Year of India in Canada: Time for collaborations

About one million people of Indian origin live in Canada, and half of that live in the Ontario province where Toronto is situated. Indians are the second largest ethnic community in Canada. The community living in Ontario has done extremely well compared to those living in other parts of Canada.

The largest number of Indians living outside of UK is in Toronto.  Toronto has in recent times become the No 1 multi-ethnic city in the world, overtaking New York and London. The IIFA week in Toronto highlighted this very fact of the Indian presence.

The forum concentrated on four key segments namely digital media, tourism, clean tech and higher education.The politicians, business community, academia and entertainment industry all came together on this year that has been declared the India year in Canada to explore possibilities, to forge collaborations and to renew commitments for stronger ties between the two countries.

Nearly 60% of the Canadian population has received higher education. Although not as popular among Indian students as Europe, Australia and the US, Canadian Universities are well ranked and the government is currently working on strategies to woo the international student community.

After California and New York, the media and entertainment of Canada is very sought after and creates quality yet affordable cinema. So it made sense to host the popular IIFA Film Awards in order to showcase and draw attention to the Indian filmmakers.

There seems to be higher level of trust in doing business with Indians than with Chinese since there is a lot of comfort with the level of the spoken English language. Besides, the trust is heightened because with China one never knows when the technology will be replicated.

The Canadians continue to show interest in India - in the last few years the number of students visas issued has gone up from 4,000  to 12.500  and this year it is expected to be 15,000. Another case of point is the fact that nearly 800 visas were issued during the last fortnight to facilitate the IIFA awards and the Global Business Forum.  Another area of interest was clearly tourism since.

Ontario alone draws 16 million tourists, the Niagara Falls making a big impact, whereas all of India put together draws about five million tourists a year.  Clean tech, water management and waste management are Canada's strength and there is a lot that India can learn from that country in this area with its increased bilateral ties.

The engineering capabilities that India has are no secrets. The concern of brain drain when people left the county has now become a brain gain with several engineers having returned to India. Now that India is secure with its brain power and is confident that the home environment is good enough to retain its human capital, the idea is to form a brain chain.

Many similarities exist between the two countries, a similar legal system and political system having arisen from the history of British monarchy. A long-standing association of 25 years and the focus of both countries on science and technology.

The writer is an entrepreneur and an educationist.