CIF Members Meet India’s High Commissioner in Ottawa

The Executives and Charter Members of Canada India Foundation travelled to Ottawa on March 7, to hold a private meeting with the new High Commissioner of India in Canada, His Excellency Nirmal Verma. At the meeting, also attended by Deputy High Commissioner Mrs. Narinder Chauhan, CIF Members had the opportunity to talk to the High Commissioner about the public policy objectives of CIF as well as the initiatives it had undertaken to strengthen relations between Canada and India. The High Commissioner was very receptive to the comments from the CIF members and also emphasized his resolve to set targets for Canada-India trade and exceed them. CIF Members who attended were Barj Dhahan, Deepak Ruparell, Rahul Shastri, Atul Tolia, V.I. Lakshmanan, Vasu Chanchlani, Ramesh Chotai, Aditya Jha, Ajit Someshwar, Pankaj Dave, Laj Prasher and Mukund Purohit.

Following the private meeting, CIF organized a reception to honour the High Commissioner. Special attendees at the reception were Canada’s Parliamentarians, specifically Executives of the Canada India Interparliamentarty Friendship Group, Minister Bal Gosal, Minister Tim Uppal and Leader of the Green Party Elizabeth May. Other parliamentarians present were MP’s Deepak Obhrai, Patrick Brown, Devinder Shory, Kyle Seeback, Kirsty Duncan, Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe and Senators Larry Smith and Asha Seth. Dignitaries from Ottawa included recent Order of Canada recipient Venkatesh Mannar, Pradeep Merchant and Nishith Goel.