#Japan enjoys tremendous goodwill and esteem globally for their efficiency and skill sets. However, in #India there is a special affinity towards Japan for several reasons.
Japanese #companies that had set up businesses in India have done extremely well.
The Prime Ministers of both countries have created the Indo-Japan Strategic and Global Partnership to ensure economic growth for both countries. They have announced “Japan and India Vision 2025 Special Strategic and Global #Partnership Working Together for Peace and Prosperity of the Indo-Pacific Region and the World”, a Joint Statement that would serve as a guide post for the “new era in Japan-India relations.”
India has established the “Japan Plus” Office in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry as early as October 2014, as a “one-stop” location for resolving problems faced by Japanese companies.
India has been the largest recipient of Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) #Loans in the past decades. Delhi Metro is one of the most successful examples of Japanese cooperation through the utilization of ODA. Japan has pledged to cooperate on supporting strategic connectivity linking South Asia to Southeast Asia, through the synergy between ”Act East” policy and ”Partnership for Quality #Infrastructure.”
In terms of human resource development in the manufacturing sector in India, Japan has announced its cooperation of training 30,000 Indian people over next 10 years in the Japan-India Institute for Manufacturing (JIM), providing Japanese style manufacturing skills and practices, in an effort to enhance India’s manufacturing industry base and contribute to “Make in India” and “Skill India” Initiatives. JIM and the Japanese Endowed Courses (JEC) in engineering colleges will be designated by Japanese companies in India, and this is a good example of cooperation between the public and private sectors. In summer 2017, the first four JIMs started in the States of Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, and the first JEC was established in the State of Andhra Pradesh. Since then, four more JIMs and one JEC have started. Those institutes are also expected to give more Indian students the ambition to study the Japanese language.
During the period of April 2000 to December 2019, Japan has #invested an amount of approximately USD 33,080.56 Million in India.
Companies in India
There are around 1,441 Japanese companies registered in India. These companies have around 5,102 business establishments spread across various states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Delhi, Mumbai and Gujarat. List of these Japanese companies in India is attached.
Sectors
India and Japan have been collaborating with each other in the following #sectors:
- Steel and Iron-Ore Industry
- Infrastructure
- Construction
- Forest and Disaster Management
- Automobile and Locomotives
Some of the important Indo-Japanese ongoing projects are as follows:
- Clean India Project (Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan) –
This Project aims to maintain overall cleanliness of the streets, roads, and public properties in India.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a Japanese Governmental Agency in India, has funded a total of 25 water and sanitation projects in India, thereby disbursing loans of approximately USD 7 Billion, as on 30-01-2020.
2. Ganga Rejuvenation Project –
JICA has extended loans of approximately USD 105 Million for improvement of water quality of River Ganga at Varanasi in 2015.
3. Development of North-Eastern parts of India –
India and Japan have collaborated for road and highway connectivity improvement projects, biodiversity conservation and forest management projects, etc in the North-Eastern parts of India.
Future plans
1- Japan plans to collaborate with India in the field of artificial intelligence, internet of things and 5G technologies.
2- India and Japan have planned to collaborate in the agriculture and food processing sectors, in order to improve farming productivity and decrease harvest and post-harvest losses.
3- India and Japan have also planned to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the defence equipment and technology sector. There have been interactions between both the countries with regard to cooperative research in the field of Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV), Robotics and US-2 amphibian aircrafts, etc.
4- Both countries have planned to strengthen cooperation in exploring outer-space activities, such as the Joint Lunar Polar Exploration Mission.
5- Both countries have committed to explore the possibilities for collaboration in the areas of sustainable and renewable forms of energy, food and water security, environmental protection, cyber security based projects, etc.
6- Further, Japan has committed to contribute to the Make-in-India and Skill India Projects of India, for the purpose of making India, a manufacturing destination for companies across the globe.