Invest here, India tells Australian super funds

India will urge Australian super funds to ramp up investment in its economy and seek cheaper access to Australian coking coal.

Former Indian diplomat Anil Wadhwa

India will urge Australian superannuation funds to ramp up investment in its surging economy as it seeks cheaper access to Australian coking coal and a new visa class for Indian IT workers.

India’s new Australia Economic Strategy, to be released during Scott Morrison’s visit to the country next month, will also call on Indian investors to put their money into Australian resources projects to secure raw materials for India’s national infrastructure and manufacturing agendas.

The strategy will identify Australia, which needs to scale back its reliance on China, as “an ideal strategic partner for India”, saying the countries have complementary economies and face similar challenges with infrastructure development and water scarcity.

The plan has been developed by retired Indian diplomat Anil Wadhwa in response to former Department of Foreign Affairs secretary Peter Varghese’s 2018 report that found “no market over the next 20 years … offers more growth opportunities for Australian business than India”.

The Wadhwa report will argue the bilateral economic relationship has been hampered by “in­adequate awareness of business opportunities on both sides”.

The report will urge greater research co-operation between Australia’s Group of Eight universities and their top 20 Indian counterparts, and propose Australian TAFEs be invited to set up colleges in India.

It will also call for Australia and India to move ahead with a plan to set up a sports university in India, and encourage Australian institutions to set up a specialised agriculture campus in the country.

A summary of the report, seen by The Australian, says the Indian government should directly engage with Australian super funds to encourage investment in infrastructure, amid growing recognition by institutional investors of rich returns offered by the world’s fastest-growing large economy.

The proposal follows AustralianSuper’s $1.47bn stake in the Mumbai-based National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, and Macquarie Group’s $2.2bn winning bid to operate 680km of the country’s national highways for the next 30 years.

The report, completed for the Confederation of Indian Industry, will say Australia’s coal, iron ore, copper, gold, potash and phosphate resources present opportunities for Indian investors to “assist in securing India’s resource requirements” for the country’s “Made in India” and “National Mobility Mission” initiatives.

It will identify Australia as a key supplier of rare earths and lithium, ahead of a memorandum of understanding to be signed by Mr Morrison and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on minerals development projects.