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Dear Member, Reader
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Hail to our award winning founding members!
Our founding members P.R.S. Oberoi, Ratan Tata and Colette Mathur, our Co-President, have been conferred the prestigious Padma awards that are given by the Indian government for exceptional and distinguished service in any field.
Padma in sanskrit means lotus. The lotus takes root deep under water in nurturing soil and grows straight through muddy waters reaching out for the still surface of a pond to blossom into a very elegant flower for every body to enjoy its serene and inspiring look.
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Michel Sabatier
Secretary-General |
What a better symbol of what it takes for a great lifetime achievement to be acknowledged by the community one has striven to serve, in the case the Indian nation.
Setting-up an international chain of five-star hotels from an Indian base at a time when India was closed to the world is no mean achievement; this is what B.K. Oberoi achieved in his life-time. Pursuing and building up on one such father’s achievement is an even greater challenge in a world where competition leaves you no time to rest on your laurels. In recognition of this achievement, P.R.S. Oberoi was conferred the Padma Vibhushan.
Similarly, succeeding to the great J.R.D. Tata that epitomized so well the Indian entrepreneurship with a human face that he had inherited from Jamshetji Tata, the founder of the eponymous group, was no sinecure either and his success could not be taken for granted. Indeed, so many of the old established Indian groups barely survived the bureaucratic stranglehold to die a natural death at the first whiff of global competition.
Ratan Tata not only managed to preserve his ancestor's legacy but turned a staid group into a battle-fit organization that has set to conquer the world in its focus businesses: Tata Steel buying Corus; Tata Consultancy Services riding the crest of global Indian software services; Tata Motors from a domestic truck manufacturer on the way to become an international player in the car business with the recent launch of the cheapest car on earth, the Nano, and the acquisition of Land Rover and Jaguar from Ford. Such sterling achievements have just earned Ratan Tata the coveted Padma Vibhushan.
Would this international blossoming of Indian entrepreneuship on the choppy waters of world markets have happened if a few foreign friends of India had not stiven to keep the historical engagement of India with the World alive? You had to be born optimist to believe in the 80 that the World needed India when India itself had gone into self-imposed autarchy.
Such was the vision and resolve of Colette Mathur who against all odds started a yearly India Business Summit which grow through the muddy waters of the 80’s to blossom in the 90’s till date, like the Padma Shri award that she has just received in recognition for her yeoman’s service to the Indian Nation.
Born French, adopted by India, she perfectly epitomizes the Euro-Indianness and spirit of enterpreneurship that we value at the Centre.
On behalf of the Centre and its members, let me express publicly how proud we are to count such eminent personalities among our founding members. We can assure them that the Centre will do its best to live up to their inspiring examples in contributing to the flowering of thousands of new Euro-Indian lotuses among the new enterprising generations.
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Yours sincerely,
Michel Sabatier
Secretary-General
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2008 Forum in Goa and Delhi (3-7 April)
To ensure entry, please register without delay through:
http://www.the-euroindia-centre.org
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Vantage Point |
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French companies have been slow to understand and exploit the opportunities for investment in India. Prior to 1991, few French companies made significant investments in India.
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Politics and Economy |
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Whatever be the compulsions of coalition politics, Mr Chidambaram, the Minister of Finance, must in his budget do what is manifestly obvious-address the key challenges facing the economy.
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Policy & Regulations |
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Following a long drawn out review of the FDI policy, the UPA government, in keeping with the long standing tendency to make marginal and incremental changes in foreign direct investment (FDI) rules.
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Cities |
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If Netherlands is such an important trading nation in modern times, it is mainly because of Rotterdam.
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Foreign Investment |
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The Cavern, an engineering marvel and first of its kind in South and South-East Asia, has been dug in solid hard rock to store LPG at 162 M below mean sea level (MSL).
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Trade
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Even as more and more Indian firms are going global, more and more Indian firms are setting up in France. Indian firms have preferred to invest through acquisitions of healthy companies. Leading the charge are pharmaceutical and IT companies
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Infrastructure and Industry Monitor |
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BNP Paribas, a major European banking group, has infused 100 million euros by way of fresh equity in its Indian operations.
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Article Alert |
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Memberspeak |
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Gurcharan Das
The killing of 24 x 7 water
It came as a shock to me that India’s cities have more water than most cities in the world.
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What's New |
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The 2008 EuroIndia Forum Status On creating efficient and sustainable cities and on building Euro-Indian Partnerships.
ICICI Bank (India) and Pury Pictet Turettini (Switzerland) have confirmed their partnership of the Forum.
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