Regional insights

Summer 2020

The start of 2020 and final quarter of 2019 brought some exceptional success stories for Victoria and India. The recent success of Victorian companies launching productions, forming new partnerships and investing in the relationship with India demonstrates the breadth of opportunities and provides useful case studies to guide your approach to the market.

High-level visits and trade missions led by Global Victoria continue to strengthen the relationship and raise the profile for Victorian businesses in India.

Looking forward, Global Victoria is working hard to support businesses in light of the impact of coronavirus. The strong relationships that Victoria and India have formed will endure. The opportunities to embrace digital engagement through eCommerce, online education and the growing connections between our startup ecosystems will play an important role.

Global Victoria will keep you updated via our website of upcoming initiatives to continue to support businesses to access international opportunities.

Success stories

• Swisse Wellness launches in India
• Goat Soap launches in India through Health and Glow
• Melbourne Gin partners with Chancery hotels to supply Melbourne Gin in India
• La Trobe University announces the first recipient of its Shah Rukh Khan scholarship for women in STEM
• Film Victoria announces the new Victorian Indian Cinema Attraction Fund
• The State Bank of India becomes the first India bank to opens an office in Melbourne
• WTP opens a new office in Chennai to support the provision of cost management services in India
• The Medtech Actuator and Bengaluru Bioinnovation Centre delivered the first Victoria-India medtech exchange program
• Beanstalk Agtech delivered the first Australia-India agtech exchange program
• RMIT University takes the SolarTuk project to India – driving a solar powered three-wheeler from Chennai to Bengaluru.
• The Minister for Jobs, Innovation and Trade leads Victorian business delegates to the Austrade’s Australia India Business Exchange in India in February 2020
• The Deputy Premier and Minister for Small Business make official visits to India in 2019
• Global Victoria delivers the first Victorian Edtech mission to India in 2019
• Global Victoria delivers the first Global Victoria Women’s Summit, GVw in Melbourne in March 2020
• VicRoads hosts Tamil Nadu government officials for a road safety immersion workshop in Melbourne in 2019.

eCommerce is growing as an important market entry platform for Victorian companies

Asialink Business and Global Victoria hosted a Victorian e-Commerce Network event on e-commerce opportunities in India in March 2020. Victorian businesses that are making inroads in India through e-commerce spoke about their journey, challenges, success and the assistance they accessed.

• Goat Soap launched its products in India in 2019 through Health and Glow’s online and physical retail stores
• Natio has had a long-term market presence in India selling through both online and offline stores including through Myntra, Nykaa and Sephora.
• Sky and Sand has established its own brand management team in India to support distribution of its products in India through a variety of e-commerce outlets including Amazon India
• Swisse launched its health and wellness products in India via Amazon India’s e-commerce platform in February 2020
• Amazon, which is launching a dedicated Australian Store on its India e-commerce site, also shared the benefits of working through Amazon India and the services it provides companies selling products on its platform.

India represents one of the fastest growing opportunities in the global e-commerce market. Jeffries Group expects the Indian online retail market to be worth US$170 billion by FY2030, growing at 23 per cent CAGR. In India, there are 550m internet users, out of which 100m are online shoppers. Online platforms such as Amazon India, Paytm Mall, Purplle and Myntra are driving growth in e-commerce, matched by the expansion plans for offline retailers such as Sephora, Health & Glow and Foodhall.

Want to access these opportunities?

Please reach out to the Global Victoria India team to discuss strategies for your products and the ways we can assist.

Closer connections between Victoria and India’s startup ecosystems supporting innovation, trade and investment opportunities

Medtech

In 2019, the MedTech Actuator successfully delivered Australia’s largest MedTech startup challenge in India: MedTech’s Got Talent (MTGT) India. The program was delivering in in collaboration with Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre (BBC) – the leading government-affiliated medtech incubator and accelerator in Bengaluru – and with the support of the Victorian Government and the Government of Karnataka.

The first leg of the program took place from 29-30 October in Bengaluru at the BBC. The Medtech Actuator CEO and Deputy CEO delivered a rapid training program, covering key areas of entrepreneurship, medtech commercialisation and pitching, for 20 start-ups from across four states in India. Through a pitch session on the final day, an expert panel selected four startups to come to Melbourne to connect with Victoria’s medtech ecosystem. The panel included the Head of the Department of Medical Electronics at the BMS College of Engineering in Bengaluru, Dr Vijayalakshmi, and startup mentor, Mr Ravikiran Prabhakara.

The second leg of the program ran in Melbourne from 1-5 December 2019. The four Indian startups joined Victorian and Australian finalists in the MedTech Actuator’s pre-accelerator program. Startups from India and Victoria worked alongside each other in industry-led sessions and received mentoring from leading players in the Australian ecosystem.

The program helped to build deeper connections between Victoria and Karnataka’s startup ecosystems, generate opportunities to conduct clinical trials and product testing in Victoria and expose Victoria’s medtech startup ecosystem to the world-leading ideas and talent in India.

The four Indian startups were Biofi Medical Healthcare with its non-invasive blood glucometer using NIR technology (incubated at BBC); Next Big Innovation Labs with its high throughput screening solution for pharma/FMCG companies to effectively do their safety and efficacy testing (incubated at BBC); Nesa Medtech with its novel, minimally-invasive, day procedure to treat symptomatic uterine fibroids (supported by BBC); and RayD8 Healthcare Innovations with its clinical diagnostic tools for detection and decision support for eye diseases.

Agtech

Melbourne-based Beanstalk Agtech delivered a two-way exchange and market immersion program for Australian and India agtech companies in 2019. Victorian startups included Tieup Farming and Digital Agricultural Services. India startups in the program included Cropin, Innovagro Foods, KrishiTantra, SatSure, Satyukt and Sensegrass.

The project was supported by an Australia-India Council, UPL, Birchip Cropping Group, the Grains Development Corporation and Farmlink. Global Victoria was pleased to be a knowledge partner in the project in line with Victoria’s India Strategy.

Read about the program’s success

GVw 2020 – connecting world-leading business women, building stronger ties with India and supporting more women in international business

The inaugural GVw 2020, Global Victoria Women’s inbound business summit in March celebrated women’s business success, grew relationships, introduced delegates to the strength of Victorian industry, showcased outstanding Victorian women leaders and helped support a more gender-inclusive business world that benefits us all.

The summit connecting women in digital gaming, medtech, sport, STEM and transport infrastructure across a four-day program of site visits, business matching and connections through uniquely Victorian experiences. Highlights included the Melbourne Metro Tunnel and the Monash Technology Precinct, the Change Our Game Symposium with Billy Jean-King, and the T20 Women’s World Cup final.

A total of 60 international business women joined the delegation, 10 of whom were from India. In addition to these numbers, the recruitment process allowed Global Victoria to engage with an even larger cohort of new business women, who want to play a role promoting and supporting Victoria in India and other markets even if they were not able to make it to Melbourne on this occasion.

Special thanks and acknowledgement to the Indian delegates: Ayushi Gudwani, Kranti Sarma, Keerti Singh, Shiji Sunil, Tasneem Fatima, Sukanya Srinivas, Aahna Mehrotra, Harini Rana, Swati Bharal, Pallavi Jain and Dr Rohini Rau, and also to those whose plans to attend were disrupted as the COVID crisis neared.

The Governor or Victoria, H.E Linda Dessau AC and Minister for Women, the Hon Gabrielle Williams MP warmly welcomed the delegates to Melbourne. Delegates also engaged with: Global Victoria CEO, Gonul Serbest; Victoria’s Chief Scientist, Dr Amanda Caples; Victoria’s Chief Engineer, Dr Collette Burke; Melbourne Lord Mayor, Sally Capp; Indigenous Runway Project founder, Tina Waru; CEO of Australian Centre for Moving Image (ACMI), Katrina Sedgwick OAM; and award winning games producer and co-found of The Girl Geek Academy, Lisy Kane.

• View the full list of Victorian industry partners and business that supported GVw 2020
• Read more from Victoria’s Commissioner to South Asia about the success of GVw 2020

Spring 2019

The BJP Modi Government has commenced its second term of government in India, with expectations for continued economic growth and hope that with an increased majority it will address important economic reforms. The return of the Modi Government will mean continuity for its flagship economic development policies and the opportunity to continue to lead economic reforms. After a busy election period in India over the first half of this year, now is the time to act on opportunities to engage with India.

This regional insights update looks at the priorities for the returning Modi Government across sectors included in Victoria’s India Strategy, outcomes from Victoria’s Liveability Trade mission to India and other recent success stories.

Economic agenda for 2019-2024 sets ambitious growth targets

The returning Modi Government has outlined it priorities for its second term in government, placing economic growth at the top of its priorities.

Over the last five years, India increased its World Bank ‘Ease of Doing Business’ rank by 65 places, moving from 142 in 2014, to 77 in 2019. India also introduce a national GST – transforming it into a single market place for first time – and a new Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code to create a single law to provide clearer recourses for businesses and help address the issue of non-performing assets holding the economy back¹.  The Government acknowledges it has a long way to go and has now set a new goal to be in the top 50 countries of the world in ease of doing business.

In his second term, Modi wants to nearly double the size of India’s economy to $5 trillion by 2024. This will be hard to achieve. India’s GDP, while still growing at 6.8 per cent in 2018-19, has dropped to a five-year low and unemployment rates are also rising². But this target does demonstrate the Government’s desire to push for economic growth, which it understands it will need to achieve through domestic reform and working with international partners and investors.

To achieve this, the Government will continue its focus on flagship initiatives including for example Digital India, Make in India, Clean India and Smart Cities.

1.http://www.forbesindia.com/blog/economy-policy/insolvency-and-bankruptcy-code-whats-all-the-noise-about/
2. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/20/world/asia/india-modi-economy.html

Union Budget 2019/20 promises significant investment in transport infrastructure

The Modi Government has focused on fiscal stimuli via spending on infrastructure and support payments to farmers. It aims to construct 35,000 kilometres of national highways and all-weather roads to every village by June 2022. It has promised to build 20 million new affordable homes over three years. And it has pledged to provide $359 billion in aid to farmers over an undefined period, primarily through direct cash payments.

To deliver this, the Indian Government will expand its use of public private partnership, which the likes of Macquarie Bank in Australia are already investing in.

The Government is taking steps towards economic reforms – but challenges remain

The main challenges for economic growth remain in agricultural reforms, banking sector reforms, labour laws and land acquisition. The returning government is taking some steps towards this:

• Modi has announced a high-level task force to report on structural reforms needed in the agriculture sector at the NITI Aayog governance committee meeting.
• The government proposes to create land banks which it will designate for industrial development and foreign investment.
• It plans to introduce a new labour law bill to Parliament in 2019, through which it aims to combine 44 central labour laws in four codes: wages, industrial realism, social security and occupations safety.

Digital India, startups and innovation remain high on India’s agenda

The Indian Government will continue to encourage the take up of digital solutions across the economy and in government service deliver, acknowledging that there still challenges to work through on this regard. Nevertheless, India already has over 800 million mobile phone users and has potential as a major ‘data economy’.

The first Union budget includes initiates to increase digital literacy and the BaratNet program to install fibre optic to rural India.

Victoria’s urban development and smart cities trade mission to India May 2019 highlighted growing opportunities in the sector

Global Victoria and Liveability Victoria International partnered to deliver a tailed program of business meetings and attendance at India’s Smart Cities Expo liveability. The business mission has provided critical insight into  opportunities for Victorian companies in India, as well as market entry and expansion models.

Opportunities for Victorian companies continue to emerge across water management, transport, urban design and smart energy with success through private, and state and local government contracts.

Water management will continue to be a priority for India. The droughts across India are bringing to a head the need for water conservation and management solutions. States have asked the Central Government to upgrade water distribution infrastructure and for a fresh river waters tribunal to address the disputes where water systems run across multiple states.

Autumn 2019

Celebrating great success stories

• Melbourne-born sports equipment company, specialising in cricket and field hockey equipment (including balls) Kookaburra has announced a partnership with Stance Beam to bring technology innovation into cricket with the first globally available smart cricket bat sensor
• Indian origin women in STEM, Asha Rao at RMIT and Onisha Patel at Walter and Eliza Hall Institute were announced in the Australian Government’s Superstars of STEM list
• Melbourne-based medtech company Respiri announces it will partner with India firm Medachievers to launches its asthma monitoring product in India
• Victorian filmmaker Peter Dickson's documentary 2 Nations 1 Obsession chronicles Australia and India’s shared cricket history, and won Best Documentary Feature at the 2019 LA Film Awards

Deakin University celebrates 25 years in India

Deakin University has become one of the leading international education providers in India through its South Asia operations, which it opened in Delhi 1994. With over 50 strategic partnerships, Deakin is involved in 100 collaborations across India. It also hosts over 5000 Indian students at its campuses, which is the largest cohort of international students and PhD candidates for the university.

Read more about Deakin’s achievements in India and new initiatives including partnering with the Chair of Biocon and Victorian Business Ambassador in India, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, to deliver a new scholarship.

Victorian universities have the largest number of partnerships in India and Victoria welcomes the largest number of international students from India than any other Australian state or territory. Read more about the depth and breadth of Victorian universities’ partnerships with India.

Supporting liveability, urban development and smart cities opportunities

There are growing opportunities for Victorian companies in the liveability sector, including urban design, water and waste solutions, environmental management and transport. Rapid urbanisation and the progress of the India Government’s 100 smart cities project is driving demand in this sector.

In October 2018, we partnered with Liveability Victoria International, City of Melbourne and Austrade to support an inbound delegation of Indian decision makers.

In February 2019, VicRoads and Safe Systems Solutions hosted a delegation from the State Government of Karnataka to promote collaboration in road safety solutions

IMAGE: Global Victoria supported a visit from Shri H D Revanna, Minister for Public Work, Government of Karnataka, India to experience Victoria’s world leading road and transport technologies designed to support Karnataka’s expansive infrastructure program

Strengthening cricket and AFL connections

The 2018 Melbourne Boxing Day Test will be remembered not just for India’s historic win but for the record crowds and community engagement at the Indian Summer Festival.

Cricket Australia and the Victorian Government presented the festival in December 2018 showcasing Victoria’s Indian culture and diaspora communities, presenting local and international companies and performers across fashion, film, street art, theatre, music and spoken word, food and sports.

The Victorian Government was a sponsor of the AFL India National Championships 2019. The West Bengal Tigers lifted the trophy at the seventh annual tournament in January 2019 in India. The success of the 2019 championships demonstrated the growing interest in AFL in India and the connections local clubs are making. The AFL and Victorian football clubs including Essendon, North Melbourne, Western Bulldogs, St Kilda, Richmond, Hume Bombers and Golden Square were all involved.

The Australia India Youth Dialogue

The Victorian Government proudly supported the Australia India Youth Dialogue (AIYD) in February 2019 in Melbourne and Sydney. The AIYD is the leading forum for discussion and collaboration between youth leaders in Australia and India. This year it brought together exceptionally talented leaders for four days of workshops, networking and engagement with government, businesses and universities. Deakin University was also a Victorian sponsor of the dialogue.

Market access for walnut exports to India

Australia and India signed a market access agreement for walnuts in February 2019. Trade will only commence once the Indian Government officially gazettes the new import conditions. In the interim, 10 trial shipments will be allowed.

Celebrating creative partnerships

Australia Fest showcased a contemporary, creative and diverse Australia to Indian audiences in 2018 and 2019.

The Victorian Government supported Australia Fest as a platinum sponsor to promote Victorian cultural content.

• The Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow took some of Victoria’s best comedic talent to Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi
• Short Black Opera, Australia’s first Indigenous-led opera company performed new work in Delhi and Mumbai
• Poyglot Children’s Theatre’s first Indian tour, visiting Kolkata and Chennai
• acclaimed singer-songwriter, Kaitt, performed at music festivals in Goa and Pune
• Churning Waters, an Indigenous Australian, Indian Australian and Indigenous Indian dance collaboration performed in Puducherry, Kanchipuram and Chennai in early 2019
• The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne’s programmer, Ms Mitu Bhowmick Lange, curated the film retrospective, 100 Years of Australian Cinema Australian, at the Kolkata International Film Festival.

Summer 2018

The nation we call India is the world's fastest growing major economy. We say the nation ‘we call India’ because we’ve come to discover that it’s more like a continent of unique cultures and languages than a single country. Although we’re a much smaller, less populous part of the world Victoria shares the Indian people’s respect for diversity and difference.

India’s growth and diversity have real implications for Victoria in the people-to-people, and trade and investment spheres. Victoria is home to the largest Indian population in Australia – in fact the number of Victorians with Indian heritage has grown by nearly 300 per cent from 2006 to 2016 to reach 209,257. This diaspora plays a key role in trade flows between India and Australia which have historically been dominated by products such as wool, pulses, fruit and nuts, and on the services side, by tourism and international education. Victoria is also a sought-after destination for Indian technology companies operating in the Oceania region. Recent investments from India in the technology industry include Ramco Systems, Ugam Solutions, Aegis, Dexler, Servion Global Solutions and Ray Business Technologies. Beyond the technology sector, notable Indian companies that have invested in Victoria include Mahindra Aerospace, Cipla Pharmaceuticals, Wadhawan Group and Zomato.

In October 2017, the Victorian Government appointed Michelle Wade as Victoria's Commissioner to South Asia. Michelle is based in Bangalore where she and her team work to strengthen trade and investment ties between South Asia and Victoria. A Victorian Government representative will visit India in early 2018 to further enhance Victoria's people-to-people, governmental and economic relations with India.

Spring 2018

Most recently, our VGTI offices in Bengaluru and Mumbai have been advancing our engagement in sports technology and startups and entrepreneurship.

The Governor’s second visit to India within one year continued to grow Victoria’s reputation as a business and education partner.

Recent business successes

• Cavalier Brewing’s partnerships with Alchemy Brewing. Bengaluru’s hip microbrewing scene’s latest opening by Alchemy Brewing was a big success, supported by products and training from Melbourne’s Cavalier Brewing.
• Victorian clothing brand, Forever New opened its 38^th (Mumbai) and 39^th (Bengaluru) stores in India in October 2018 making it arguably the most prominent Australian consumer brand in India.
• Pollinate Energy’s Victorian founder, Alexie Seller won the prestigious Advance Social Impact Award for work in India.
• Victorian women shine at the India Australia Business and Community Awards (IABCA) achieving significant recognition for their work in India.

The Governor of Victoria strengthens Victoria and India’s economic relationship and announces major sports partnerships

In September 2018, Her Excellency the Honourable Linda Dessau AC, Governor of Victoria, made her second official visit to India to reinforce Victoria’s commitment to its relationship with the country.

The Governor’s meeting with senior business and government leaders in India strengthened Victoria's trade and investment relationship with India, helping to profile the state's interest in key industry sectors and supporting new and ongoing partnerships.

In Bengaluru, the Governor met with Victorian alumni, including Victoria’s Business Ambassador and distinguished alumnus Dr Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, whose connections with Victoria are helping drive our economic relationship. The Governor also visited the prestigious Indian Institute of Science and met with leading investor Wipro which has recently established the Wipro Chair of Artificial Intelligence, based at Swinburne University.

In Hyderabad, the Governor celebrated two significant new partnerships with leading incubator T-Hub and Victoria’s start-up engines, Beanstalk for agritech and The Actuator for medtech (more information below). Her Excellency also visited IIT Hyderabad, which in September 2018 signed a joint PhD program with Swinburne University.

• Learn more about the new innovation partnerships

In Delhi, the Governor helped promote Victoria’s creative industries and food and beverages at the launch of Australia Fest, which the Victorian Government is a premier sponsor of. MasterChef’s Gary Mehigan curated a menu featuring Victorian wines and flavours at the launch event hosted by the Australian High Commission.

The Governor also announced major sports partnerships that will drive Victoria and India’s sports relationship including:

• Tennis Australia's Australian Open Global Ball Kids program which will enable 1000 young people in Indian schools and sporting clubs to participate in a training camp, with up to ten selected to represent India at the Australian Open in January 2019 as part of the Australia Fest activities
• The release of the Cricket Australia documentary, ‘2 Nations 1 Obsession’ which focuses on the rivalry between India and Australia and will be televised on Sony in India
• The technology partnership between Australian Open Tennis and Indian technology leader, Infosys
• Australian Rules Football workshops and performance testing for 3000 children in Mumbai, Coimbatore and Ooty as part of a project between Richmond FC, Primitive Sports and Swinburne University
• Victoria’s principal sponsorship of the Australian Sikh Games to be held in Melbourne in April 2019.

Sports tech trade mission delivers opportunities for Victorian organisations

Building on the sports partnership announced during the Governor’s visit, Global Victoria led a sports trade mission to Delhi and Mumbai from 8-12 October 2018 to take part in India’s Sports Analytics Conference and meet major partners in the sports sectors.  The mission was the largest Sport-specific Trade Mission (13 organisations and 15 delegates) to visit India, surpassing the UK’s 11 company delegation that visited early this year.

Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN), Albion Sports Technology (Brand Albion X), Cricket Victoria, Elite Akademy Sports Medicine, Hockey Australia, Kangatech, One Management Group, Sportstg, Supacore, Swinburne University of Technology’s Centre For Design Innovation , and Victoria University joined the delegation. Victorian Catapult Sports and La Trobe University were also major sponsors of the conference, and are active in India's growing professional sports industry.

• Learn more about opportunities for Victorian companies in India’s sports sector

Autumn 2018

In February this year, the Victorian Government Trade and Investment (VGTI) office in Bangalore, India hosted a visit to the region by the Minister for Trade and Investment. This was the first trip by the Minister to the region which included visits to Bangalore, Chennai and Colombo. The Minister was accompanied by a visiting delegation of Victorian sportstech companies led by Australian Sports Technologies Network.

Victoria's India Strategy: Our Shared Future

The trip complements implementation of the recently-unveiled ‘Victoria’s India Strategy: Our shared future’ which aims to position Victoria as a valued knowledge and business partner to India, supported by India-capable businesses, strong ties to leaders and sustained connections with the community and public sector.

• Read the news release for the Strategy
• Read the Strategy PDF, 6.4 MB.
• Read an accessible version of the Strategy DOCX, 108.2 KB