Modi meets bankers, pension fund managers in Canada

Toronto, April 16
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Canadian bankers and pension fund managers at a business meet here on Thursday and pitched for investments in India.

"Business before breakfast PM @narendramodi meets bankers, pension fund managers & pitches for investments from Canada," tweeted Syed Akbaruddin, spokesperson of the external affairs ministry.

"Demand to do business with India has gone up exponentially; India now on top of our list- Canadian investors to PM," he added.

Canada is the last leg of Modi's three-nation tour, during which he has pushed the ambitious "Make in India" initiative and signed several agreements, including a deal on the supply of uranium to power India's civilian nuclear programme.

In the Canadian capital Ottawa, India's National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) on Thursday signed 13 memoranda of understanding with 12 Canadian educational institutions, including nine colleges, NSDC said in a statement.

"The objectives of these MoUs are for starting academies of excellence for training trainers and assessors, and to create transnational standards with Canadian sector skill councils," it said.

Each Canadian college will be paired with an Indian partner that's focused on a specific sector, such as aviation, healthcare or agriculture. The colleges will work through centres of excellence overseas that have been established by NSDC.

Modi arrived in Toronto from Ottawa on Wednesday and addressed a 10,000-strong crowd of Indo-Canadians.

On Thursday, he will also visit the memorial of the victims of the Air India flight 182 that was bombed in 1985.

He will then travel to Vancouver, from where he will fly back to India.

Describing India and Canada as "bright spots on the global economic landscape", Indian industry chamber Assocham said on Thursday that Modi's ongoing visit is an opportunity to take the bilateral relationship to the next level.

"While bilateral investments have increased tenfold since 2005, there is significant scope to raise this further. India must look to forge strong partnership with Canada in key strategic areas like education, science and technology, infrastructure, renewable energy, oil and gas," the chamber said in a statement in New Delhi.