Introduction

Timing has always been a challenge in Australia's relationship with India.

In the past substance often lagged enthusiasm. Today the risk is that we are not moving fast enough and Australia might fall behind as other countries accord India a higher priority. This is already happening in some areas.

Momentum is important to relationships. We cannot afford to lose momentum or to assume that the logic of complementary interests will be enough to take the economic relationship to the level it needs to rise.

To counter this, Australia needs an ambitious India strategy. This report recommends that we should strive by 2035 to lift India into our top three export markets, to make India the third largest destination in Asia for Australian outward investment, and to bring India into the inner circle of Australia's strategic partnerships, and with people to people ties as close as any in Asia.

Australia has long seen India as an important country in its own right and one with which Australia should have a relationship of substance anchored in shared interests and shared values. But finding that alignment has proven difficult over time.

Australia has never been in the first rank of India's international priorities. India's focus has understandably been on its neighbourhood and after that on the major powers.

Outside of areas such as resources, education, mining and, in a different sense, sport India does not naturally look to Australia as a first order partner. That perception needs to change if the relationship is to find the traction to take it to the next level.

From when it first became independent in 1947 until relatively recently, India and Australia also saw the world very differently. Our hard interests, strategic and economic, rarely intersected.

India's economy went down the path of self-sufficiency, not global trade. During the Cold War we inhabited different strategic universes. Our communities had little to do with each other.

Today however we are as close as we have ever been to getting the timing right and finding the content to underpin the relationship.

Our thinking on the merits of an open economy is closer. We are building common ground on the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific. And our communities are getting to know each other better, not least through the rapid increase in the Indian diaspora in Australia, now 700,000 strong.

The Australia India relationship has had false starts in the past but that must not distract us from the opportunities of the future.

This report seeks comprehensively to set out those opportunities. It is the most detailed analysis so far of the complementarities of our two economies over the next two decades. It is designed to give the Australian business community something they can touch and feel; to translate the headline story about India's potential into a road map of where the opportunities lie and how best to pursue them. In short, to move the relationship with India from potential to delivery.

As a report to government I have sought to emphasise the importance of a strategic investment in the relationship with India led at the highest levels of the Australian Government. A strategic investment means a clear signalling of the priority the government attaches to the relationship, a willingness to devote focus and resources to it, and a commitment to work closely with Australian State Governments, Australian business and community groups in delivering an integrated strategy.

Structure of the report

Central to this report are judgements about why India matters to Australia. India is the fastest growing large economy in the world. It will have the world's largest population well before 2035. Beyond scale and complementary economies, India also offers us an opportunity to spread our trade and investment risk in Asia.

In the Overview chapter I have summarised the core of the strategy the report recommends ('sectors and states'), how things in India are changing for the better, the challenges that remain and the importance of locating our economic strategy within a broader relationship with India, of which a growing geopolitical congruence and people to people ties are the other two pillars.

The report contains detailed chapters on each of the 10 sectors identified as areas where Australia has a measure of competitive advantage.

The chapter on Indian states is designed to answer the question: where should Australia focus and where do you start in a market as large and diverse as India?

Throughout the report I have sought to provide a balanced perspective of both the challenges and opportunities in the Indian marketplace. The scale of India and the rhetorical flair of its leaders can at times gloss over the challenges on the ground or the way in which India can test the patience of even the most committed. I have sought to put the challenges in perspective and to acknowledge the significant changes and reforms which are taking place, concluding that the balance sheet overwhelmingly favours opportunities over constraints.

Indian policy makers know what needs to be done. They do not need tutorials on the policy options. But they also know that managing a country as big and diverse as India with a robust democracy and a vocal media will inevitably mean compromises, delays and less than ideal policy approaches. In this India is not unique.

Recommendations

The report contains 90 recommendations. They are summarised and prioritised within the Prioritising Recommendations section and each sectoral chapter contains detailed recommendations relevant to that sector.

The recommendations span the short, medium and long term. Not all the recommendations can be implemented straight away and some will have to wait until more resources are available. But taken together they form a body of practical steps, some to be taken now and others to which governments and business can return at the appropriate time.

Ultimately a strategy is only as good as the commitment which backs it and the resources and priorities which drive it. Taking the relationship with India to the level it deserves is a long haul journey. It will take leadership, time, effort and consistent focus.

No strategy goes exactly to plan. All strategies have to be nimble enough to adapt to the unforeseen. But the logic of a strategic investment by Australia in the relationship with India is compelling.