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Trade Mission to India - Market Overview
This trade mission presents a unique opportunity through the Canada-India Technology Summit (Tech Summit), to showcase Canadian innovation to India’s business and political leaders, think tanks, influencers and researchers. Focused on highlighting dynamic technology and innovation this event aims to facilitate and foster Canada-India collaboration and commercial partnerships. Following the Tech Summit, additional business programming will be offered in various cities throughout India, for the sectors outlined below.
Why India?
India is the world’s fourth largest economy and the second most populous country. The World Bank estimates India to be the world’s fastest-growing major economy, and projects this trend to continue for the next five years.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected in May 2014 with a mandate to achieve economic development for the country. To date, his structural and economic reforms have fostered an increasingly pro-business environment. Initiatives launched are transforming India into a manufacturing hub while eliminating unnecessary laws and regulations. Bureaucratic processes are easier and shorter, and government is more transparent, responsive and accountable. Once implemented, these reforms will enhance India’s competitiveness and increase its already impressive economic growth.
With strong people-to-people ties, growing exports and increasing two-way investment, Canada is deepening its engagement with India as a priority market. Two-way merchandise trade between Canada and India has increased by 25 percent since 2014, and investments from the public and private sectors are growing in both countries.
Sectors Overview
Advanced Manufacturing
The Government of India has ambitious goals to grow the country’s advanced manufacturing sector through the Make in India initiative. This policy, which forms the backbone of strategic alliances and government procurement, aims to increase India’s ability to indigenously design, develop and manufacture world-leading products.
A 2016 survey of more than 50 leading engineering companies in India, led by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry indicated that almost 70 percent of these companies consider a lack of technology to be impeding their productivity and quality consistency, while only 10 percent had already adopted advanced manufacturing trends. To remain globally competitive, the Indian manufacturing sector will need to invest significantly more resources in technology to design and produce innovative and technically superior products.
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Cleantech
India is moving towards a clean energy future and has implemented many programs and policies to help reach its goal. The 2015 India Energy Outlook by International Energy Agency (IEA) indicates that the government of India has set an ambitious renewable energy target of 175GW by 2022, from 37 GW as of 2013Footnote 1. India is actively looking for innovative technologies to treat wastewater, reduce air pollution, develop clean energy and improve energy efficiency. This is an excellent and timely opportunity for Canadian companies to enter the market.
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Energy
India is the world’s third-largest energy consumer, and also the world’s fourth-largest energy importer behind China, the United States and Japan. According to the EIA, fossil fuels supply about 75 percent of the primary energy demand in India and the use of fossil fuels is expected to increase to 78 percent by 2030. India’s ambitious goals to reduce emissions intensity have brought progress in the renewable energy sector, where installed capacity now accounts for 12.75 percent of the country’s total power capacity.
Significant opportunities exist in renewable energy sectors, as well as for technologies for improving ‘dirty’ energy production.
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Information and communications technologies (ICT)
According to the World Bank, India is the world’s second largest mobile marketFootnote 2 after China and continues to provide immense opportunities for Canadian ICT companies. As voice service revenues for Telecom operators decline, many are looking for new solutions to diversify their product offering and increase subscribers. This business shift has resulted in the Indian market opening up a host of new and unique opportunities, particularly in the areas of automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, smart cities, security, fintech and new age gaming.
India's leadership considers the digital economy to be a major growth enabler and is investing heavily in technology, so much so that technology is at the centre of all government programs including Make in India and Digital India. The Indian market continues to exhibit robust growth and the ongoing success of Canadian ICT companies in India further validates the potential the market has to offer.
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Life Sciences
According to the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), healthcare has become one of India’s largest sectors both in terms of revenue and employment, and is expected to nearly triple in value to US$280 billion by 2020Footnote 3. India imports nearly 80 percent of its high quality medical devicesFootnote 4, and seeks innovative solutions to improve overall healthcare, particularly in remote and rural places where approximately 70 percent of the population resides. There are a number of existing collaborations between Canada and India that companies can build on, in fields such as biosimilars, telemedicine, rural healthcare and joint medical research.
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Transportation
India’s transportation sector is large and diverse because it caters to the needs of nearly 1.3 billion people. The present transport system of India includes road, rail, shipping and air transportation. The government of India has allocated US35.7 billion for the transportation sector in its Union Budget 2017-18Footnote 5. The focus of spending continues to be on improving transportation speed, safety and efficiency.
As a country with vast infrastructure needs, India has emerging opportunities for Canadian companies in the transportation sector – including intelligent transportation systems (ITS), transportation logistics and infrastructure.
