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India-Canada-Nov19-03

The India-Canada Track 1.5 Dialogue on Innovation, Growth and Prosperity is a three-year initiative between Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), to explore areas for closer cooperation. Experts, government officials and business leaders will convene annually to promote bilateral economic growth and innovation in today’s digital economy.

India and Canada maintain strong bilateral relations built on the foundation of shared values and healthy economic ties. Economic exchanges between India and Canada are on an upward trajectory, but there continue to be unexplored areas for mutually beneficial growth, especially in light of rapid developments in technology that are changing every facet of the economy and society in both countries. To address these challenges, the partnership will help develop policy recommendations to promote innovation and navigate shared governance issues that are integral to the continued growth of India-Canada bilateral relations.

The India-Canada Track 1.5 Dialogue on Innovation, Growth and Prosperity strives to build closer ties between India and Canada and nurture the relationship to its full potential. India and Canada can be global leaders in innovation and the India-Canada Track 1.5 Dialogue will seek opportunities to work jointly on multilateral issues and identify areas where improved cooperation could benefit both countries.

In addition to its focus on innovation, the partnership will examine topics such as collaboration on research and higher education, promotion of India-Canada trade and investment, energy cooperation, and issues pertaining to global governance.

Through this partnership, India and Canada can be intellectual partners and cooperate in the design of their global governance frameworks.

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On November 22, Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations and Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) hosted the India-Canada Track 1.5 Dialogue.

The roundtable meeting was held in Mumbai. The participants included representatives from India’s Ministry of External Affairs and Global Affairs Canada; and other distinguished representatives. The discussions focused on issues related to cyber security, economic relations, geoengineering and climate leadership, as well as a broader perspective on India and Canada’s diplomatic relations.

Final Cover-Cooperation in Trade in Services

The shift in the global trend from trade in goods to trade in services, especially digital services has focused attention on the necessity of a modern and robust regulatory framework for it. The bilateral steps by India and Canada outlined in this paper can feed into current efforts by multilateral institutions to develop a universal framework for capturing services trade data.

Over the past decade, there has been a shift in global trade from trade in goods to trade in services. Unlike goods, services are intangible and consumed by the user directly, without intermediate supervision. Thus, the only way to ensure the quality of a service is to enforce standards on the service provider. This is the responsibility of domestic sector-specific regulatory institutions established by the government.

The Indian and Canadian regulatory systems have: mature regulators (telecommunications, financial services); disaggregated or immature regulators (education, health care, real estate); or no regulators (information technology [IT]); represented by their respective chambers of commerce on specific issues.

You can download the PDF version of this paper here.

Akshay Mathur is former Director of Research, Gateway House.

Purvaja Modak is former Researcher, Geoeconomic Studies Programme, Gateway House.

India-Canada Track 1.5_Fostering Growth in Digital Trade

Trade is important for both Canada and India. For Canada, as an industrialized economy endowed with enormous resource gifts but a small domestic market, trade is essential. Trade represents a large share of the economy and makes an important contribution to Canadians’ high standard of living. For India, while it is less dependent on trade due to a much larger domestic market, expanding exports and attracting investment are essential to sustain rapid economic growth, and to create jobs and economic prosperity for a large and growing labour force.

Trade is changing. Technology has been the principal driver of trade growth, through improvements in production, transportation and communications. Growth in communications capacity and decreases in the cost of computing have altered traditional economic development and, together with the internet, created the foundations for the most recent tectonic shift in the nature of business and trade – the emergence of an economy, in which the most important resource is data. 

You can download the PDF version of this paper here.

Don Stephenson is the Former Chief Trade Negotiator, India-Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.

India-Canada Energy Cooperation

India is now the world’s third-largest consumer of petroleum, with imports of more than four million barrels per day (bpd). This rate is projected to increase to nine million bpd by 2040.

Petroleum is the single largest item on India’s import bill and high oil prices are a risk to India’s economic growth. Over the past 15 years, India’s public sector oil companies have made more than 50 investments in oil and gas fields across the world to reduce the risk from high energy prices.

In contrast, Canada has the world’s third-largest petroleum reserves in the form of oil sands and is also the third-largest exporter of petroleum. Canada’s petroleum sector, which produces 5.2 million bpd of oil, is projected to grow to 6.5 million bpd by 2030, despite opposition from sections of the public and the inability thus far to put in needed pipeline infrastructure. Despite this growth, the India-Canada energy trade is minuscule and there is no significant current Indian investment in Canada’s energy sector either.

You can download the PDF version of this paper here.

Amit Bhandari is Fellow, Energy and Environment Studies Programme, Gateway House.

India-Canada_Olaf Weber

Emerging economies, such as India, will need significant international investment in climate action in order to transition toward a future that is low-carbon and climate-resilient. India needs fossil fuels at an affordable price and needs to protect itself against price fluctuations. It can meet these needs by investing in Canadian oil companies, given the country’s political stability and rule of law. As an emerging economy, India could attract greater foreign direct investment into its economy through green bonds, a climate finance debt instrument that addresses environmental and climate-related challenges. Not only are green bond issuances linearly increasing over the years, but they also seem to be driven by institutional pressure, provided in part by the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s regulation, as well as by the informal advocacy efforts of market stakeholders. These findings are consistent with institutional theory and contribute to it by introducing the regulatory perspective of the green bond market.

You can download the PDF version of this paper here.

Olaf Weber is Senior Fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), Canada & University of Waterloo Research Chair in Sustainable Finance, Professor & Associate Director of Graduate Studies.

 

Vasundhara Saravade is Research Assistant, University of Waterloo.

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While India and Canada are each individually taking steps to enhance their cyber security capacity, increased collaboration between the two countries in the realm of cyber security would increase systemic trust while creating opportunities to promote the nations’ strategic and economic interests. There are several similarities in the cyber security threats that both countries face, including being the subjects of attacks with suspected Chinese origins, and mutual concerns over terrorism and election manipulation.

You can download the PDF version of this paper here.

Aarun Shull is Managing Director and General Counsel, Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).

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India and Canada face multiple common cyber security challenges. Not the least of these are digital black markets, where contraband and illegal services are bought and sold. These markets have abetted drug smuggling, facilitated cyber crimes and contributed to terrorist activities. Despite frequent security crackdowns, these marketplaces have proved to be resilient. This paper reviews the measures both India and Canada have taken to disrupt digital black markets and examines opportunities to expand current security cooperation strategies.

Both countries can work bilaterally and move to discredit these marketplaces. At the multilateral level, the two countries can contribute to international security and cyberspace stability by building the capacity to fight cybercrime while raising these issues at the Group of Twenty and the Conference on Disarmament. In shaping such collaboration, both India and Canada will need to demonstrate innovative thinking in the manner already shown by the digital black markets.

You can download the PDF version of this paper here.

Sameer Patil is Director, Center for International Security and Fellow, National Security Studies, Gateway House

ClimateEngineering_GH_CIGI_Cover

The UN’s Paris Agreement is best known as the commitment by nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to slow the rise in global temperatures. But less-heralded provisions of the pact go further than that. In an acknowledgment that emissions-reduction alone will not resolve the unfolding climate crisis, a call has been made for the development of carbon sinks to remove gases already in the atmosphere. These less-heralded greenhouse gas removal technologies are essential to achieving the pact’s goal of keeping the global average surface temperature from rising more than the 1.5 degrees Celsius. These steps are also a key to ensuring that India and Canada meet their ambitious climate-action goals without suffering severe socio-economic and climatic harm.

You can download the PDF version of this paper here.

Chaitanya Giri is Fellow, Space and Ocean Studies, Gateway House.

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Countries in the Global South are incentivized through funding schemes, such as the Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative (SRMGI) Decimal Fund, to invest in pathways that could lead toward justification for deployment of climate intervention technologies, but without adequate consideration of the social dimensions of engagement in climate intervention research. Simply funding basic climate engineering modelling will not be effective in supporting climate intervention experimentation.

The paper recommends a three-step process to remedy this oversight and to do so, keeping in mind the imperatives of responsible research and action: Canada and India could engage with a leading African country to consider what participation in climate intervention research would mean in their context and to develop a viewpoint to engage on the topic at an international level; encourage Canadian and Indian counterparts to conduct national policy discussions on climate intervention research; and increase public awareness of climate intervention technologies, coupled with democratic participatory governance.

You can download the PDF version of this paper here.

Timiebi Aganaba-JeantyAssistant Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University & Fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).

On October 30, 2018, at the Fairmount Château Laurier in Ottawa, Canada, Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) will host Canada’s inaugural session of the India-Canada Track 1.5 Dialogue on Innovation, Growth and Prosperity. This session will bring together experts and government officials to examine issues related to cyber security, economic relations, geoengineering and climate leadership and to have a broader discussion on India and Canada’s diplomatic relations. Participants include Rohinton Medhora, President of CIGI; Manjeet Kripalani, Executive Director at Gateway House; representatives from India’s Ministry of External Affairs and Global Affairs Canada; and other distinguished representatives.

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The increasingly digital economy is changing daily life in emerging and advanced economies alike; India and Canada are no exception. While both nations face their own unique challenges amid rapid technological advancement, their shared values create a unique opportunity for collaboration. The Canada-India Track 1.5 Dialogue on Innovation, Growth and Prosperity — a three-year partnership between the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and Gateway House — was created to explore those opportunities.

By convening experts, government officials and business leaders, the Track 1.5 Dialogue will promote bilateral economic growth and innovation, and identify areas where improved cooperation could benefit both countries. In this video, CIGI President Rohinton P. Medhora, Gateway House Executive Director Manjeet Kripalani — along with government stakeholders from both Canada and India — introduce the Dialogue and what it hopes to accomplish.

On 20 February 2018, Manjeet Kripalani, Executive Director of Gateway Houseand Rohinton Medhora, President of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), along with the Honourable Harjit Sajjan, Minister of National Defence of the Government of Canada, announced the launch of the Canada-India Dialogue on Innovation, Growth and Prosperity, an initiative that will convene key experts, government officials and business leaders to promote bilateral economic growth and innovation in today’s digital economy.

Read the official press release from the event.

Watch: Canadian Minister for National Defence, Harjit S Sajjan, discusses contemporary security issues, international peacekeeping, bilateral defence ties, and geopolitical arenas, relevant to India, Canada, and the world. See the exclusive interview.

Gateway House articles on India-Canada relations

Better India-Canada ties can help contain China

Canada is committed to playing a larger role in the Indo-Pacific and has adopted a pragmatic approach to achieving its five objectives. These are promoting peace and security; expanding trade; connecting people; building a sustainable and green future; with Canada serving as an active partner in the Indo-Pacific. India will do well to understand Canada’s compulsions and work with it with enthusiasm.

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India and Canada: A third pole

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s controversial wading into the Punjab farmers’ protests has obfuscated the hard work done by diplomats and think tanks on both sides over the past three years, to boost the bilateral. India and Canada have much to gain from each other’s strengths in technology, natural resources and investment, and even more if they collaborate internationally to develop an alternative to the current bipolar world order

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Readiness for cyber warfare

India and Canada can collaborate in the realm of cybersecurity by devising a common set of rules for governing cyber space. Aaron Shull, Managing Director and General Counsel, Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), spoke to Gateway House on the sidelines of the India-Canada Track 1.5 Dialogue

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Green technologies’ win-win possibilities

Olaf Weber, Senior Fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), University of Waterloo Research Chair in Sustainable Finance, one of the participants in the India-Canada Track 1.5 Dialogue, on how green finance and economic development are not contradictory any more

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Does the WTO have a future?

Don Stephenson, former Chief Trade Negotiator, India-Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, discusses how India and Canada can work together on effecting reform in the World Trade Organization

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New norms for globalisation’s digital challenges

Rohinton Medhora, President, Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), Waterloo, Canada, and co-host of the second edition of the India-Canada Track 1.5 Dialogue in Mumbai, spoke to Gateway House on how data management and governance around new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, are the issues of the future

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India-Canada: blueprint for cooperation

The second edition of the India-Canada Track 1.5 Dialogue, held in Mumbai last month, drew many ideas from experts and government officials on diversifying and deepening the strategic partnership. A summary of some of the outcomes

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EAM’s statement on India-Canada Track 1.5 Dialogue

The India-Canada Track 1.5 Dialogue on Innovation, Growth and Prosperity, an initiative agreed upon in February 2018 by the two prime ministers, provides an opportunity for the bilateral relationship to grow through geopolitical convergence, greater economic collaboration and people-to-people interaction. A statement by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar for the second edition of the Dialogue, held in Mumbai on 22 November 2019

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India & Canada: allies for strategic counter-balance

It’s time to start moving on matters in which Canada is a natural ally for India – trade liberalization, energy investments, intellectual property and the rules around e-commerce in particular and big data governance in general.

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Second India-Canada Track 1.5 Dialogue focuses on futuristic areas of Data and Trade Cooperation

Gateway House and CIGI co-host the second edition of the India – Canada Track 1.5 Dialogue. The discussions from the roundtable can lead to the formulation of policy recommendations

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India-Canada: different geopolitics, common interests

Canada, a middle power, and India, an aspiring middle power, have much to offer each other. The India-Canada Track 1.5 Dialogue, the second edition of which will be held on November 22 in Mumbai, is designed to advance the relationship. Manjeet Kripalani, Executive Director, Gateway House, in conversation with Cleo Paskal, Associate Fellow, Chatham House, who is in the city for the Dialogue and to lead a second initiative, called the Indo-Pacific Engagement

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Kartarpur-Canada-India-China

The recent opening of the Kartarpur corridor in Punjab and the release of a Canadian parliamentary report on the security breach during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s India visit are important developments. They present a good opportunity for New Delhi to step up cooperation with Ottawa on countering terrorism and violent extremism

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A futuristic agenda for India & Canada

India can draw Canada in a new direction – away from its trans-Atlantic fixation, into the Indo-Pacific and a tech and resources partnership that will benefit both democracies

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Three pillars of Canada’s worldview

The United States, Europe and the Asia Pacific today form Canada’s tripartite foreign policy priorities. The ASEAN is its sixth largest partner, which was not so 20 years ago, but economic engagement with India – still small, compared to China and Japan – has scope to grow

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Khalistan 2.0: revival of Sikh separatism

Radical Sikh elements within the Indian diaspora have found the permissive political climate in Canada, North America and Europe conducive to building a support base in their respective countries, while donations from gurdwaras abroad and social media propaganda have fuelled separatist efforts in Punjab. India may have to step with care, containing the hostile propaganda, yet not appearing too stern in its response

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New Canada-India Partnership to Promote Bilateral Economic Growth and Innovation

The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and Gateway House, along with the Honourable Harjit Sajjan, Minister of National Defence of the Government of Canada, announced the launch of the Canada-India Dialogue on Innovation, Growth and Prosperity,

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Interview with Harjit Sajjan, Canadian Minister for National Defence

Canadian Minister for National Defence, Hon’ble Harjit S Sajjan, discusses contemporary security issues, international peacekeeping, bilateral defence ties, and geopolitical arenas, relevant to India, Canada, and the world. More specifically, he converses about prospects of peace in Afghanistan, the geopolitics of and Canadian sovereignty over the Arctic, UN peacekeeping programs initiated by Canada, focus areas for India and Canada defence relations, and the Quad initiative.

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Launch of the India-Canada Track 1.5 Dialogue 2018

Gateway House and The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), along with the Honourable Harjit Sajjan, Minister of National Defence of the Government of Canada, announced the launch of the Canada-India Dialogue on Innovation, Growth and Prosperity. View the official press Read more

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How India-Canada business ties can bloom

Canada’s commercial relationship with India needs to go beyond lentils, uranium and other resources to explore the scope of greater cooperation on renewable energy and cutting-edge technology. There are strong reasons for the two countries to draw closer—even if other countries always loom larger. Prime Minister Trudeau visits India this week

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India in Canada’s worldview

India hardly figures in current discourse on Canadian foreign policy. Yet, the two countries are important to each other: one, a source of investment, technology and energy, the other an attractive market. The current challenge is to conclude negotiations on long-pending trade and investment agreements

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India-Canada ties: waiting for Trudeau

One is an advanced economy, the other an emerging one, and yet they share a striking complementarity of interests—from democracy and liberal values to a history of cordial relations. But two important economic agreements remain as chasms to be bridged

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Komagata Maru: mission to Canada

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his April 14-17 visit to Canada, will visit the Komagata Maru Museum & Monument in Vancouver, an important milestone in Canada’s Indian diaspora as well as Asian immigrant history

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India: a market for Canadian LNG

Can India be a prospective liqueified natural gas (LNG) market for Canada? Rajrishi Singhal provides an overview of natural gas and LNG supply and demand in India, factors impacting India’s future LNG consumption, and Canada’s strengths and weaknesses as an LNG supplier for India

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