Apart from delegates from the Greater Toronto Area, home to more than 400,000 Indo-Canadians, the ICCC was fortunate to attract to PBDCanada2011 several eminent participants including officials, businessmen and members of delegations of CII and ASSOCHAM, practitioners and scholars from India, other parts of Canada and USA who enriched the discussions on important subject matters in various well attended plenary and concurrent sessions. We thank all these delegates for travelling long distances, for their keen interest in the subject matter and for their contribution which were important factors for the success of the Convention. We would like to offer special thanks to His Excellency Stewart Beck, Canadian High Commissioner to the Republic of India, His Excellency S M Gavai, India’s High Commissioner to Canada and Ms. Preeti Saran, Consul General of India in Toronto for their support and guidance. The ICCC is especially thankful to Dr. A. Didar Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, India both for his guidance during the preparation of the Convention and for his informative and insightful inputs to deliberations in its various sessions. The ICCC thanks all members of the Organizing Committee, for their support and guidance. In particular, we appreciate valuable contribution of members of the Organising Committee (Appendix-VII) for spearheading this event. Satish Thakkar, President ICCC and Kasi Rao, a leading Consultant on Canada-India relations, worked hard for mobilising support from sponsors. Kant K Bhargava, retired-Ambassador and Senior Advisor to the ICCC, drafted the Concept Paper (Appendix-V) for PBDCanada2011 with inputs from Kasi Rao. It was finalised with valuable suggestions received from MOIA. The ICCC would like to profusely thank the Sponsors and Supporters of the PBD for their generous support (Appendix-VIII). The ICCC appreciates provision of all requisite facilities by management of Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) for hosting PBD Canada 2011 at a world-class facility in the heart of Toronto. Most of all, we would like to acknowledge the contribution of coordinators of all sessions, the volunteers and staff members for their hard and efficient work. We are also grateful to office staff of ICCC, Mayank Bhatt, Tarun Verma and above all, Thecla Mathias and Pawan Kumar Chankotra for their hard work and dedication. The ICCC appreciates the excellent work done by Dr. Anita Singh, SSHRC Post-Doctoral Fellow, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto and Mr. Pawan Kumar Chankotra, ICCC Administrative Assistant for drafting the Conference Report. We record our thanks to Mr. Kasi Rao, Consultant, Ambassador (Retired) Kant K. Bhargava, Senior Advisor, ICCC for their valuable inputs for the finalization of the Report. The ICCC was delighted to host the Regional PBD in Toronto- the first Convention of the Indian Diaspora in North America. This event exemplifies the spectacular rise in the region of the Indian Diaspora, and reflects its potential for building bridges with India. ICCC believes that time has now come for building a solid foundation for a comprehensive economic partnership in the twenty first century between North America and India in which Indian Diaspora in North America is destined to play an important role. We are of the view that the Report of PBDCanada2011 contains several recommendations and suggestions that can serve as important inputs for ongoing
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