Sandro Gozi, at that time President of the Parliamentary Committee for the Control on the Implementation of the Schengen Agreement, on Europol Activities and Migration Policies, was called to replace hon. The Association has operated for several years, but President Gozi decided to reorganise it and to amend its Articles of Association, setting new objectives and a specific mission. The Italy-Indi
a Association is a no-profit Private Law association, and is exclusively supported by the fees of its members. The Association is revived in a fundamental moment of relations between the two Countries. 2007 was an extraordinarily positive year for Italy-India economic relations. It opened with the mission of former Prime Minister Romano Prodi - who signed important agreements and aroused a high interest towards India all over the country - and ended with the mission of Minister D'Alema last October, as a confirmation of the creation of increasingly strong political relations between Italy and India. 2008 opened with the mission in New Delhi of Minister Paolo de Castro who signed with his Indian counterpart, Sharad Pawar, an important Memorandum of understanding that laid the bases for the strengthening of business relations between the two Countries. The good trade results between India and Italy (which quadrupled from 2001 to nowadays) are however only partly due to institutional initiatives. The increasing importance of India as economic partner of our country is structural and destined to grow in the years to come: in the last year 2006-2007, trade between Italy and India increased by 43% and reached 6,257 billion dollars. The Italian exports to India reached record levels since they increased by 44.13%. This is a significant data if compared to the overall growth of Indian trade with the rest of the world, amounting to 23.73%. On the other hand, it is not just Italian companies that look for competitive advantages in the Indian sub-continent: several Indian companies, attracted by the quality of Made in Italy, acquired historical Italian brands in the textile sector and invested in research. Two-way synergies are being developed, and the Association intends to contribute and support them. The Association therefore is established under favourable auspices, since the relations between the two Countries are rapidly progressing in the economic sector first, but they subsequently strengthen and improve in all the other sectors, starting from culture and political-institutional relations. On the basis of these three items, the Association will enhance the mutual interest of the two Countries, targeting to spread the knowledge of Italy in India and the knowledge of India in Italy, in full compliance with the objectives of our Articles of Association, whose main element is the "promotion and increase of political, cultural, economic and tourist relations between Italy and India". The Association, in brief, is progressively establishing a forum where the worlds of politics, business and research have the opportunity to meet, discuss and promote relations between the two Countries.
