By Gurmukh Singh, IANS,
Toronto : After 2010, which saw almost a dozen Canadian ministers visit India, top-level visits in the new year begin with Clement Gignac, minister of economic development for French-speaking Quebec province, leading a big team to India later this month.
Gignac will head a 60-member business delegation to New Delhi and Mumbai from Jan 30.
The visit is a follow-up to Quebec Premier Jean Charest’s successful visit to India last February to promote his province in the world’s second fastest growing economy.
Quebec, which has its own trade office in Mumbai, is aggressively forging trade ties with India, particularly Karnataka and Maharashtra with which it has signed an MoU on higher education.
Indian ministers – Anand Sharma (commerce and industry), Subodh Kant Sahay (food processing industries), Praful Patel (civil aviation) and B.K. Handique (mines and development of north east region) – had signed various memoranda with Quebec during their visits to Canada last year.
“The Quebec minister will attend the Delhi summit of the World Sustainable Development Forum (WSDF) from Feb 3-5 and meet various ministers, including Anand Sharma, Praful Patel, Subodh Kant Sahay, Handique and Kapil Sibal,” Indian diplomatic sources told IANS.
During his visit to Mumbai, the Quebec minister will meet Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and other business leaders.
From Quebec, metro rail and aviation giant Bombardier has a major presence in India.
Another Montreal-based giant Canadian Aviation Electronics (CAE), a global leader in simulation and modelling technologies for the civil aviation industry and defence forces, has joined hands with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to set up the Helicopter Academy to Train by Simulation of Flying (HATSOFF) in Bangalore.
From India, the Tata Group, the Aditya Birla Group and Mahindra Brothers have a major presence in Quebec.
Apart from having mining interests in the Canadian province, the Tata Group also bought the local telecom carrier Teleglobe for $200 million in 2005 and now runs it as VSNL Canada International as a subsidiary of Tata Communications.
Mahindra Brothers have set up a diamond cutting centre at Matane in Quebec.
But more than anything else, it is Montreal-based world-famous McGill University which is the biggest attraction for Indian students.