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India reached the milestone of administering one billion coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccinations on 21 October 2021.
At the end of December 2021, the Indian Government reported it had delivered over 1.45 billion doses and that 89 per cent of India’s eligible population have had at least one dose and 64 per cent are fully vaccinated. Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) now recognises the three most widely used vaccinations across South Asia: AstraZeneca COVISHIELD, Bharat Covaxin and Sinopharm.
Important steps are being made to support the services sector and bi-lateral travel. The Victorian Government’s International Student Arrivals Plan helped welcome students back to Victoria in December 2021. Furthermore, Qantas has commenced a new Melbourne to Delhi route from 22 December 2021.
Read our International Education Market Insights for a detailed report.
Upcoming opportunities for Victorian businesses
- The Study Melbourne Hub India is now open, providing virtual support for students and Victoria’s education sector and would like to partner with Victorian education providers and edtech companies to leverage the Hub.
- The Pune International Business Summit 2022 is scheduled from 1-2 March 2022. The event is hosted by Maharashtra’s largest industry chamber, the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce and Industries’ (MCCIA). Pune has an incredible reputation for technology, food processing and engineering and our VGTI South Asia team is actively growing relationships in this city.
- The tenth Vibrant Gujarat will take place in 2022. The event was originally scheduled for January 2022 but has been postponed to a later date. The summit is one of India’s largest state government trade and investment events and DFAT/Austrade will manage an Australian presence.
Contact our India team to learn more about these opportunities
Victorian business success stories
- Global Education Solutions is partnering with India’s Eupheus Learning, one of India’s leading education distributors that works with approximately 13,000 schools in India, to roll out its MyKensho life skills learning product
- Mindsets Learning is also entering India through a partnership with Eupheus Learning to help Mindsets reach a large cohort for its STEM education products for k-12 students
- E2 Learning reached one million YouTube subscribers on their E2 test prep channel, for which India is the leading market
India remains one of the fastest growing economies in the world
The IMF maintained India’s GDP growth forecast at 9.5 per cent for the 2021 financial year and 8.5 per cent in 2022. While much of this growth is catch up growth after India experienced a retraction of 7.3 per cent in 2020, it shows confidence in the resilience of India’s economy and that it will remain one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
Strong consumer demand is helping drive India’s renewed growth. CEIC reported private consumption rose to 57 per cent of India’s GDP in the September 2021 quarter. Resilience in India’s manufacturing sector and services sector is also supporting India’s optimistic economic outlook.
The response to COVID-19 has helped fast track India’s push towards a digital economy, with enhanced digital services, investment in digital infrastructure and greater technology take up from consumers. India’s startup sector has expanded rapidly. In the first three quarters of 2021, India gained 34 new unicorns, one every ten days, and startups raised over US$48 billion as reported by Crunch Base.
India’s eCommerce sales grew over 30 per cent from US$40 billion in 2019 to US$52 million in 2020 and eCommerce solutions provider EasyEcom expects sales will reach up to $84 billion in 2021.
Supporting continued growth in the sector is the number of new shoppers coming online. There were 150 million online shoppers in Indian in 2020. Redseer consulting expects the number of online shoppers will reach 190 million in 2021 and continue to grow to 300 million over the next five years, with many of these new online shoppers being from second and third tier cities in India.
Victoria launches the Study Melbourne Hub India
The Study Melbourne Hub India provides virtual support for Indian students (current, future and alumni) studying with a Victorian education provider to bring Melbourne to students and support their studies. The Hub provides virtual events and activities to enhance student experiences and connect students to services and programs offered by Victorian education providers.
Global Victoria is delighted to welcome Abirami Vilvanathan as the Manager, Study Melbourne Hub India. Based in the Victorian Government Trade and Investment Office in Bengaluru, Abi leads the operations of the India Study Hub. Abi gained her master’s degree in Australia, and has over 10 years’ experience in corporate banking and education in Australia and India.
Abi and the Study Melbourne team are working with education providers and edtech companies to partner on events and activities and will be keen to hear from you if you would like to partner to leverage the Study Hub India.
We aim to connect directly with as many Indian students offshore as possible through the Study Melbourne Hub India. We hope to be able to open a physical hub in Bengaluru, India, in the future.
To get involved, contact the Study Melbourne India
Australia India Free Trade Agreement Negotiations
Negotiations for the Australia India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement resumed in September 2021. Both the Australian and Indian trade ministers issued a joint statement that they want to finalise negotiations on the full agreement by the end of 2022. This will be the first bilateral trade agreement between Australia and India and aims to cover both goods, services, investment and rules and regulations.
DFAT welcomes submissions from interested business and stakeholders on the opportunities, impact and issues of importance.
Previous updates
Winter 2021 Update
The first half of 2021 has seen Victorian exporters continue to pursue opportunities in South Asia. With the support of the Victorian Government Trade and Investment (VGTI) offices in Bangalore and Mumbai, exporters have had success in sectors from education and training to beauty and health.
Coronavirus crisis continues to improve slowly in India with states beginning to lift restrictions. The IMF projects that India’s economy will grow by 9.5 per cent in the 2021 Indian fiscal year, above the 6 per cent forecast global economic growth and recovering from India’s negative 7.3 per cent growth
in 2020.
Business success stories
- Victorian edtech and digital wellness company, TALi Digital launches its Indian platform via Times of India. The two apps — the TALi app and TALi TRAIN — are designed to improve the attention skills of children aged three to eight, to
support their ability to listen, learn and focus on tasks at home and at school. - Xentrix Studios, one of India’s leading animation houses expanded to Australia with the acquisition of Viskatoons, Victoria’s longest running animation house. The new entity
in Melbourne, Xentrix Australia will create and produce unique content for the global AVGC industry. - In the last quarter Swisse Wellness has continued to grow in India by listing on three local eCommerce channels, ShopClues and Vegandukan as well as healthcare platform GoQii Health Store,
demonstrating the growing breadth of the eCommerce sector in India
Victorian industry sectors profiled in India
The VGTI is growing awareness of Victorian products, services and capabilities by undertaking targeted digital campaigns in India that profile Victorian companies. These campaigns profile Victoria’s strengths in emerging sectors including beauty and wellness, edtech, gaming, energy tech and
medtech on various digital platforms including LinkedIn, YouTube, Industry Features,
Instagram, and podcast platforms.
Leading Victorian health and beauty brands introduced to India via Virtual Trade Mission
Global Victoria ran a Beauty and Skincare Virtual Trade Mission to India in March 2021 which saw twelve Victorian brands introduced
to offline and online channels, including Amazon India, Purplle, Nykaa, Shoppers Stop, Tata Cliq, and distributors, including Beauty Concepts and Luxasia. The brands took part in a masterclass on the regulatory landscape in India, presented by a leading consulting firm, as well as a session on the impact
of digital marketing in India by a leading PR firm.
The Indian beauty, skincare and cosmetics market has witnessed a strong growth in the last four to five years with international brands flocking to get a slice of this burgeoning market. Victorian brands have shown a strong interest in the market
on the back of the success of brands such as Swisse, Goat Soap, Natio and Sukin. The growth of Indian ecommerce channels, such as Nykaa, Purplle, and the reduction in costs of regulatory approvals have further stimulated interest from exporters and importers in the sector.
Strengthening relationships between Victorian education providers and South Asian schools
From September 2020 to April 2021, the VGTI convened a first-of-its-kind professional development workshop series for school academic guidance counsellors. The series of seven workshops connected 250 school counsellors from India, Sri Lanka
and the Maldives with Victorian education and training institutions to provide training in career advisory and advice on supporting students with education opportunities in Victoria.
The South Asian schools were selected on the basis of diversity of region, curriculum, and engagement. Victorian universities, TAFES, schools and edtech companies engaged with the school counsellors to build awareness of Victorian education and training offerings and provide information on admission processes.
They also delivered specialist professional development training on subjects including career planning and vocational guidance, critical thinking and creativity, dealing with addictions, mental health, internet safety, cyber bullying and supporting children with special needs.
Given the strong take up and positive feedback from the workshops, the VGTI will explore expanding the series this year.
Global Gateway helps businesses to expand across South Asia
On 29 March 2021, the Victorian Government announced the Global Gateway grant recipients, with 26 businesses receiving assistance to expand their business to markets across South Asia.
The companies are from a diverse range of sectors, from education and training, retail, food and beverage to manufacturing. The team from Global Victoria's Melbourne headquarters, and the Bengaluru and Mumbai VGTI offices look forward to working with these companies to realise their export ambitions in the region.
Global Victoria Women (GVw) India alumni share their achievements
One year on from the inaugural Global Victoria Women’s Summit in Melbourne, Victoria’s Commissioner to South Asia met, virtually, with the Indian delegatesTasneem Fatima, Harini, N Rana, Rohini Rau, Kranti Sarma, Aahna Mehrotra , Keerti Singh, Pallavi Jain, Shiji Sunil and Ayushi Gudwani.
The supportive group of professional women shared their recent achievements, their ongoing connections with Victoria and their tips on mental health and wellbeing management over the last year while navigating some of the difficult and very personal impacts of Coronavirus.
Recent achievements from the cohort include:
► Pallavi Jain scaled up her business, Krsnaa Diagnostics, to deliver over 1,000,000 COVID-19 tests and the first mobile testing bus.
► Shiji Sunil supported the introduction and testing of new technologies to enable more mobile workforces in the animation industry.
► Ayushi Gudwani has re-shaped her specialist women’s workwear company, Fable Street, to deal with work from home.
► Harini Rana will join the International Cricket Council’s Future Leaders Program in recognition of her sports broadcasting contributions and talent.
Victoria extends its ongoing support for international students
About 80 per cent of enrolled students from South Asia remain in Victoria. The Victorian Government announced on 7 June an additional $30 million package to ensure critical help – including food and financial support – is made available to communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
The package also expands Foodbank Victoria’s mobile food van service across the state, reaching vulnerable groups such as casual workers and students, as well as extending Foodbank’s pop-up international student supermarket in the Melbourne CBD until December 2021.
Summer 2021 Update
Victorian businesses continued to connect and pursue business opportunities with South Asia throughout 2020. While there are still challenges ahead, economic activity in major South Asian economies continues a steady return towards pre-coronavirus levels and vaccination plans are now in place in each
country in the region.
The economic outlook for 2021 is positive and businesses will be able to capitalise on the changes to business practices and consumer behaviour that took place in the region in 2020.
This update provides insights into opportunities in India’s newly released Australia Economic Strategy, India’s 2021 Budget, growing opportunities in the innovation and tech sector, recent business successes and the support Global Victoria will continue to provide Victorian businesses through virtual trade missions, the Global Gateway program and other events.
Business success stories
- Swisse continues to expand its e-commerce presence in India, with Swisse products now listed on NewU stores, which service 36 cities in India. Swisse is also growing its market presence through cross-promotional partnerships with complementary B2C businesses such as CRED, CouponDunia, Fitternity and ICICI
Bank. - Sunpower Renewables launched its solar energy products on Amazon India, further expanding its presence in the India market.
- ECAL, the world leading calendar marketing solution, went live on the Indian Premier League team the Delhi Capital’s website and is partnering with India’s largest fantasy gaming platform, Dream11.
- TALI Digital, Victorian health and education company, signed an investment and advertising agreement with Brand Capital International (BCI) of the Bennett Coleman Company (Times Group) from India.
- Chisholm Institute has partnered with Cinec in Sri Lanka to deliver vocational training courses in Sri Lanka in ICT and engineering.
Technology sector activities
- The Hon Martin Pakula, Minister for Trade, joined the Prime Ministers of Australia and India in attending the virtual Bengaluru Tech Summit in November 2020, Asia’s largest technology event. Minister Pakula showcased Victoria’s technology strengths and the growing opportunities for collaboration and innovation between Victoria and India.
- Nine Victorian edtech companies collectively secured 18 pilot programs to demonstrate and test their products in the Indian market. Global Victoria partnered with the India Didactic Association (IDA) to promote Victorian edtech companies to IDA’s extensive school membership base and secure the pilots.
- Twelve edtech companies from Victoria participated in the Victorian Virtual EdTech Trade Mission to India in January and February 2021. The program included business matching and introductions to education distributors and strategic partners. As part of the mission, companies exhibited at The International
Education and Skills Summit (TIESS) organised by the IDA and the Education World Forum. Victoria was a state partner for the TIESS virtual summit. - Startupbootcamp and Global Victoria partnered to deliver the first Victoria India Smart Energy Exchange connecting Victorian startups with Indian corporate partners Bosch, GE, Schneider, Shell and Tata Power, and giving
them access to special support from Victoria’s SunPower Renewables and Mr Manoj Kohli, Country Head of Softbank India and Asia Society Victoria Distinguished Fellow. - Global Victoria led the first digital games trade mission to India virtually, in partnership with Creative Victoria. The Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA), the Australia India Institute and Creative Victoria produced the first report on Opportunities in Video Games between Victoria and India.
- La Trobe University and T-Hub are partnering through La Trobe’s Global Market Access Program to help startups enter the Indian market. AusIndustry has provided funding
for the program and Global Victoria helped facilitate the partnership. The first cohort in 2020 supported four Australian startups: Trainer (Victoria), TBH Pets (Victoria), Anidra (Victoria) and Tekuma.
Global Victoria Women (GVw)
The Global Victoria Women program of events continues to support women in international business. Leading Indian businesswoman and Victoria’s Business Ambassador in India, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw AO, joined the GVw Female Business Leader Virtual Seminar in 2020 event to share her insights. Watch the video.
Digital gaming is an exciting new area of opportunity
The Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA) and Australia India Institute released their collaborative report on Fostering Opportunities in Video Games both Between Victoria and India
in January 2021. The report draws on consultations with Indian and Victorian industry stakeholders and highlights three main areas of opportunity:
- joint ventures combining different experience and production capacity to produce sophisticated games;
- collaboration with Victorian education providers to support skills development in India’s gaming sector; and
- partnerships to support market entry.
Companies explored these opportunities in 2020, when Global Victoria and Creative Victoria led the first Victorian digital games trade mission to India for the India Game Developer Conference 2020. The mission supported 11 delegates from Victorian gaming companies, startups and industry associations to understand the Indian market and pursue emerging opportunities.
India’s Australia Economic Strategy demonstrates India’s commitment to engagement with Australia and identifies its priority areas for trade
The Indian Government launched India’s Australia Economic Strategy in December 2020 outlining the trade opportunities from India’s perspective. The Indian Government commissioned India’s Ambassador Anil Wadhwa and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to develop the strategy in response to Australia’s India Strategy, which was authored by Peter Varghese AO and released in July 2018.
The strategy provides a comprehensive list of sectors of interest to India and chapters on opportunities with each Australian state including Victoria. Most notably for Victoria, the strategy’s focus sectors include agribusiness, biotech, education, healthcare, mining and resources, technology and services, pharmaceutical and biotech, power and renewable energy, and railways. The emerging sectors include education technology, sport and sports technology, textile and textile designing, water management, and digital gaming and animation.
The strategy’s implementation chapter makes 27 recommendations, including increasing CII’s presence in Australia, reactivating an Australia India business leaders’ forum and continuing negotiations for a free trade agreement.
India’s 2021 Budget provides a plan for economic revocery, including a new agriculture development tax
The Indian Government released its 2021 Budget on 1 February 2021 with a strong focus on regaining economic growth lost since the onset of coronavirus. Health, infrastructure, education, innovation and foreign investment attraction are the main areas of focus
in the Budget. The Budget will increase the Government’s capital expenditure to 2.3 per cent of GDP in India’s 2021 financial year and 2.5 per cent in the 2022 financial year. India’s fiscal deficit will also increase in the short term to support recovery and stimulus efforts. The Budget estimates it will reach 9.5 per cent in the 2021 financial year before setting the target of reducing it to 6.8 per cent in 2022.
An area of interest for Victorian exporters is the Budget’s Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess (AIDC), which brings in a new tax on a range of products including food and beverage products to help fund infrastructure development in the agriculture sector. The AIDC will apply to a range of products including alcoholic beverages (100%) crude soyabean and sunflower oil (20%), apples (35%), peas (40%), Kabuli chickpeas (30%), Bengal gram/chickpeas (50%) and lentils (masoor) (20%). However, on same items, the Indian Government states that the cess will be offset by reductions in the customs
duties.
Please seek professional tax advice to understand how these changes may impact your business’s exports.
Winter 2020
Victoria’s relationships across South Asia remain strong and there are many businesses continuing to enter the market and grow their businesses.
While the impact of coronavirus on the economy cannot be underestimated, it is important that potential exporters look beyond the general statistics and assess the particular sectors they are working in and impact to their target sales channels.
The virtual Australia India Prime Ministers’ Summit was a significant development in Australia and India’s relationship – and a sign we can continue to connect despite travel restrictions. The Summit demonstrated both leaders’ commitment to a close relationship and a number of new initiatives to enhance economic ties.
Another important development is the Indian Government’s approval of its New Education Policy, which will reshape all tiers of India’s education system and create new international partnership opportunities.
This update highlights opportunities from these developments, India’s contributions to the global coronavirus response and successful outcomes for Victorian companies in India’s edtech and e-commerce sectors.
Success stories
- Swisse goes live in Health & Glow, one of India’s largest health and beauty stores
- Sand & Sky launches with major Indian retailers Shoppers Stop, Myntra and Nykaa’s online platforms
- Global Victoria holds the first virtual Global Edtech Expo in May 2020 to connect edtech companies with global markets and promote Victoria’s leadership in edtech development and learning outcomes
- Global Victoria helped connect Victoria’s and India’s gaming sectors through a virtual event with speakers from Technicolor India, Reliance Jio's Games Ecosystem and India Game Developer Conference Forum.
- Startup Bootcamp and Global Victoria delivered the first leg of the Victoria India Smart Energy Exchange in July introducing the Victorian smart energy sector to world-leading Indian smart energy startups and scale ups.
- Asia Society appoints one of India’s most well-regarded senior business leaders Manoj Kholi as the Asia Society Victoria Distinguished Fellow
- Victoria’s Business Ambassador in India Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is awarded EY Global Entrepreneur of the Year
- One of India’s leading biomedical companies Biocon together with Mylan launches a new cancer drug in Australia.
Want to access these opportunities?
Please reach out to the Global Victoria South Asia team to discuss strategies for your products and the ways we can assist. And keep up to date with upcoming events by checking in with Global Victoria’s calendar of events.
Coronavirus impact in India and the Indian health sector’s contribution to the global response
Coronavirus impact in India and the Indian health sector’s contribution to the global response India has unfortunately now recorded some of the highest cases of coronavirus alongside the US and Brazil.
However, its per capita recorded cases remain relatively low compared to other countries. The World Health Organisation situation reports capture the extent of the cases and highlights the work happening across the country to increase testing and health responses. As such, India continues to maintain restrictions across the country since March 2020. The restrictions have however begun to ease in certain areas and on movement between states in a staged manner.
At the time of writing, a ban on international travel remains in place except for special exemptions. When travel can take place, travellers are required to undertake quarantine based on each state’s relevant protocols. For details on current restrictions refer to the Indian Ministry for Health and Family Welfare and Australia’s High Commission in India.
The Indian Government’s Ministry of Statistics reported its economy contracted 23.9 per cent over the second quarter of the year from April to June 2020. This was more than any other large economy, although closely followed by the UK’s economy, which contracted by 20.4 per cent, and the EU at 12.1 per cent.
All major sectors contracted except India’s agriculture sector which grew 3.4 per cent in the period. Bloomberg’s economists reported that the Indian Government has taken a more conservative fiscal approach than other countries throughout the restriction period, which has deepened the economic contraction.
In addition to its domestic response, India’s health and biomedical sector is playing a vital role in supporting the global response to the pandemic, contributions include:
- India manufactured and supplied internationally 2.3 million PPE kits in July alone in addition to its production for domestic use.
- The Indian Government approved the export of made-in-India ventilators in August, lifting restrictions to ensure domestic supply put in place in March 2020
- India’s National Research Development Corporation transferred two COVID-19 technologies related to active respirator mask and long-lasting nano sanitiser for mass production in July
- The Drugs Controller General of India approved Phase II+III trials of Oxford University vaccine (COVISHIELD) in India in August.
- Department of Biotechnology’s supported COVID-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D, begins phase I/II clinical trials, becoming the first COVID19 vaccine being developed indigenously to be administered to humans in India (Link) in July.
Prime Minister’s Virtual Summit
The first virtual bilateral summit between Australia’s and India’s Prime Ministers was an historic event in and of itself as it was the first virtual summit for the two leaders but, most importantly, it demonstrated the strong government to government relationship in support of growing business connections.
The two Prime Ministers elevated the relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and announced a suite of new and extended economic cooperation initiatives including:
- continued support for research partnerships through a new phase of the Australia – India Strategic Research Fund
- enhanced cyber cooperation through a Framework Arrangement on Cyber and Cyber-Enabled Critical Technology Cooperation
- a new MoU on Cooperation in the field of Mining and Processing of Critical and Strategic Minerals
- water policy and technology cooperation through a new MoU on cooperation in the field of Water Resources Management
- Education policy development, program delivery and information exchange through a new MoU on Cooperation in Vocational Education and Training
- a decision to re-engage on a bilateral Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA)
India’s new education policy
India’s National Education Policy 2020 was released in July this year. It’s the first comprehensive policy proposal on education in the country since 1986 and a major, game changing statement. The policy aims to make changes across all levels of education – from early childhood to university and is based on the pillars of “access, equity, quality, affordability, accountability”. Implementation of the policy will enhance the opportunities for Victorian universities and education providers to partner and collaborate with the Indian education sector.
Read the full policy via the India Ministry of Education.
- Learn more about the latest education market developments and opportunities for Victorian providers at Global Victoria International Education market insights.
- Watch Global Victoria’s In-Market Insights video featuring the Regional Director of Education from our VGTI office in Bengaluru, India, Annie Santhana share her expertise on emerging opportunities in India for Victorian education providers.
In-Market Insights Video Series - India: Education June 2020
In-Market Insights is a series of videos presented by Global Victoria's team members from across its international network of 23 Victorian Government Trade and Investment offices (VGTIs). The series sheds light on the current state of play in key global markets and sectors.
This episode features Global Victoria’s Annie Santhana - Regional Director of Education from our VGTI office in Bengaluru, India. Annie shares her expertise on emerging opportunities in India for Victorian education providers.
VIDEO: Global Victoria's In-market Insights - India: Education June 2020