India - Argentina Relations	India- Uruguay Relations	India - Paraguay Relations

 

India opened a Trade Commission in Buenos Aires in 1943 and later converted it into an embassy in 1949. Argentina had established a consulate in Calcutta in the 1920s which was transferred to Delhi as an embassy in 1950. Argentina opened a Consulate General office in Mumbai in April, 2009.

Visits from Argentina

- Agriculture Minister Julian Dominguez – August 2010

- Chief Minister of Buenos Aires Mr. Mauricio Macri - April 2010

- President Cristina Kirchner – October 2009
- Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana-September 2007 (for Doha Round Consultations)
- Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana – September 2007 (for G-20 Consultations)         
- Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana – July 2006     
- President Carlos Menem – March 1994                                                                
- President Raul Alfonsin - 1985 (chief guest for the Republic Day)           
- President Reynaldo Bignone - 1983 (to attend NAM summit)                 
- President Arturo Frondizi - Dec 1961

Visits from India

- Minister of Agriculture Sharad Pawar - September 2010

- Minister of State for External Affairs Smt Preneet Kaur - May 2010
- Commerce Secretary Shri G.K. Pillai – June 2008                                               
- Minister of Textiles Mr Sankarsingh Vaghela - April 2008      
- Minister of State for External Affairs Mr Anand Sharma -  February 2008  
- Minister of State for External Affairs Rao Inderjeet Singh -2005      
- Prime Minister Narasimha Rao - 1995 (for G-15 Summit )   
- President Zail Singh - April 1984        
- Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi – 1968      

Bilateral Agreeements signed on 14 October during the Presidential Visit

Other Agreements

Cooperation    
The Joint Commission established since 1994 coordinates and reviews bilateral cooperation. The third meeting of the Joint Commission was held in New Delhi in July 2006, cochaired by the Argentine Foreign Minister and MOS External Affairs from the Indian side. The next meeting is to be held in Buenos Aires. India gives five ITEC scholarships to Argentine candidates every year. Argentine diplomats attend the courses at the Foreign Service Training Institute of India from time to time.
ISRO launched an Argentine nano-satellite, called as PehuenSat-I (weighing 6 kg) on board PSLV of India in January 2007 on a commercial basis. There exists scope for such cooperation in future.

Defence 
The Argentine Government has posted a Defence Attache in their Embassy in New Delhi since 2008. There are proposals for signing of a MoU on Defence Cooperation, visit of the Argentine Defence Minister to India and visit of Indian Army Chief to Argentina

Trade   (US $ million)

Main items of imports  of  India from Argentina  Year 2011 
                                  

Main items of  Exports of India to Argentina  Year 2011

Investment and Joint Ventures 

There are 13 Indian Companies which have established operations in Argentina. They provide employment to 6500 Argentines. eight of them are in IT, two in agro-chemicals, one in pharma, one in lighting and one in cosmetics.

TCS has a unit employing 200 Argentines in Buenos Aires and has plans to increase the staff strength to about 1000.

Cognizant has IT and BPO operations employing 150 staff.

CRISIL’s IREVNA has set up a KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) unit in Buenos Aires for financial and investment research services employing 70 Argentine staff and has plans to expand. This is the only third-party KPO in Argentina.

Copal Partners, an Indian Financial Research company has established an office in Buenos Aires in the second half of 2010.This is the sixth global office of Copal which has centres in US, UK, Dubai, India, and Mauritius. Copal has 1200 employees in these six centres and serves 40 clients.

Cellent, a Mumbai-based IT company, has bought an Argentine start-up company "Net People" which specializes in software for mobile phones.

Aaliptha Software Company of Mysore has got a seven million dollar sub-contract in 2008 to provide banking solutions to Argentine Credit Cooperative Bank.

Flatworld Solutions has opened a Centre in Buenos Aires in January 2010. It has started off with 100 staff and has plans to expand.

HCL opened a IT centre in Buenos Aires in 2009.  
Argentina has the following competitive advantages for BPO, KPO and software development:

1.      Argentina has one of the highest literacy rates in Latin America with ample availability of qualified and skilled manpower, some of whom are proficient in English.

2.      The cost of operations and salaries are much below to those in Mexico, Brazil and Chile. The local salaries are somewhat closer to Indian salaries in some cases.

3.      Indian IT, BPO and KPO companies can offer services to their North American clients in the same time zone to avoid night shift operations in India. The operations in Argentina will complement their operations in India to provide round-the-clock service to the North American clients with 12 hours of service from South America and 12 hours from India. 

4.      The Buenos Aires City Government as well as other city and provincial governments are  developing  new technology parks and are giving incentives and facilities for IT companies.

United Phosphorus Ltd (UPL) of Mumbai has acquired three Argentine agrochem and seeds companies and operates four manufacturing units and a R&D unit employing 200 Argentines. The R&D unit is bringing out a new sunflower oil branded as NUTRISUN, a high-stearic oil as an alternative to transfat edible oils. UPL exports agrochemicals from its plants in Argentina. The turnover of UPL Argentina is about 70 million dollars and is expected to increase.

Punjab Chemicals and Crop Protection Ltd (PCCPL) has acquired an Argentine company “Síntesis quimica” and operates with two factories in Argentina producing and exporting agro chemicals. Their turnover is about 25 million dollars.

Glenmark has acquired an Argentine pharma company “Servycal SA” which specialises in oncological products. They are setting up a new factory (to be inaugurated in 2010) which will become the global centre of oncological prouducts for the company. They are already exporting to about 30 countries.
Indian mining company, Indo Borax Chemicals Ltd. has acquired a small Borax mine in Argentina in 2009 and is planning to acquire bigger mines.

Godrej has acquired two Argentine cosmetic companies in 2010: Issue Group and Argencos.

Aegis Group from India has acquired Argentine company Actionline in 2010 which has a large number of call centers across the country and employs 5,000 people.

Srishti Group of Kolkota has signed (in 2009) a MoU with the provincial government of Missiones to build a “Vedic Hotel” in the tourist resort of Iguazu.
Ashok Leyland has signed a MoU with Plaza Group of Argentina for joint venture in production of buses and trucks.
Tata Motors is exploring possibilities of joint ventures in vehicle production in Argentina.
Havells of India has a turnover of 10 million dollars in lighting and accessories business, which was acquired from Sylvania.
Sonalika Tractors has signed a MoU with an Argentine company for tractors and agricultural machinery.
Reliance has formed a joint venture with an Argentine oil company Pluspetrol (The consortium includes Westwood of Australia) and they have won a concession in Peru for oil exploration and production.

ONGC(OVL) has signed a MoU with ENARSA, their Argentine counterpart for possible joint ventures in Argentina for oil exploration.

Kirloskar exploring possibilty of investment in pump manufacturing..
As part of their Latin America strategy Kirloskar is planning to put up an assembly plant in the region and Argentina is one of the options.

IFFCO is exploring possibility of setting up a urea plant in Argentina
IFFCO, the Gujrat- based fertiliser cooperative company is in talks with Americas Petrogas of Canada to set up a urea plant using gas produced in La Pampa region of Argentina.

The Embassy would like to recommend to Indian companies investment in agricultural land in Argentina (as well as in Uruguay and Paraguay). Soy, sunflower, pulses, wheat and other food crops can be grown and taken back to India.

Non-Resident Indian Companies

ArcelorMittal has acquired the Argentine steel company Acindar and steel distribution company Magjadalani for over 600 million dollars.

Sterling Group of India (owned by NRI Sivasankaran)has acquired a 1700 hectare olive farm in Catamarca Province of Argentina.

“Olam” , a NRI company with headquarters in Singapore has some investment in agribusiness and does trading in groundnut and other agro commodities. They grow peanuts, soya and wheat in 17000 hectares of land in Rio Cuarto and Salta areas and have plans to increase the acreage. They have acquired 2 peanut processing plants in Rio Cuarto.

There are some Indians who are in textiles business( imports, wholesale and retail ) in Buenos Aires.

Argentine companies in India

IMPSA, the Argentine engineering company, specializing in hydroelectric projects and energy, has opened an office in Gurgaon. They are exploring opportunities for projects as well as supply of power generation equipments such as turbines. They source wind energy parts from India and outsource engineering designs to Indian Companies. 
Biosidus, an Argentine pharma company plans to invest 20 million dollars in a new plant in India for production of biotech pharmaceuticals for Indian and Asian markets. They are already exporting over 3 million dollars a year to India. 
BAGO, the leading Argentine pharma company has an office in Hyderabad to source raw materials. They have a joint venture operation with Ranbaxy to market their products in Thailand.
Some Argentine companies have shown interest in investment and joint ventures in India in food processing, autoparts and other sectors.

Argentina-India Chamber of Commerce and Industry
The Embassy took the initiative in forming this Chamber which was launched in the presence of the Commerce Secretaries of India and Argentina during a Business Seminar in Buenos Aires in June 2008.

Business Centre
The Embassy has established a Business Centre in the Chancery which was inaugurated by the Commerce Secretary of India in June 2008. It has become a meeting point and resource centre for Argentine and Indian businessmen.

Culture
The Embassy in Buenos Aires has been organizing cultural programmes and visits of Indian troupes from time to time. Argentines have admiration for Indian culture, philosophy and spiritualism. There are thousands of followers of Sai Baba, Brahmakumari, Art of Living, Rama Krishna Mission, Hare Krishna and other such groups. Yoga  is very popular. There are hundreds of Yoga centres all over the country. There are some Argentines who perform and teach Indian dance and music.  Myrta Barvie is a well-known dancer of Bharatanatyam, Odissi and Kuchipudi. She was trained in Kalakshetra for five years. An Argentine Tabla player has been given ICCR scholarship for training in India in 2009.  Bollywood dancing is becoming popular. 

Festival of India
The Embassy has started organizing Festivals of India since 2008.  The first Festival was held in November 2008 and the second in November 2009.  The third was held from 4-16 November 2010.  The Festival includes handicrafts exhibition, live demonstration of handicrafts, classical and folk dance performances, Film Festivals, seminars, literary contest, Food Festival, photo exhibition and Incredible India tourism promotion.  The third Festival attracted over 50,000 visitors. 

Literature 
Rabindra Nath Tagore had visited Argentina in 1924 and stayed for two months as the guest of  Victoria Ocampo, a well-known literary personality and writer. He wrote a series of poems under the title “Purabi” containing memory of his stay in Argentina. Victoria Ocampo was given a honorary doctorate by the Viswa Bharati University and this was handed over by PM Mrs Indira Gandhi during her visit to Argentina in 1968. Jawaharlal Nehru University had organised a seminar on Victoria Ocampo in 1991. Maria Rene Cura, the Argentine writer (died in 2007) and associate of Victoria Ocampo had published for some years a magazine on India. She ran a cultural centre devoted to India called as " Anand Bhavan".

Films 
Pablo Cesar, the Argentine movie director has directed a Indo- Argentine joint production film " Unicorn- the garden of fruits" . This was released in 1996. He is now working on co-production of a film “ Thinking of him” based on the interaction between Tagore and Ocampo.  The Embassy has put him in touch with Indian film directors and producers.
Trivandrum based  “Toonz Animation  India”  and Illusion Studios of Argentina have co-produced an animation film “El Gaturro”. It is based on a famous Argentine cartoon character ¨Gaturro¨.  The Film, costing 3 million dollars was premiered in Buenos Aires on 7 September, 2010.It is a box office hit.

The famous Argentine music director Gustavo Santaolalla, now based in Hollywood composed music for the Bollywood film Dhobi Ghat. The film, drected by Kiran Rao, was released in India on 21 January.

Ayurveda
Ayurveda is becoming popular and there are some Ayurvedic Spas and massage centres in Argentina.  The University of Buenos Aires and the University of Cordoba are running courses in Ayurveda. University of Cordoba recently started a two year post graduate course in Ayurveda from April 2010. Dr Jorge Luis Berra is the organiser of these courses. Our Honorary Consul General in Cordoba city Dr. Sergio Suraez is a well-known Ayurvedic expert. The Department of AYUSH of the Indian Health Ministry has agreed to the proposal of the Embassy to support promotion of Ayurveda in Argentina.

Education
Jawaharlal Nehru University has signed an MoU for Cooperation with San Luis University of Argentina. Other Argentine universities have shown interest in collaboration with Indian universities.

Thinktanks
The Indian Council for World Affairs has signed a MoU (April 2009) with the Argentine Council for International Relations. More Argentine think tanks have shown interest in exchanges with their Indian counterparts.

Economics
Raul Prebisch, the renowned Argentine economist was conferred Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1974.  Argentine economists have participated in conferences organized by Indian think tanks such as ICRIER.  Indian economists such as Rakesh Mohan and Rajiv Kumar have participated in seminars in Argentina.

Sports
Maradona visited Kolkata in December 2008 at the invitation of the Indian Football Academy and inaugurated a football school named after him. The Indian Football Academy is establishing a collaboration programme with the Argentine Club “River Plate” for training and exchanges. In June 2009 an Argentine professional football player Sebastian Monesterolo signed for Kingfisher East Bengal club to play in the Indian premier football league. 
Indian Hockey teams have visited Argentina and played tournaments in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
An Indian Army Polo team played matches with their Argentine counterparts in December 2008 at Buenos Aires and sent an Indian officer for a one-year equestrian training in Argentina. Argentine Polo players have been playing in Indian teams. Indian Polo players visit Argentina for training and participation in tournaments.

Consular Relations
Under the 1968 Visa agreement, fees for transit and tourist visas have been abolished.   Under the new visa agreement signed during Argentine Presidential visit in October 2009, it has been agreed that five year multi-entry business visas would be given free of cost.  The Embassy of India in Buenos Aires gives Cafe Con Visa (coffee with visa) to Argentine visitors. The applicants are invited for coffee and visa is given immediately. This has been praised by the Argentine media, public and the Foreign Minister himself.

Indian Community

There are about 200 Indians in Buenos Aires of which half are those settled for over thirty years. Most of these are from the Sindhi community. Others are professionals working with Indian companies and multinational corporations.
About 300 Sikhs from Punjab have settled down in Salta province in the course of the early and mid twentieth century. They have become Argentine citizens and are well assimilated in the local population. Most of them are in retail and wholesale trade.  The first generation immigrants speak Punjabi. There is a Gurudwara in the town Rosario de la Frontera, where they celebrate Guru Nanak Day every year. President Zail Singh had visited the Gurudwara in 1984.
***
September 2010

Political

          Relations between India and Uruguay are cordial and friendly. Two rounds of Foreign Office Consultations have been held (last in September 2004) between the two countries.
The Indian embassy in Buenos Aires is accredited to Uruguay. There is a Honorary Consul of India in Montevideo. Uruguay has an embassy in New Delhi, which was opened in 1997.

Visits
Uruguay to India

2011            Danilo Astori, Vice President

2010            Uruguayan Parliamentary Delegation

2004            Mr. William Ehlers, Vice Foreign Minister

1999            Dr. Hugo Fernandez Faingold, Vice President

India to Uruguay

2008            Shri Anand Sharma, MOS, MEA

2003            Dr. Jasjit Singh Randhawa, Minister of Public Health & Rural Development of the State of Punjab

2002            Shri Digvijay Singh, MOS, MEA

1968            PM Smt. Indira Gandhi

Agreements

1. Agreement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation - September 2011

2. Agreement for cooperation in renewable energy 2011   

3. MOU establishing Joint Commission – January 2007     

4. MOU on Foreign Office Consultations- 1999

5. BIPPA (February 2008)

6. Agreement between the Uruguayan Diplomatic Academy and the Foreign Service Institute of the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India- 1999     

7. Agreement on long-term visa for businessmen- 1999

8. Agreement on Exemption of Visa for holders of Diplomatic and Official passports- 1994

ITEC

India gives 3 ITEC scholarships to Uruguayan candidates every year.

FSI Training

Uruguayan diplomats attend training courses of Foreign Service Institute of India from time to time.

The Government of India has announced (2008) that it would set up a IT training centre in Montevideo. This is under process. 

Agreements proposed to be signed

Agreement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation – This has been concluded in the last round of negotiations held in August 2010. It is likely to be signed in 2011.

Bilateral Trade
(US $ in million)

Indian exports

Chemicals, automobiles and auto parts, pharmaceuticals, garments and synthetic fibres

Indian imports

Wool, leather and wood.

The Embassy organized the first major business seminar in Uruguay in the month of June 2009 during the visit of the CII delegation for India Latin America Conclave. It got a very good response.

Investment and Joint Ventures
TCS has established a software development centre in Montevideo employing 800 local staff. They inaugurated a new US $ 4 million building in December 2007.
TCS has also established a Regional Software Training Centre in Montevideo.

Geodesic Ltd, Indian IT Company has acquired a Uruguayan software company in Montevideo in May 2009. The Uruguayan firm Interactive Networks specializes in short messaging solutions. The company employs about 40 staff.

Mittal Steel has acquired a Uruguayan stainless steel company CINTER SA in December 2007.

Zamin Resources an NRI company promoted by Mr Pramod Agarwal from London has entered into an iron ore mining project. The total cost of the project is over a billion dollars. The company has already spent several million dollars in the preparatory stage and has an office in Montevideo.

A consortium of Indian vegetable oil companies is exploring opportunities for investment in acquisition of soya farms in Uruguay. A study team visited Uruguay in November 2007.
A number of Indian companies, including Reliance and Sakti pumps, use the bonded warehouse facilities of ‘Grupo Ras’, which is keen to provide the facility as well as marketing support.
The Government of Uruguay gives attractive incentives for foreign investment. They give five-year multi-entry visas for Indian business visitors. They give work permits (quickly) for Indian executives based in Uruguay. With this, the executives can travel to Mercosur countries and Chile without the need for visa. 
Carlos Ott, the world famous architect of Uruguay has got the contract to design the 250 million dollar IT park of TCS in Chennai, the largest software development centre in the world, employing 24000 professionals and spread over 28 hectares.

Indian community

There are about 60 Indians most of whom are employees of TCS.

Political

The Indian Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is concurrently accredited to Paraguay. A leading businessman, Mr. Rodolfo Javier Zuccolillo, has been appointed as India’s Honorary Consul General in Asuncion.  Paraguay opened its Mission in India in 2005.

An MOU on Foreign Office Consultations was signed in 2002.

Visits

Paraguay to India

2002               Mr. Jose Antonio Moreno Ruffinelli, Foreign Minister
2004               Mrs. Leila Rachid, Foreign Minister
2005               Mrs. Leila Rachid, Foreign Minister

India to Paraguay

2002              Shri Digvijay Singh, MOS, MEA
2003              Shri Satyabrata Mookherjee, MOS, Ministry of Commerce &  Industry

Bilateral Agreements

• Agreement between India and Paraguay on Exemption of Visa for holders of Diplomatic and Official passports – 1996.

 Cooperation

• India gives 3 ITEC scholarships to Paraguayan candidates every year.

• Paraguayan diplomats attend the courses of Foreign Service Institute of India from time to time

• The Government of India has announced (2008) that it would set up an IT training centre in Asuncion. The MoU in this regard is under consideration of the Paraguayan Government.

Bilateral Trade
(US$ in million)

India´s exports to Paraguay

Chemicals, pharmaceuticals, tractors, two wheelers, Mahindra vehicles and textiles.

A Paraguayan company has ordered 20 million dollars worth machinery from India in August 2008 for a new cement plant.

India´s imports from Paraguay

Soya oil (94% of imports) sunflower oil, leather and wood.  Indian imports of soya and sunflower oil are expected to increase in the coming years, given the growing shortage of edible oil in India.

INVESTMENT
A Consortium of Indian edible oil companies have a proposal to invest 40 million dollars for acquisition of farmland in Paraguay to grow oilseeds and food crops.

The Embassy organized a business seminar in Asuncion on 8 March during the visit of an EEPC delegation.  The Paraguayan Minister of Industries Mr.  Don Francisco Rivas was the keynote speaker.  The seminar contributed to the Paraguayan understanding of the Indian market and opportunities for business between the two countries.

Indian community
 
About 100 Indians live in Ciudad del Este, a city on the border with Brazil.  These Indians are in trading, wholesale and retail business.  Most of them are of Gujarati and Sindhi origin.

The Embassy organized a mini Festival of India in November 2010 with Indian dance programmes in Asuncion and Ciudad del Este and food and film Festival in Asuncion.