The meeting between the Chairman of the Spain-India Council Foundation, Antonio Escámez, and the participants in the Indian Leaders Programme was an opportunity to discuss how effective the visit had been and set new objectives for both work and discussion.
The meeting, held at the headquarters of Fundación Banco Santander, was attended by several representatives of SICF’s patrons, such as SICF Vice-Chairman Mohan Chainani; Guillermo Rodríguez, Director of Casa de la India; Ramón Moreno, General Director of Casa Asia; Germán Ortega, representative of the University of Valladolid; Germán Bejarano, Head of Institutional Relations at Abengoa; Javier Pradere, Head of Institutional Relations at Navantia and Paul Rhodes, Director in Spain of Global Cloud Xchange.
Antonio Escámez thanked the Leaders for coming to Spain and deemed the programme an essential part of the Spain-India Council Foundation’s work to strengthen relations between the two countries. “It is very important to us that people in senior management roles like the Leaders visit Spain. We truly admire India’s vision and the work it is doing, and we hope that the Leaders become ambassadors for Spain in India”.
Antonio Escámez: “We truly admire India’s vision and the work it is doing, and we hope that the Leaders become ambassadors for Spain in India”.
The Leaders, in turn, thanked the Spain-India Council Foundation for its work and expressed their appreciation for this experience. Ms. Akshima Tejas Ghate was impressed with all of the examples of management and urban development and thanked the Council Foundation for the opportunity to access this information, analyse it and study the feasibility of applying it in India. Journalist Kunal Purohit highlighted the similarities between Indian and Spanish cities, such as Mumbai and Bilbao, and how the solutions applied in the Basque city could be replicated in his country.
Dr. Manvendra Deswal underlined the experience of Spanish companies, many of them leaders in the field of smart cities, which is a great advantage for companies seeking to operate in India. Shri Sahadeva Singh went on to praise the competitiveness of these companies and highlight the opportunities to be found in India.
The representatives of the Board of Trustees also thanked the Leaders for their visit and analysed the strengths and weaknesses of bilateral relations and how to enhance them. General Director of Casa Asia Ramón Moreno and Director of Casa de la India Guillermo Rodríguez insisted on the need for India and Spain to each deepen their knowledge of the other country in every possible area of interest, and culture and education were deemed useful tools for overcoming ignorance. As an example, they mentioned the fruitful work of both institutions and their cultural activities, as well as those mentioned by Germán Ortega, from the University of Valladolid.
It became apparent that it should be better known that companies such as Roca, CAF and Inditex, which have a significant presence in India, are Spanish. Mohan Chainani praised the Spanish international leadership in the development of infrastructure, highlighting the companies’ expertise and citing major international projects such as the Panama Canal as examples.
The meeting ended with the conferral of an honorific title of Ambassadors of Spain in India to the Leaders, as well as the exchanging of gifts between Shri Sahadeva Singh (who contributed a sculpture by Indian artist Alpana) and Antonio Escámez.
5th Indian Leaders Programme report.
Indian Leaders profiles.
More images in the Gallery.
