February 2015
ICCC Newsletter
Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce 924 The East Mall, Etobicoke M9B 6K1, Ontario, Canada www.iccconline.org
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President's Message
Indo Canada Chamber of Commerce’s (ICCC) India Mission 2015
visited Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and New Delhi. The mission
achieved its desired goals through its active participation in PBD India
2015 and Vibrant Gujarat 2015 convention.
Close to 50 small and medium business owners have participated in this
year’s India Mission.
The ambitious ‘Make in India’ campaign was launched by the
Government of India in 2014. In broad terms, India’s steady march in the field on technological
advancement and promotion of local manufacturing is a welcome initiative. Indian Diaspora can
play an important role in harnessing India’s burgeoning capabilities in this sphere.
This subject has acquired immense significance among the Indo-Canadians as well. ‘Make in
India’ is the major policy reform in attracting new investment and boosting manufacturing sector.
Canada has its expertise in a number of sectors such as mining, information technology, and
automobiles, aerospace etc. in which the Indo Canadians have the capacity, connections and
capability to invest.
Know your Organization
Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce is a 38-year-old organization with twin objectives of
fostering bilateral trade between Canada and India and creating entrepreneurial and professional
opportunities for Indo-Canadians. It is run by an elected board with the help of various committees
involving member.
To know more about your organization, please visit: www.iccconline.org
ICCC President Dharma P Jain
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Highlights of India Mission 2015
January 7-13, 2015
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) 2015
Indo Canada Chamber of Commerce’s (ICCC) India
Mission 2015 under the leadership of Mr. Dharma P Jain,
reached Gandhinagar and started their first leg of meetings
with business leaders, decision makers and others at the
Gandhinagar, India. The delegation attended the inaugural
session of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2015. The session
was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India Shri
Narendra Modi.
Indian Prime Minister Modi said that the government of
India has merged the PIO (Persons of Indian Origin) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cards
to ease the travel of the overseas Indians. He further said that many possibilities are awaiting you
as time is changing rapidly and India has risen with new strength.
Opening of Canadian Pavilion
Hon. Deepak Obhrai, Parliamentary Secretary and ICCC President opening the Canadian Pavilion
Hon. Deepak Obhrai, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Government of
Canada opened the Canada Pavilion at the Vibrant Gujarat 2015.
PM Modi addressing the Inaugural Session of PBD 2015
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Meeting with Mr. Arjun Ram Meghwal
Dharma P Jain, President ICCC met Mr. Arjun Ram Meghwal, Member of Parliament from
Bikaner, Rajasthan along with over 30 delegates. Mr. Meghwal is also Member of Business
Advisory Committee, Government of India. Both the leaders discussed the scope of the Canada
India trade and business ties in general and particularly the Canada Rajasthan trade ties. He offered
all the possible help for the Canadian business owners to start their ventures in the state of
Rajasthan. ICCC board members Mr. Tony Chawla, Mr. Hardesh Marwaha and Mr. Naval Bajaj
were also present during the meeting.
Meeting with Mr. Rohit Bhargava Chief Representative and MD, TD Bank India
ICCC president also held discussions with Mr. Rohit Bhargava, Chief Representative and MD, TD
bank India and discussed the progress of cooperation in the banking sector. Discussions were held
among the other participating business chambers to work out common grounds for cooperation to
expand the trade ties between the two nations.
ICCC released its Report on Canada India Partnership
The Indo Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) is pleased to announce the release of its Report
on “Unlocking the Potential of Canada-India Partnership: Present Initiatives and Future Agenda”
by Honorable Deepak Obhrai, Parliamentary Secretary to The Minister of Foreign Affairs in
Ahmedabad, India on 10 January 2015, in a business reception hosted by GCCI. The report has
also been released in Toronto on 5th December 2014.
Canadian High Commissioner H. E. Nadir Patel, Mr. Devinder Shory, Member of Parliament, Ms.
Dipika Damerla, Associate Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, Ontario, representatives of
BC and Ontario Trade commissioner officers in India, members of CIF, ICBC, GCCI, and other
business chambers from UK, America and Australia were present along with other eminent Indo
Canadians. The event was attended by over 200 people.
Hon. Deepak Obhrai Awarded Global Vision Award
ICCC President led India Mission delegates attended the Global Vision Award ceremony at
Ahmedabad. Hon. Deepak Obhrai, Parliamentary Secretary to the Federal Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Canada was awarded 'Global Visionary Award'. The award was presented by the Vision
World Organization of Ahmedabad, on January 10, 2015. The award honors Obhrai for
strengthening Canada's political and cultural relations with India. Over 10 prominent overseas
Indians received the award.
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Visit to Cadila Pharmaceuticals
The delegates visited the Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited for a luncheon meeting. Mr. S V Suresh,
Deputy Vice President said during its presentation that Cadila is one of the largest privately held
pharmaceutical companies in India, headquartered at Ahmedabad, in the State of Gujarat. Over the
last six decades, the company has been developing and manufacturing pharmaceutical products in
India and selling and distributing these in over eighty-five other countries around the world.
Briefing Session with Canadian Consulate
ICCC and CIF led delegation was also given a briefing by the
Canadian High Commissioner H.E. Nadir Patel in the
presence of Hon. Deepak Obhrai along with representatives
of ICBC, KPMG and EDC. Canadian High Commissioner
gave a detailed presentation on ‘Doing Business in India’ for
Canadian delegates before Vibrant Gujarat 2015.
Visit to Cadila Pharmaceuticals
From L to R: ICCC President Mr. Jain with Hon. Deepak Obhrai and Canadian High Commissioner Nadir Patel
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B2B Meeting with GCCI
The Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), a MoU partner of ICCC organized a
business reception for the India Mission 2015 delegates. Apart from the ICCC delegates Canada
India Foundation, UK Chamber of Commerce, American Chamber and others were also present.
Mr. Rakesh Shah, President GCCI and Mr. Samir Patel, Vice President GCCI lauded the efforts
ICCC has been undertaking in promoting closer economic ties between India and Canada.
Meeting with Indo Canadian Business Chamber (ICBC)
ICCC president held a meeting with our MoU partner ICBC. Mr Dharma P Jain and Ms. Nadira
Hamid, Chief Operating Officer, Indo-Canadian Business Chamber (ICBC) explored the
possibilities of working jointly in the Canada India Corridor. Mr. Jain invited them to lead a trade
delegation to explore the possibilities of trade with Canada.
Vibrant Gujarat Ceremony
The ICCC-led delegation attended inaugural session of Vibrant Gujarat 2015. Hon. Narendra
Modi, Prime Minister of India conveyed his deep appreciation to the visiting delegates from
Canada. The summit was focused to attract new investment in the sectors such as healthcare,
automobile, aerospace, renewable energy, mega projects, sustainable development, information
technology, railways, infrastructure, small scale industries, biotechnology, service sectors and with
special focus on manufacturing with the slogan of ‘make in India’. ICCC president Mr. Dharma P
Jain was presented with the India Mission delegation. Mr. Dharma P Jain said that the Canadian
presence at the summit reflect the strong bonding between the two countries to foster new
commercial relationships and to enhance people-to-people ties.
Canada was also represented by Hon. Deepak Obhrai, parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Mr. Chris Alexander, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Mr. Nadir Patel,
Canadian High Commissioner, Dr. Kellie Leitch, Minister of Labor and Status of Women, Mr.
Patrick Brown, Member of Parliament, Ms. Dipika Damerla, MPP, Ontario.
Dinner reception with Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
India Mission delegation reached Jaipur in the evening of January 11, 2015 for a dinner reception
with the Jaipur Branch of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). It was a very
successful business meeting to understand the financial issues such as tax system, financial
incentives, bilateral investment regulations, financial service outsourcing and scope of the two
economies to work together to benefit both the countries.
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Meeting with Speaker, Rajasthan Assembly
Mr. Dharma P Jain also visited the Rajasthan
Assembly with the ICCC India Mission
delegates on January 12, 2015. Delegation
met with the Speaker of Rajasthan Assembly
Mr. Kailash Meghwal. Both the leaders
discussed the emerging opportunities between
Canada and India and how the state of
Rajasthan can actively participate in attracting
the investment in the state from Canada. State
of Rajasthan is very good in stone and marble
business, handicrafts, agriculture and tourism.
Meeting with Mr. Gajendra Singh, Minister of Industry, Government of Rajasthan
ICCC delegation held a successful business meeting with Mr.
Gajendra Singh, Minister of Industry, Government of
Rajasthan. Rajasthan is an emerging state with its robust
growth in Agriculture, Mining and stones & granite.
Meeting with Mr. Shivraj Chauhan, Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh
President, Dharma Jain also had a meeting with Mr. Shivraj Singh
Chauhan, Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh. Both leaders had a
fruitful discussion on promoting the bilateral trade between the
State of Madhya Pradesh and Canada. President invited Mr.
Chauhan to bring a business delegation to Canada.
Meeting with speaker Rajasthan Assembly Mr. Kailash Meghwal
Meeting with Minister Gajendra Singh
ICCC President with Mr. Shivraj Chauhan, Chief Minister,
Madhya Pradesh
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Visit to Calgary Eye Hospital Jaipur
Mr. Dharma P Jain,
visited the Jaipur
Calgary Charitable
Eye Hospital in Jaipur
with the delegates.
The hospital is run in
close coordination
with the Operation
Eye Sight Universal,
Calgary (Canada). The
project was inspired by Dr.
Ben Gullison, a Canadian physician working in Sompeta on India’s east coast, Arthur Jenkyns, a
Calgary businessman, founded Operation Eyesight Universal in 1963. Jenkyns marshalled the
efforts of others and raised funds for people needing eye care in India. Operation Eyesight
developed into a partnership between generous Canadians and Indian eye doctors, and later
expanded its scope to include regions of Africa and south Asia
B2B meeting with Rajasthan Chamber of Commerce and Industries
ICCC held a B2B meeting
with Rajasthan Chamber of
Commerce and Industries
(RCCI). Mr. Dharma P Jain,
President ICCC said that the
chamber is leading this
delegation to foster trade
ties between Canada and
Rajasthan. Both the
chamber discussed the
opportunities available for
investors in both the
countries.
RCCI shown keen interest in signing an MOU with ICCC to work closely with each other in future
and decided to sign it before March 2015. The meeting was attended by over 50 business people.
Meeting with the Calgary Eye Hospital, Jaipur
ICCC President addressing the RCCI
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ICCC signed MoU with Federation of Rajasthan Trade and Industry
ICCC President signing MoU with FORTI
Indo Canada Chamber of Commerce and Federation of Rajasthan Trade and Industry signed
Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate and collaborate for strengthening the bilateral trade
relations between Canada and India during a dinner reception hosted by FORTI in honor of visiting
Canadian delegation on 13 January 2015. Mr. Dharma P Jain, President ICCC said that both the
organization will work to cooperate to foster a closer networking among the Indian diaspora, and
with people and organizations in India and Canada to expand the economic engagement of the
Indian diaspora with India and Canada; to facilitate visits of delegations of both organizations and
support in the organization of programs, meetings, B2B meetings, conferences as deemed
appropriate; to facilitate one-to-one interaction between representatives of business and
Government in India, and in the regions where FORTI and/or ICCC have presence. FORTI agreed
to send a business delegation to Canada and also told us to start a dedicated bench to work on
Canada file in their office.
Business reception with PHDCCI
Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) in collaboration
with the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(PHDCCI) organized a business reception at the PHD House
in Delhi on January 13. Mr. Tony Chawla, Vice President
ICCC and Mr. Hardesh Marwaha, Director ICCC were
present during the reception with other India Mission
delegates.
Business reception at PHD house, Delhi
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Meeting with Former MP, Sh. Maninderpal Singh Bitta
Mr. Dharma P Jain met with the President, All India Terrorist Front and former Member of
Parliament Mr. Maninderpal Singh Bitta. Both the leaders discussed bilateral ties between the two
countries.
ICCC-India Mission 2015: Reception at Canada Club
High Commission of Canada to
India, hosted a reception for the
delegates of India Mission 2015
on January 13 evening at Canada
Club. Hon. Kellie Leitch, Minister
of Labour and Status of Women
and other dignitaries from the
diplomatic corps from the
Canadian High Commission,
business leaders, and bureaucrats
from the Indian government
attended the reception.
Speaking on the occasion, Hon.
Kellie Leitch, Minister of Labor and status of women lauded the Indo-Canada Chamber of
Commerce’s (ICCC) efforts to foster the bilateral trade and commerce relations between Canada
and India. He emphasized that Indian government is business friendly and there is a much larger
scope for developing bilateral relations in the all the sectors. He also made a special remark on the
role the Chamber is playing in branding Canada in India.
January 21, 2015
Emerging India: New Economic Superpower
India is an emerging market with
business friendly stable government
which is working to attract investment
for development. India is a lucrative
market for the new investors to manifold
their returns. Bhim D Asdhir, Founder,
Excel Funds Management Inc. said on
January 21, 2015. The Indian
government’s decision to develop 100
smart cities, diamond quadrilateral
project of high speed train network and
High Commission reception at Canada Club, New Delhi
From L to R: Tony Chawla, Dharma P Jain, Andre Kent & Bhim Asdhir
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development of industrial regions will help the economy to grow in the double digit in the coming
decade. India is the fastest emerging global economy and is poised to reach at US$ 10 trillion by
2020, he added.
Mr. Dharma P Jain, President, ICCC said that ‘Make in India’ is the major policy reform in
attracting new investment and boosting manufacturing sector. Canada has its expertise in a number
of sectors such as mining, information technology, and automobiles, aerospace etc. in which the
Indo Canadians have the capacity, connections and capability to invest.
Mr. Andre Kent, Vice-President & Investment Advisor, CIBC Wood Gundy, gave a brief
introduction of the CIBC Wood Gundy that it is providing full-service brokerage with more than
1,000 Investment Advisors nationwide and have assets of $139.5 billion.
January 25, 2015
ICCC President Mr. Dharma P Jain met Mr. Arun Pandya, General Manager South Asia Air
Canada and Past President Indo Canadian Business Council (ICBC) at Hilton Airport. Both the
leaders discussed the emerging trends in the Canada India relations and how ICBC can work
closely with ICCC to grow their operations in both the countries. They also explored the
possibilities of Air Canada supporting the chamber in future.
January 26, 2015
ICCC President Mr. Jain attended the Annual Gala Dinner of Toronto Region Board of Trade, at
Metro Toronto Convention Centre on the invitation of CPA Canada. Mr. Jain met Mr. Mark
Wiseman, President & Chief Executive Officer, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Premier
Kathleen Wynne, Mayors from the cities of Markham, Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton.
January 26, 2015
WEP Open House
Women Entrepreneurs Professional (WEP) Committee
of Indo Canada Chamber of Commerce organized an
open house on 26 January 2015 at the ICCC
headquarter in Toronto. Ms. Ginni Sethi, Director WEP
of the Chamber welcomes all participants and said that
the open house is to attract new women entrepreneurs
to be part of the ICCC WEP. Participants also get the
chance to introduce themselves and shown keen interest
in joining the ICCC as members. Participants were
from different sectors and shown the strength of
emerging Indo Canadian business leaders at the event
WEP Committee From L to R: Shibani Sahney, Sunita Malik, Anu Jain, Ginni Sethi and Shelly Srivastav
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January 28, 2015
Estate Planning: Investment strategies for different Life stages
Indo- Canada Chamber of Commerce organised
an interactive session on Estate Planning:
Investment Strategies for different Life stages on
28-January 2015 at the ICCC headquarter. Ms.
Kamla Doodnauth and Ms. Punita Bansal from
RBC were the guest speakers at the session. In a
joint presentation they said that to protect the
family assets and their proper distribution to
minimize the burden on your beneficiaries, estate
planning is a must.
Mr. Dharma P Jain, President, ICCC in his
welcome remarks said that estate and investment planning is a complex phenomenon so the expert
advice is always a better option to get the maximum benefit and to understand the government
policies in this regard.
Mr. 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 make future planning future investment.
UPCOMING EVENTS
For details please see www.iccconline.org
February 25, 2015: EHSP – A Business Solution for Health Risks
ICCC in news
The Indian Diaspora
Indo Canada Outlook
Indo Canada Outlook
News East West
Asian Pacific Post
From L to R: Dharma P Jain, Punita Bansal, Kamla Doodnauth, Brij K Sharma, Tony Chawla
& Jagdish Bajaj
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SUGGESTIONS Your new board is committed to make this esteemed organization member friendly, open, transparent, and truly a business organization working to achieve its mission and vision. Board is considering of - i) Publishing achievements of members in the upcoming issues of ICCC newsletter. Therefore, members are advised to send their achievements such as new position, additional qualification, awards etc. at [email protected]. ii) Publishing articles on different topics involving trade, commerce, tax etc. Interested writers can send their articles (500 words) at [email protected]. iii) Starting blogs on Chamber's website. Send your resumes and subjects you wish to write a blog. iv) Constituting a newsletter committee. Those who have flare of writing, designing and passionate about this, send in their resumes at [email protected]. Board is there to steer this august body in the direction provided by articles and by-laws and ensuring that interest of various stakeholders is protected. Board invites your suggestions and opinions regarding future events, newsletter content, and ask you to get engaged more and more and participate in Chamber events. You are the true ambassador of Chamber and your board is working for you in. Please feel free in contacting any board member. Please feel free in sending your suggestions and recommendations at: [email protected] or [email protected].
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