Spring 2018 UpdateVictoria’s India Strategy, launched in January 2018, is seeing a growth in interest and awareness of opportunities between India and Victoria. |  |
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 38th (Mumbai) and 39th (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.
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/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.
The mission included productive meetings with decision makers from the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Reliance Industries, JSW Sport, Star India, Sony Pictures Network, Hockey India, Athletics Federation of India, premier sports agencies (Dentsu, Cornerstone), and leading product distributors of Sports and allied industries. In addition, there was representation from India’s leading Sport Science experts, and emerging local Sports Tech Companies: Sportz Interactive, Rooter Sports, Stancebeam and Lydor.
The delegation also visited Studio Tour of Star Sports (India’s largest sports broadcaster), Cooperage Football Stadium (one of the three FIFA Development Projects in India), Dr G.A. Ranade Tennis Centre, Mumbai (One of the best Tennis Facilities in India), and Abhinav Bindra Targeting Performance Center, Fortis Hospital, Delhi (India’s leading sport high performance center), Omtex Healthwear (leading sportswear manufacturer and distributor).
Autumn 2018 Update
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.
Summer 2018 Update
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.
