An Indian perspective
by Co-President, Dr. Harjit Singh Anand
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Harjit S. Anand
Co-President
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Dear members and friends,
The Indian Mission on "Affordable Housing & Construction related Enterprises" that we took to Paris, Barcelona, Madrid and Valladolid in June evoked a warm and appreciative response from the Indian Delegation. In particular, the Field Visits stood out for their clear-cut focus and careful selection, thanks to commendable ground work by local members and hosts.
The European Financial Models for Affordable Housing were versatile and extremely interesting. The Delegates were deeply interested in looking at Public-Private-Partnership Models which create a win-win situation for both the Local & Central Authorities as well as the Private Sector.
The building materials used as well as the technology adopted evinced an exciting debate amongst the participants. The Delegates were keen to understand the nuances of pre-fab technologies which considerably reduced the time taken in construction. The reasonable cost of a few pre-fab Technologies was also a matter of discussion.
The Delegates were keenly interested in exploring the possibility of Joint Ventures. They felt that opportunities in this regard need to be enhanced with scope for greater interaction with Corporates.
The need for greater involvement of the representatives of leading Research & Development Institutions and Financial Institutions was also felt.
On the whole, the Mission was a resounding success. The Corporates commended the choice of Housing Projects for Field Visits. The Secretaries of Housing from various States and the Chief Secretary of Maharashtra were unanimous that the Mission on Affordable Housing was a great learning experience!
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Yours sincerely,
Harjit S. Anand
Co-President
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A Spanish perspective
by Co-President Colette Mathur
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Colette Mathur
Co-President
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Dear members and friends,
I had the pleasure of attending Horasis Global India Business Meeting in Madrid on 21-23 June, presided over by Anand Sharma, Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry and. Miguel Sebastian, Spanish Minister of Industry.
Minister Sharma was quite positive in his comments on India 's economic prospects with a current rate of 7% GDP growth and the perspective of double digit growth for 2012-13. India has indeed been much less affected by last year's crisis than the West. India enjoys fast growing domestic consumption and is investing vast amounts in infrastructure development (550 bios US $). It also wishes to share technologies and resources with Europe and is negotiating a free trade agreement with the E.U..
Miguel Sebastian, on the contrary, admitted that Spain is undergoing a severe economic slowdown (-3% GDP Growth and 20% unemployment), even though the situation seems to be slowly improving. He said that Spanish companies are very eager to develop closer partnerships with India. They are particularly competitive and have developed innovative technologies in sustainable urbanization, e-health, renewable energy, financial services, among others. They want to globalize and are looking at India as a long term partner for exchange of technologies and two-ways investments. Business leaders from Spain were of the same opinion and are avidly looking at areas for direct investments and PPP's: Calling Colombus' bluff at long last!
After two days of intensive discussions (more information on www.horasis.com), the overall feeling was that, today, Europe is looking to Asia, and particularly India, to recover some of its lost dynamism and ensure its financial and economic recovery. Is it realistic?
We at the Centre believe that Europe has no other option. The Centre was created by Dr Manmohan Singh and late Prime Minister Raymond Barre precisely to encourage Europeans to engage with India, look at all opportunities for investment, partnership and exchange of know-how and technologies for mutual benefit.
Europeans have not striven enough to discover democratic India, the emerging World power with a booming economy, talented business leaders, engineers and scientists, innovative products and a vibrant culture. Let us rediscover the road to India together!
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Yours sincerely,
Colette Mathur
Co-President
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