Every Crisis Gives an Opportunity to Improve Things

On 20th May, I attended a live session (passively) presented by ICBC (Indian-Canadian Business Chamber) and Invest India-National Investment Promotion & Facilitation Agency. The webinar was about “Navigating the Indian Economy Post COVID-19”. The conversation was between the High Commissioner of Canada to India (H.E. Nadir Patel), Joint Secretary DPIIT (Manmeet Nanda), Chief Executive Officer IBI Group (Scott Stewart), Senior VP Brookfield Asset Management India Group (Sridhar Rengan), India Operations Leader Bourgault Industries Ltd. (Vasant Bennett), Managing Director McCain Foods India and Subcontinent (Vikas Mittal) and moderated by the CEO of ICBC Ms. Nadira Hamid.

Major takeaways from the discussion:

1. Managing the short term economy is the priority in the midst of this crisis.

2. Improvements in bilateral trade agreements between India & Canada will help boost both their economies.

3. A structural & fundamental change in our lifestyles & business models is needed.

4. Stimulate the demand side and the supply will be provided by the industry. Boosting consumer confidence will reshape market as demand is uncertain.

5. Agriculture: Small packets introduced to create a roadmap for farmers. Biggest impediment for India is smallholder farms which must intermingle with contract farmers. The archaic laws will be changed giving farmers flexibility.

6. Food processing industry runs 30+ clusters, providing land as fixed capital investment.

7. Emerging sectors like agritech, mechanization, modernizing irrigation techniques, education tech etc. will be looked after as Canada has technical expertise and India has labour.

8. Technological ideas between both countries would be enhanced.

9. Government revised the investment limit upwards to attract FDI.

10. Large-scale Canadian investors have reassured that there is no paradigm shift in their investment policies towards India.

11. Canada is actively giving funding to the oil and gas sector, agriculture as well as students in an attempt to mitigate the shock for the next few months.

12. “Work from Home”: has allowed officials to communicate their thoughts more clearly via webinars from people across the globe.

Side Note: Joint Secretary reiterated the national innovation challenge (winning price of Rs. 1 crore) if a team comes up with a software that gives competition to Zoom.