In the first week of February 2016 Ms Kathleen Wyne, premier of Otario, Canada is visiting Hyderabad and Amaravati, to explore the possible areas of cooperation between the state of Andhra Pradesh and provice of Ontario. The Premier will be accompanied by a large business delegation and the talks will be focusing on sustainable development, urban infrastructure, renewable energy, environmental technologies, energy efficiency and smart cities. both states are working to sing a memorandum of understanding (MoU)during the visit.
According to a senior official in the state government, what is of more interest to the people of Telugu states is presence of Dipika Damerla as a member of the delegation. Dipika Damerla, daughter of Hyderabad, is the first woman of India origin to become a minister in the Ontario, Canada’s biggest province. And she is the first Telugu woman to become a minister in North America. Secunderabad-born Dipika was appointed to the ministry last year following the liberal party’s reelection to the office. According to the official she is interested development of smart cities in her home state.
Daughter of an army official Dipika came to Cananda in 1991 after finishing her under-graduation. Upon completion of her MBA from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toranto, she served for some time as a TV journalist and later as corporate executive with the Canada’s top two banks-Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Nova Scotia. In 2011 Dipika entered public life and got elected to the Ontario Provincial Parliament (equal to Assembly of Andhra Pradesh) and she got re-elected in 2014.
Today diplomats from High Commission of Canada called on Andhra Pradesh chief secretary IYR Krishna Rao to prepare the ground for the visit of Ontario premier. Jens-Michael Schall (Counselor, commercial), Ms Angela Menezes (head, Visits, Logistics and Protocol) participated in the meeting to discuss the details of visit which is meant for identifying areas of mutual interest. Andhra Pradesh will involve the confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in evolving the cooperative mechanism between the state of Andhra Pradesh and Ontario Province. Secretary Industries SS Rawat and Director, Industries, Kartikeya Mishra also participated in the meeting.
