India, Canada sign agreements to boost cultural, business ties

India and Canada on Monday signed three agreements aimed to boost bilateral cultural and business ties, Indian foreign ministry stated.The agreements were signed as Governor General of Canada David Johnston, his wife, Sharon Johnston, accompanied by a high level delegation including business and academia are currently on an eight-day official visit to India starting Feb 22. This is the first visit by a Canadian Governor General since 1998 to India.The two countries signed the first agreement between Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Heritage Canada to open doors for wide ranging audio-visual collaborations between our two countries, the foreign ministry said.It further added that the co-production in the Audio Visual collaboration will receive national treatment in India as well as Canada.Another agreement was related to programme of cooperation on collaboration between Indian Department of Biotechnology and Grand Challenges Canada to address health and development needs.Cooperation in this sector will pave a collaborative roadmap for addressing global health challenges, especially relating to women and child health, early child development, global mental health, scaling of innovations at proof of concept stage, and point of care diagnostics, the foreign ministry stated.The two countries also signed an agreement to facilitate exchange and learning between Indian National Skill Development Corporation NSDC and Association of Canadian Community Colleges ACCC to impart best practices in training, transnational standards, and certification, which create a workforce that can serve global needs, the ministry stated.