India is developing into an important partner and investor country for North Rhine-Westphalia, particularly in the IT sector. In order to intensify contacts with Indian companies following a delegation trip to New Delhi, Bengaluru and Kolkata in February 2019, Economics and Digital Affairs Minister Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart and Indian Consul General Pratibha Parkar visited leading Indian IT companies based in NRW. These included the providers of IT services and consulting Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Tech Mahindra in Düsseldorf as well as Wipro Technologies with its branch in Essen. The tour was organized by the state economic development agency NRW.INVEST.
Minister Pinkwart: "During my trip I experienced how great the interest present in India is in intensifying economic relations and closer cooperation in the field of digitization. In this respect, our two states complement each other very well: On the one hand there is the outstanding engineering and production know-how of the North Rhine-Westphalian economy, on the other the dynamism of the Indian IT industry. This partnership offers great potential for growth. Companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra and Wipro Technologies demonstrate that North Rhine-Westphalia is an attractive and convincing location for Indian companies."
Consul General Pratibha Parkar: "Our relations with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia are unique and very special. Of all the federal states, North Rhine-Westphalia accounts for the largest share of trade volume between Germany and India. Our imports from North Rhine-Westphalia correspond in volume to our exports to North Rhine-Westphalia, each totaling 2.4 billion euros in 2018. But our cultural relations with North Rhine-Westphalia are also special. In addition, numerous Indian business people, specialists and students have made North Rhine-Westphalia their home. To celebrate this connection between the people of India and North Rhine-Westphalia, we organized an India Festival in Cologne in June of this year, with the kind support of the City of Cologne. It was a great success."
NRW.INVEST CEO Petra Wassner: "NRW.INVEST has been active in India with its own office since 2008 with the goal of attracting investors to North Rhine-Westphalia as a business location. In the meantime, around 80 Indian companies have settled here – in addition to the companies we visited today, for example the Aditya Birla Group, Bharat Forge, the Hinuja Group, the Sona Group, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Venus Pharma. In total, they employ around 6,000 people in North Rhine-Westphalia. The central location, the availability of trained specialists as well as the wide-ranging research and university landscape are important locational advantages and form a sound basis for even closer cooperation in digitization."