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00:00What are the three challenges that you might encounter?
00:05If you look at all the other big relationships that have changed for us,
00:10you know, look at the American relationship, look at the Australian relationship.
00:15You need a nuclear deal, basically.
00:17Some equivalent…
00:19Well, a big ticket agreement between…
00:23No, not necessarily.
00:25You know, I… look, everything doesn't happen with a big bank.
00:29The H-1B was actually as impactful as the nuclear deal,
00:34which is not to say the nuclear deal wasn't a huge achievement.
00:37Not having problems can also be,
00:40we are both being happy in the same room, but it stays there.
00:45If you are looking at the flip side of this relationship,
00:51what are the three challenges that you might encounter
00:57or that we might encounter and how do we guard against that?
01:04Well, Indrani, I think the main challenge in a way you have yourself implied.
01:12I mean, we've… I mean, we've never had problems between India and Japan.
01:17But not having problems doesn't mean everything works well, you know.
01:22Not having problems can also be, we are both being happy in the same room,
01:27but it stays there, you know.
01:31So, we need something more.
01:35So, you know, I would say, how do you take good sentiment
01:42and make it into a practical plan?
01:47I think it's that journey which, you know,
01:51which has been a challenge for the relationship.
01:56And the kind of things that I described to you,
02:00which is really a deepening of business,
02:04more interest in, you know, as I say, in education, in internships.
02:10You know, I feel tourism, you know, again.
02:13I mean, when I look today at the kind of spike in Indian tourists,
02:19you know, we are in India, I mean, for the benefit of our Japanese colleagues,
02:25I must tell you the foreign ministry issues the passport.
02:29So, I have a good sense of how many passports we issue every year.
02:34And our passport issuer is going up actually at the rate of almost 10 to 15% a year.
02:40And we are issuing pretty much between about 13 million to 15 million passports every year.
02:47And these are 10-year validity, so you can imagine accumulated what it's doing.
02:52In this country, foreign travel is growing.
02:54Interest in foreign tourism is growing.
02:57But we haven't yet seen any of this really directed at Japan.
03:01You know, if you look at Southeast Asia today,
03:06look at Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, look at the Gulf, look at Europe,
03:10you know, Indian tourists are really going there in very, very large numbers.
03:14So, this, you know, how that part of it, as I said, good sentiment,
03:22not yet, doesn't automatically translate into practical activity, that is challenge number one.
03:29Challenge number two, the supporting activities, you know, more tourism, more education,
03:37and even incoming tourists is, you know, we are not seeing that kind of numbers yet.
03:43And I would say, in a way, for me, the third issue is a belief that the government,
03:52you know, somehow governments are going to build this relationship.
03:57Now, governments can lead this relationship.
03:59They can shape the relationship.
04:01But if you look at all the other big relationships that have changed for us,
04:07you know, look at the American relationship, look at the Australian relationship,
04:11look at the Gulf relationship.
04:13They've also changed because, you know, the government has given the signal,
04:19but there's a huge societal kind of backup which has happened.
04:26And if we, you know, this relationship needs that kind of backup.
04:30And that's really when you can, we can actually get it moving.
04:35You need a nuclear deal, basically.
04:39Some equivalent.
04:40Well, a big ticket agreement between India.
04:45No, not necessarily.
04:47You know, I look, everything doesn't happen with a big bank, you know.
04:52I think often you can get, even that I would argue is a bit overstated.
04:58I mean, if you ask me, I mean, she's referring to the nuclear deal with America,
05:04which we did, which was a turning point in the relationship.
05:07But I would argue that H1B was actually as impactful as the nuclear deal.
05:12And in many ways, much more long lasting than the nuclear deal.
05:16Which is not to say the nuclear deal wasn't a huge achievement.
05:21So, you know, relationships do not develop necessarily through quantum jumps.
05:31They can also develop layer by layer, bit by bit, things happening.
05:36And I think we have not looked, in the past, when we say, okay, we need better relations
05:42with Japan, everybody says, oh, that means more investment.
05:46Answer is yes.
05:47But just saying, you know, there should be more investment, A, doesn't make that investment
05:52happen.
05:53And B, even if some of that happens, isn't good enough.
05:56I think we need the rest of the supporting activities.
06:02And there are models.
06:05I mean, when I look at Japan's relationship with Southeast Asia, when I look at Japan's
06:10relationship with its own neighbors in Northeast Asia, I think there are lessons for us.
06:16That when I look at the kind of student numbers from those countries, when I look at the number
06:21of tourists from those countries, look at the number of flights from those countries,
06:26hotels from those countries, those are all, you know, missing pieces in our relationship.