New Zealand Centre for Digital Connections with India

(Nicola Willis MP) She said investor migrants bring much more than just money. “It’s also the networks, the expertise, the experience, the ideas that they bring with them,” Ms Willis said. We add to this: skilled newcomers also bring these exact same attributes to New Zealand, particularly those from a digital and tech background. Arguably at a lower scale, but equally in larger numbers. Unless Government agencies and departments have a plan to deliberately and puposefully engage with them to achieve beneficial economic and social outcomes - they will remain valuable and under-utilised resources going waste. https://lnkd.in/dAfFh_vV In addition to Bloomberg, the story has extensive coverage in The Strait Times in Singapore, The South China Morning Post, Hindustan Times, and The Economic Times - there is nothing in the local New Zealand media so far. According to Visual Capitalist, the world's wealthiest people live in the US, China, France, Japan, Germany, UK, Canada, Australia, Italy & Korea making up the top 10. India is 14th on the list behind the Netherlands, Spain & Switzerland, and ahead of Taiwan and Hong Kong. Thanks to overseas supporters for bringing this to our attention. #NewZealand #immigration #networks #expertise #experience #ideas

In a closed exclusive invite-only event, the Ministry for Ethnic Communities released its Ethnic Evidence Report. Many of the findings echo and confirm our own lived experience, research, findings and submissions, in particular: 1. Submission for Diversity on Boards to NZX Limited 2. Indian IT Professionals in NZ for IT Professionals New Zealand NZ 3. The Case for a Digital & IT Trade Delegation to India to Hon Melissa LEE Todd McClay and others Here are 7 findings which jumped out at us: 1.6. Recognition of international education and qualifications There is no strong measure available to demonstrate how well international qualifications translate to commensurate wages. Members of Ethnic Communities have expressed concern that their qualifications can be disregarded or undervalued by employers. 1.7. Pay gaps Detailed analysis of ethnic pay gaps has found one of the drivers of pay gaps may be an undervaluation of skills. “Despite Asians on average having higher educational attainment, they are not receiving the return to that skill level at the same rate as their European comparators.” 1.8. Representation in the public sector workforce including senior leadership Asian and MELAA people’s representation increased at junior levels of the core public service between 2018 and 2023 but has not translated to representation in senior leadership.  Asian and MELAA (Middle Eastern, Latin American & African) workers are underrepresented in public sector decision making. 1.9.1. Proportion of employed people who reported self-assessed skills mismatch in main job In 2018, 35% of Asian people rated themselves ‘overskilled’ for their main job. 3.5. International market access New Zealand’s increasing diversity presents an opportunity to use this advantage to further strengthen international relationships. There is the potential for Ethnic Communities to share knowledge and insights to assist government efforts in this area. 5.3.3. Proportion of people by highest educational qualification Asian and MELAA people have the highest proportion of people aged 25 to 64 years with bachelor’s degree or higher qualification. They remain substantially higher than the New Zealand average. New Zealand’s overseas-born population is one of most educated among overseas-born populations in the OECD countries. 9.3.3. Proportion of Ethnic Communities in government appointed boards While Asian representation on public sector boards has increased since data was first published in 2019 (from 3.6% to 6.1% in 2023) this is not a representative of the Asian population. There is no equivalent data for private sector boards. #Ethnic #Diversity #Inclusion #Equity #Opportunities #International #Skills #Education #Qualifications #Experience #PayParity #Jobs #MisMatch #International #Markets #NZ #NewZealand #Boards

Huge huge huge congratulations: Edwina Mistry Darius Mistry Nilesh Kapoor Chandan Ohri Sudhir Motwani Ravi Patel Shabana Khan Leema Rodrigues Anchal Marwah Edwina Mistry & Darius Mistry of for being inducted into the Reseller News NZ Innovation Awards Hall of Fame 2024. The citation is an instruction manual on how to conduct one's life, read it here: https://lnkd.in/gZaVR37H Nilesh Kapoor, Blacklock Security & Security Simplified Limited for winning the Startup category in the same awards, recognised as a market-leader building unique businesses and bringing innovative new technologies to the New Zealand market. Chandan Ohri, Duco Consultancy for winning not one, not two, but three awards at the Indian Newslink Business Awards 2024 - Supreme Business of the Year, Best Large Business, and Business Excellence in Innovation. FOUR counting the recently announced Fiji Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Outsourcing. Take 4 bows ! Sudhir Motwani; Circini Limited making the news and being mentioned in the same breath as Deloitte & Infosys. There is a ton of war stories to be told here. https://lnkd.in/dUkdzDRR Big Ups to these finalists in the Reseller News Innovation Awards 2024: Ravi Patel of HP Finalist for Sales Excellence Shabana Khan of Jabra Finalist for Marketing Excellence Leema Rodrigues of Schneider Electric Finalist and Highly Commended for Marketing Excellence; and Anchal Marwah of Digital Island for Technical Excellence in the Partner/Telco space We said at our launch in August 2024: 1. It is estimated Indian IT professionals contribute NZD350M to New Zealand's economy every year. 2. Now at the C-level, industry leaders, successful in the startup, entrepreunership and VC space, many have set up their own professional services practices. 3. This community collectively has unparalleled knowledge, experience, insights and connections in both markets. Hon Melissa LEE Hon Judith Collins KC MP Todd McClay High Commission of India, Wellington, New Zealand - ethnic groups in NZ are a key resource when developing trade relations with their home country. Here are some outstanding individuals with a blend of business and tech skills - invaluable to co-create a New Zealand India Digital Trade strategy. Ministry of External Affairs, India Dr S Jaishankar sees the Indian diaspora as a key plank driving international relations. With your focus on India, this is a golden opportunity, one we cannot afford to miss. #NewZealand #India #Digital #Connections #Diaspora #RoleModels #Success #Leadership #Innovation #Ethnic #Diversity #Inclusion #Digital #Trade #CoCreate #Collaborate #Value Indiaspora

Movers and shakers probable cause of recent tremors in New Zealand: huge congratulations to Sonali Sawant Oza Eric Barrett Chetan Sukha & Sakthi Priya Balaji Ranganathan !!!! Talented Sonali Sawant Oza has moved as an Internal Solution Sales Engineer to the most innovative Automate-X. Eric Barrett successfully completed his Master of Technological Futures, and as part of his degree created Pastorl a platform to enhance student safety and wellbeing. Chetan Sukha started in a new role as Platform Manager (Lending Origination) at Bank of New Zealand. Sakthi Priya Balaji Ranganathan an alumna of Mahuki - Innovation Hub of Te Papa founded JIX Reality a high growth startup research focused on commercialising extended reality technologies (VR, AR, MR) and is exploring new markets. Most Honourable Mentions -Harkanwal Singh and Sid Kumar: Harkanwal Singh started as a Principal Data Engineer at Auror; what is not known widely is that the Indian community in New Zealand owes him a huge debt Sid Kumar for having the fortitude to apply an uniquely Indian lens to the current debate in New Zealand around equity. Ask him about the Mandal Commission. Link to his post: https://lnkd.in/g2T5-ugs #Movers #Shakers #NewZealand #India #Digital #Connections #Congratulations #Diaspora #RoleModels #Thinkers #Doers

The combined teams at Stats NZ and MadeCurious. released the Place and Ethnic Group Summaries tool this week with data from the 2023 Census - thanks George Wills. It allows searching and drilling down into ethnic sub-groups. Indians for example are further searchable as Bengali, Fiji Indians, Indian Tamil, Punjabi, Sikh, Anglo Indian, Malaysian Indian and South African Indians - commendable and a way to go still. Here is a snapshot for ALL Indians in New Zealand (not broken further into sub ethnic groups):  • 225,261 of the total population of New Zealand (4,993,923) are Indians • Median age 32.3 years compared to New Zealand’s median of 38.1 • 67% Indian adults have post-school education compared to 54% for the rest of New Zealand • Almost 60% of Indians live in the Auckland region followed by Wellington (10%), Waikato (9%) Canterbury (7.5%) Tagging all you diversity, inclusion and data nerds for your attention, analysis and comments. Question (for you, and everyone else) - what is your analysis and view on the "occupation" data, what does it show, how do you interpret it ? What else jumps out at you ? Dr Shamalka Perera Roshni Prabhu Savita Bhaskaran Meena Satishkumar Manvi Madan Bushra Nur, MBA (Hons) Raji Nair Dr. Sripriya Somasekhar Edwina Pio https://lnkd.in/dYngNzgQ #Census #Data #Diversity #Statistics #Indians #Diaspora #NewZealand #India #Connections #Participation #Contribution #Society #DEI #Inclusion

Have a look and stand tall ! Here is a query for "Indian-not-further-defined" The fact that it is even possible to drill down past that level is amazing. Level of education, occupation and age are standouts. https://lnkd.in/drX2EwrX #Diversity #Census #Statistics #Indians #Diaspora #NewZealand #India #Connections

#NewZealand #India #Digital #Connections HCLTech Naved Shafiq

Movers & Speakers - Shashank Handa Anu Kaw Gunjan Bhaskar Rameez A. Bhat Manasa Goud !!!!! Pleased to see: Shashank Handa of Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand present on "From Legacy to Legendary" at the APAC Data2030 Summit. Shashank spoke at the 2nd event in our series of talks showcasing role models and success stories. https://lnkd.in/dKctiNhM Anu Kaw of Microsoft will be sharing her learning on Securing Gen AI Applications at ISACA Wellington's Education Day. Anu was one of our talented panellists of 6 powerful tech women of Indian ethnicity at Techweek NZ earlier this year - remember this: not just a tech panel, but an 100% all-woman tech panel. https://lnkd.in/d9Xd6_-u And last but not least: Gunjan Bhaskar Rameez A. Bhat & Manasa Goud, all 3 of Spark for Business, and all 3 speakers at this years CISO Global Auckland event. None of you have spoken at any of our events so far, Gunjan, Rameez & Manasa - your work is cut out for you, we look forward to hearing from you at one of our future events ! https://lnkd.in/dkmA-w94 This is what talent looks like, this is what leadership looks like, this is the value diversity brings to a country, and with it wealth and prosperity to organisations they work for, and the customers they serve. #Diwali #Diversity #NewZealand #India #Digital #Connections #Diaspora #RoleModels #Success

In view of the promise of visiting India within a year of being elected by PM Christopher Luxon, and it being the only country in coalition agreements, we made a submission last year with 2 key recommendations: 1. Lead a Digital and IT Trade Delegation to India 2. Collaborate with IT professionals of Indian heritage, plus those NZ tech pioneers already in that marketplace Ethnic groups are a key resource NZ has when developing trade relations with their home country, the knowledge, connections and insights the community of Indian IT professionals in NZ possess are invaluable. Both countries must seize on them to help increase two-way trade. Australia does well on both counts, here is Austrade South Asia | Australian Trade and Investment Commission calling tech companies to India: https://lnkd.in/dDaX-frQ And here is Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for inputs to develop an India Roadmap: https://lnkd.in/dX7PjHGu Here, Graeme Muller of NZTech was surprised on how little MPs know about the NZ tech sector. https://lnkd.in/d_9vBchp To develop a coherent and progressive trade strategy for India, MPs and advisors, need to: 1.     Get a grip on tech 2.     Understand that recent skilled arrivals are different from historic ones; Indians have undergone a seismic change just like India has We look forward to a Diwali at Parliament where the PM “engages-for-business” with tech savvy digital professionals; (s)he opens a fresh new NZ - India trade ledger; and a tech exporter executes a “muhurat” order. This is how wealth, prosperity and good fortune is celebrated in India. Or it can continue to anoint till all the heads in the Beehive are done. The report remains relevant, pls take it as our invitation to discussing it with you. Todd McClay Hon Judith Collins KC MP Hon Melissa LEE #NewZealand #India #Digital #Connections #Trade #Exports #Diaspora #Connectors #Bridges #Enablers #seetomorrowfirst #techforgood #nztech Sanjay Prakash Rachel Maidment Clare Wilson Victoria Spackman ONZM Jane Cunliffe Graham Rouse Maggie Christie Ramanan Ramanathan Suzannah Jessep Mitchell Pham ONZM FCPA Tania Te Whenua Mervin Singham Berlinda Chin Garry Gupta Corazon Miller Sam Sachdeva Bill Bennett Ziena Jalil Joanna Kempkers Sunil Kaushal Jay Changlani Sameer Handa MNZM Raf Manji BusinessDesk NZ Victoria Young Natasha D'Costa (Telles) Bob Pinchin Katie Howe David Downs Courteney Peters Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi Samir Saran

While we are distracted by elections in the US and preparing to enter an increasingly different and uncertain world, for the first-time ever, Foreign Ministers of India, Australia and New Zealand shared the stage in a 51 minute discussion in Canberra. 🇮🇳 🇦🇺 🇳🇿 Samir Saran of Observer Research Foundation moderates a session with Ministry of External Affairs, India's Dr S Jaishankar, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's Sen Penny Wong, and New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade's Hon Winston Peters ! Keep an eye on Dr Jaishankar, his 5th visit to Australia and 20th meeting with Sen Penny Wong, he remains on point (approx 48 mins mark) with education (exporting students not the answer), people mobility and technology are the package he says - word to word with what he said when he opened the new Indian High Commission in Wellington. Hon Winston Peters acknowledges New Zealand missed the boat when it comes to education and that Australia has a headstart (need to know: Australian universities are setting up in India !) On the question of if the time has come for a tri-lateral, he says "what we thought was a good idea, has now become a critical idea" (approx 8 min mark). With the chemistry and the urgency, we have no doubt that we will see a version of #RaisinaDownUnder2024 in New Zealand in the future, and an acceleration of New Zealand - India relations. The development gives us great heart, confirms what we are doing at the New Zealand Centre for Digital Connections with India is 100% right - AND sets the scene for the post which follows next. Stand by for it ! One last thing - both Ajaz & Rachin get a mention, what diplomatic channels could not accomplish, cricket did ! - to re-word Hon Winston Peters. #NewZealand #India #Australia #Connections #InternationalTrade #InternationalRelations https://lnkd.in/dyh9Z4xW Sam Sachdeva Corazon Miller Chamanthie Sinhalage-Fonseka