Exploring Dr. Jagat Shah’s Insightful Journey & Expertise on Canada-India Business Relations
Dr. Jagat Shah is a highly experienced business professional at the forefront of Mentor on Road, a cross-country road journey where he makes international connections, meets with Indian diaspora and speaks to groups of people who are interested in trade and investment opportunities in India. He is the founder and CEO of Global Network, an international trade advisory firm and the founder of Cluster Pulse, an economic development agency.
Mentor on Road’s mission is to foster economic development by mentoring small businesses and strengthening India’s business partnerships with international countries like Canada. Dr. Shah has already successfully completed Mentor on Road drives across countries such as India, the USA, the UK, Germany, and various countries in Africa, working closely with international development agencies, governments, and public and private sectors. This May, Mentor on Road embarked on a road trip across Canada which visited 15 cities in 21 days, to mentor startups, women-owned businesses and small and medium enterprises. On May 12th, 2023, the Mentor on Road trip stopped in Ottawa and took place at Carleton University in the Nicol Building. The event was hosted by Carleton’s Innovation Hub, and the captive audience got to hear Dr. Shah speak on topics such as Indian market dynamics, promising sectors and opportunities for Canadian exporters, and the scope for Indian investments in Canada.
The session offered a closer look at insights from Dr. Shah’s journeys and his business expertise on what makes India stand out as a global player. He discussed how there is a massive opportunity for businesses to scale into India because India has a population of 1.4 billion, with 1 billion people under the age of 35 and almost all those people are connected digitally. As a result of this, India has the largest human resources in the world and the youngest population on the planet, making it a place for unlimited opportunity. The “new normal economy” is known as KEY-DW: Knowledge Economy, Eco-friendly Economy, Youth-driven Economy, Digital Economy, and Work from home/anywhere Economy. There is lots of opportunity for Canadian businesses to get involved with the scale and speed of digitization in India and the economic, social, and political change happening in the country.
Dr. Shah stressed that networking is very important in Indian culture – people in India make their decisions to do business based on people more than a company, product, or price. A key piece of advice from Dr. Jagat Shah is that the job of an entrepreneur should never be to run the business, but to grow the business. Another key takeaway is that innovation means “doing one thing better than anyone else in your business or profession”.
We want to thank Dr. Shah for sharing his presentation with members of the Carleton community and shedding light on the immense potential and mutual benefits of doing business with India. Interested in attending one of the Innovation Hub’s events or community networking opportunities?
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