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October 21, 2008 Excerpts from Peter Sutherland’s talk at the salon: “By 2025 India’s economy will be among the top three in the world - United States, China and India, but not necessarily in that order.” “Roughly 50% of the Indian population is under the age of 25. What that means is what economists call a ‘potential demographic dividend’. If you have a lot of young people in your economy and you can find them productive jobs that will lead to a rapidly growing economy.” “Today India’s middle class is 53 million strong. At current growth rates of 8%, by 2025 that number will go from 53 million to 583 million middle class. That’s huge. So how can a Canadian company that is thinking about where the future lies ignore India. I think the answer is you can’t.” “The Indian economy is a market that you just can’t ignore. If you are looking beyond the next few years and opportunities that’s where you have to be.” “If you look at the various sectors where there are opportunities for Canada these I think play to what we do well in relation to what the Indian economy and society needs. The biggest issue now is infrastructure – both hard and soft…roads, airports, seaports, power, railways, irrigation, telecoms, education, health, sanitation, environment – these are all areas again where Ontario has significant contributions to make.”