To round up the year of insightful, monthly Webinars for our Indo-German Business Talk series, the November installment, our last of 2023, looked back on Indo-German relations in 2023 and insights for 2024. This year, we saw significant milestones in the Indo-German, and wider Indo-European, partnership in economic, political and social topics.
On 29 November, we were joined by three expert panellists to discuss these topics further: Gopal Nadadur, Vice President for South Asia, The Asia Group; Kasturi Dadhe, Director India, U.K. and Ireland, FrankfurtRheinMain GmbH and Velina Tchakarova, Founder, FACE – For A Conscious Experience.
India will continue to be a bridge builder and to act on the one hand with the West, but on the other hand, also within the newly emerging forums. So, it is actually wise on our [Europe] side to have a very constructive and very pragmatic relationship. It’s going to be more about economics, Europe is in a very serious, I would even argue precarious situation right now…so, in a sense, geoeconomics comes first in this relationship, and geopolitics, comes second.
Velina Tchakarova, Founder, FACE – For A Conscious Experience
Covering a whole year in 45 minutes can be prove to be a challenge, nevertheless the session focussed on topics such as trade agreements between India and Germany, and the European Union, an increase in dialogue and intent; as well as India’s emergence on the global stage, demonstrated further through its G20 presidency. To these topics our panellists provided an educated and analytical discussion, as well as optimism for the future; despite the geopolitical and economic challenges we face today.
The people-to-people linkages, growing over time, can help a ton, because one of the areas that leads to this under performance of this relationship, perhaps on the business side, is a lack of awareness of how the opposite side functions, thinks; perhaps a lack of awareness of how to interpret the domestic context, and I think growing these ties can help quite a bit.
Gopal Nadadur, Vice President South Asia, The Asia Group
I see all the more the reason and the energy that needs to be divested in such collaborative activities because that is really the way forward and while we cannot depend on a single partner or a single economic force, and we’re speaking of decoupling, decentralisation, et cetera, but to be able to decentralise, you need to have your eggs in more than one basket, and [the idea of] I will look to my own home, and I will look to my own little country, is not going to go well going forward.
Kasturi Dadhe, Director India, U.K. and Ireland, FrankfurtRheinMain GmbH
Watch the stream below and contribute to the discussion in the comments. Missed our other sessions? All are available on our YouTube page!
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