http://www.thestar.com/article/1002699–siddiqui-vast-indian-diaspora-builds-bridges
On Jan. 9, 1915, Mahatma Gandhi returned home after 22 years in South Africa where he invented non-violent resistance to fight racial discrimination. He would use satyagraha (Truth Force) in India to end British colonial rule in 1947. Now on Jan. 9 every year, New Delhi hosts 1,500 representatives of the vast Indian diaspora of 25 million from 100 countries.
A regional version comes to Toronto Thursday and Friday at the Metro Convention Centre for the 600,000 Indo-Canadians and the four million people of Indian origin in the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean. Wooing the 500 delegates will be Governor General David Johnston and Premier Dalton McGuinty plus a ministerial and business delegation of about 100 from India. India received $54 billion last year in remittances and investment from its diaspora. That’s more than the annual trade between India and the U.S. — and 10 times the trade between Canada and India. Canada wants that trade tripled to $15 billion by 2015. It is negotiating a bilateral free trade agreement. It has already signed a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement.
To tap into India’s burgeoning $1.2 trillion economy, it wants to sell more commodities, machinery and services. It wants to help Canadian companies bid on hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure projects. Prime Ministers Stephen Harper and Manmohan Singh designated 2011 as “the Year of India in Canada.” Tomorrow, Jim Flaherty’s budget is expected to include $12 million for a research centre of excellence on India in Canada. Arrayed with him on the front benches will be two Indo-Canadian junior ministers, including the first bearded, turbaned, kirpan-carrying Sikh member of a federal cabinet, Tim Uppal of Edmonton. On June 25, the International Indian Film Academy is holding its annual awards night in Toronto. All 22,000 seats at the Rogers Centre have been sold out for weeks. A live telecast on Omni, hosted by Lisa Ray, expects an audience of 700 million worldwide.