After Melbourne, Paes now wants India to conquer Russia
After claiming his 11th Grand Slam by winning the Australian Open mixed doubles, Leander Paes’ next target is India’s Davis Cup World Group tie against Russia in March.

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The Russian economy has registered consistent growth for over 10 years now. It has grown at an average rate of 7% annually since the financial crisis of 1998.A leader in aerospace, nuclear engineering, mining and extracting, machine building, defence equipment production, advanced electronic components and consumer durables; Russia is slowly emerging from the shadows of communism to integrate itself in the world economy.Some of the top economic priorities of the Russian government include improving infrastructure, increasing investment, reforming the banking and tax systems and developing one of the biggest financial centres in the world.Strengthening interaction with other economic superpowers and boosting mutually beneficial bilateral ties in all areas, especially in trade and economy, is also a part of its endeavour to strengthen its position in the world order.Russia’s trade with India currently stands at US$ 4 billion. However, it can be increased to US$ 10 billion by 2010 and can reach US$ 20 billion by 2015. To achieve this growth, both countries need to do away with various trade barriers and procedural hassles that prevent the growth of business.While Russia’s export basket for India comprises commodities like machinery and equipment, fertilisers, chemical products, copper, nickel and plastic goods, it mainly imports tea, tobacco, readymade garments, machinery and pharmaceutical goods from India.The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) has recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Russian Public Organisation of Small and Medium-size Enterprises to explore the scope for cooperation in the SME sector.This includes organising joint training programmes, knowledge transfers, expert exchanges, supply of machinery and equipment and turnkey execution of projects.Indian and Russian companies can collaborate in a number of sectors for mutual gain. These include energy & energy resources, agro & food processing, oil extraction, information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services (ITeS), banking, healthcare, education, tourism, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.That apart, they can also explore the possibility of making joint investments in third-world markets in the field of banking, IT, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, power and textiles.The Russian market also offers tremendous scope for Indian auto parts Manufacturers – http://www.bizxchange.in and engineering goods producers who can tap the huge domestic demand with their high-quality and competitively priced merchandise.The diamond industry is another potential avenue for developing linkages between the two countries. Russia is the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds, which can be procured for the diamond cutting and polishing industry in India.There is great demand for guar gum, shawls, embroidered silk jackets, stoles, carpets, leather products and other fashionable Indian items in Russia. Indian firms dealing in these goods can secure sizeable export contracts from Russia by networking with local distributors there.In order to enable Indian exporters to offer goods “off-the-shelf” to Russian importers, the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has proposed setting up a warehousing facility in Kotka, Russia.With both nations aggressively exploring new business opportunities in each other’s geography, there are endless possibilities to increase trade, investment and economic exchanges between the two continental giants.