Please talk us through Canada’s role in India’s first space astronomy mission…

We launched a Canadian satellite through the Indian space programme. So we have a good relationship with ISRO and we continue to dialogue and we see that type of collaboration taking place more in the future. It’s a good relationship with ISRO and we are very optimistic and pleased with what India is doing in its space programme. To launch a Canadian satellite through an Indian space agency is I think really solid. And the head of Canada’s space agency was here last year, underscoring the importance of the collaboration. And this should be of interest to readers, our Minister of Transport Marc Garneau is also an astronaut, and was Canada’s first man in space in the 1980s.  

In December 2015, 20 leading Canadian infrastructure companies visited India to explore partnerships with local companies. Was the visit by that delegation successful, and if so, would it pave the way for more such significant visits in future?

We have a lot of delegations in different sectors coming through. Infrastructure is very important because it is an area of focus here, something that is needed, and it was very successful, and we anticipate more of those types of delegations happening in the future. There’s also the World’s Future Cities Summit taking place in Canada. And Canada has been identified by the Economist’s Intelligence Unit as having the top smart cities in the world. So this is just a natural extension of what we can offer there. In fact in the number of shortlisted smart cities in India, a number of Canadian companies were involved in urban designing and planning for winning their smart cities designations as well. And we’ll see more of that going forward.