotech sector
Indian scientists have developed a synthetic material that mimics the dynamic capability of living organisms to adapt to new environments by utilizing simple natural design principles to create complex networks. The new materials developed opens new avenues for smart materials because of their dynamic and adaptive nature. Hence, they would be useful as recyclable polymers for the energy and biotechnology sector, a Ministry of Science and Technology statement said.
|
|
|
|
|
For latest India monthly economic reports :
Released by Department of Economic Affairs (Ministry of Finance, India)
|
|
|
Upcoming Business/Trade Events in India
For all the relevant updates and information regarding International Trade Events/Business Seminars in India
|
|
|
Connect here to Invest in India
|
For information regarding
commercial queries
Please Contact:
Prashanth Devakumar
Marketing Executive
com.ottawa@mea.gov.in
|
Connect here for India's recent announcements in policy, foreign investment, business trends & more
|
|
|
Visit www.hciottawa.gov.in for more information
Follow us on social media for latest commercial updates
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
