The unprecedented escalation of tensions with Canada — a first-of-its-kind situation in the history of India’s diplomatic relations with the West — has triggered concerns over potential ripple effects in a range of areas including trade and people-to-people ties.
This is especially because the connections between the two countries are old and deep, and Canada is home to more Sikhs as a percentage of the national population than even India.
Here are some snapshots of India’s ties with Canada, in numbers.
1. Canada accounts for 0.56% of the total FDI in India
According to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the total FDI equity inflow in India between April 2000 to June 2023 stood at $645,386.0884 million, of which 0.5644 per cent ($3,642.5243 million) came from Canada.
2. Canada is home to 5.26% of overseas Indians
According to the data available with the Ministry of External Affairs, of the 3,21,00,340 overseas Indians, 5.26% (16,89,055) are in Canada. These include 1,78,410 Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and 15,10,645 Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs).
3. Every 7th Indian student studying abroad is in Canada
In 2022, of the estimated 13,24,954 Indian students abroad, 13.83% (1,83,310) were in Canada, according to data maintained by the Ministry of External Affairs.
4. Canada is fourth largest source of tourists in India (2021 figures).
Canada accounted for 5.3% (80,437) of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India during 2021; 45.9% of these tourists were female, and 54.1% were male. 72.6% of the Canadian FTAs were members of the Indian diaspora, 2.5% came for leisure, holiday, and recreation, 1.1% for business and professional reasons, and 0.3% for medical reasons. A small 0.1% of Canadian FTAs in 2021 were students, and 23.4% were in the category of others. They spent 52.32 days in India on average.
FTAs from Canada rose to 3,51,859 in the pre-pandemic year 2019 from 88,600 in 2001. However, post pandemic, arrivals from Canada fell sharply.
5. Bilateral trade with Canada accounts for only 0.70% of India’s total trade.
India’s bilateral trade with Canada stood at $8,161.02 million during the financial year 2022-23 (April-March), which was just 0.70% of India’s total trade of $1,165,000.88 million.
Canada was India’s 35th biggest trading partner country. India has higher bilateral trade with smaller countries like Nepal ($8,855.61 million) and Taiwan ($10,901.77 million).
The balance of trade is in India’s favour, and Canada is among the few countries with which India has a trade surplus. In 2022-23, India’s exports to Canada stood at $4,109.74 million, which exceeded its imports ($4,051.29 million) from the country — leaving a trade surplus of $58.45 million.
During 2022-23, medicines; vannamei shrimp; smartphones; jewellery of gold set with diamond; basmati rice; iron pipes for oil/ gas pipelines; coaches powered by external source of electricity; diamonds (other than industrial diamonds) cut or otherwise worked but not mounted or set; and t-shirts of cotton were among top exports from India to Canada.
Among India’s top imports from Canada were coking coal; potassium chloride; lentils (masur), newsprint; wood pulp obtained by combination of mechanical and chemical pulp process; other waste and scrap; chemical wood pulp dissolving grades; and copper ores and concentrates.
Here are the top five Indian imports from Canada:
COKING COAL: Coking Coal was the most valued item India imported from Canada during 2022-23. At 28.96 lakh tonnes, Canada was the fifth largest supplier of coking coal to India after Australia, the US, Singapore, and Russia.
POTASSIUM CHLORIDE: Canada is India’s biggest source of potassium chloride. During 2022-23, India imported 11.43 lakh tonnes of the chemical from Canada. The other countries that supplied potassium chloride to India were Israel, Jordan, Belarus, Turkmenistan, and Russia.
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LENTILS: Canada is the biggest supplier of ‘masur’ dal to India. During 2022-23, India imported 4.85 lakh tonnes of lentils from Canada. The other countries exporting lentils to India are Australia, Netherlands, the UAE, and Sri Lanka.
NEWSPRINT: Canada is a major source of newsprint. During 2022-23, India imported 2.5 lakh tonnes of ‘Other Newsprint’ (under HSN code 48010090) from Canada, which was the highest from any country. The other countries that supplied the newsprint to India were Russia, Korea, Malaysia, and the UAE.
WOOD PULP: Canada is also a major source of wood pulp obtained by a combination of mechanical and chemical pulp processes. During 2022-23, India imported 2.06 lakh tonnes of wood pulp from Canada. The other countries that supplied wood pulp to India last year were New Zealand, Sweden, Estonia, the US, and Netherlands.
