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Ariel International Center plans India Trade Mission
By Kevin Milliken, La Prensa Correspondent
The Ariel International Center plans to organize a trade mission to India early next year and is looking for Ohio businesses to include in the trip. An informational session and reception is planned for Thursday, Dec. 18, 2014, 4 to 6 p.m., at the center, Skyline Lake Room, 1163 East 40th Street, 4th floor, Cleveland.
The trade mission to India would run from Feb. 27 to March 9, 2015, and include the cities of Delhi, Chennai (Madras), Hyderabad, and Mumbai (Bombay). Dr. Manoj Kumar Mohapatra, Deputy Consul General of India, New York, will be on hand for the reception to welcome businesses interested in investing or expanding their business to India.
The information session and reception are co-sponsored by the Ariel International Center, the Consulate General of India, NY, and Federation of Indian Associations (FIA). Appetizers will be served and there will be a cash bar.
Radhika Reddy, founder of the Ariel International Center and a native of India, is helping to organize the trade mission early next year. She explained that this is a high-level meeting, because Dr. Mohaptra is the “number two guy from India” in the U.S. and the official “key person for commerce and trade and international trade.”
Ms. Reddy has accompanied then-Ohio Gov. George Voinovich on a trade mission to India in 1997 and helped organize a visit by India-based business owners and investors to the Cleveland area a decade later, which included a presentation by then-Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher.
“I have arranged for trade missions, worked together with other people to bring trade missions to the U.S.,” she said. “But this is the first one on my own, back taking a trade mission back to India because of the recent landslide victory of the new prime minister.”
Ms. Reddy stated the political climate has changed as a result, with a prime minister who will welcome new businesses and investment in India and is working to root out the corruption and bureaucracy that has infected her home country.
“This is the right time for us to go to India because they will make things happen,” she said. “You need the right kind of leader to perform changes for the country. This one has the mandate of the people; before it was all coalition government. Sometimes you’re stuck in the politics and you can’t get things done. Things are really changing”
The Ariel International Center was founded by Ms. Reddy and other investors to create a one-stop international business incubator, office, and an international business and intercultural event center in Cleveland.
“There is a lot of synergy between India and Ohio,” she said.
Ms. Reddy hopes to attract Ohio companies who specialize in biomedical, pharmaceutical, renewable energy, and cutting-edge manufacturing to accompany her on the trade mission. She is especially anxious to take along packaging companies.
“India is one of the largest producers of fresh foods and a lot of it gets wasted by the time it reaches the markets because of rotting food,” she explained. “The U.S. ability to package agriculture and those types of technologies are needed.”
But the Ariel International Center founder also is quick to point out the trade trip “is a two-way street.”
“One is to take companies interested in capturing the growing market in India, Ohio companies that want to expand,” said Ms. Reddy. “The other is to attract Indian companies to come to Ohio. We’re trying to create an international trade district (in Cleveland). If we can bring companies back here to locate, warehousing and distribution-- I’m hoping to achieve that for my own company.”
Ms. Reddy explained that northern Ohio is perfect for international commerce, because freighters can traverse the Great Lakes to welcoming ports in Toledo, Cleveland, Detroit, and elsewhere. She is currently working with Cleveland’s port authority, trying to attract new international markets.
“We do have (international) shipments that do come from Bombay towards Europe, towards Cleveland,” she said. “It would be great to make connections to make direct shipments to and from Cleveland. We’re at a huge turning point and a potential upside.”
Ms. Reddy explained that Cleveland’s Indian community is not as large as New York or Chicago, but is very active and has courted the support of local leaders, such as Cleveland’s mayor and former Cuyahoga County executive Ed FitzGerald.
Ms. Reddy is on the global markets advisory team for the State of Ohio, providing advice on strategies to help Ohio companies export and market globally, attract foreign direct investment into Ohio, and attract global companies to locate in Ohio. She is also on the international advisory committee for the City of Cleveland, helping to develop strategies to attract international businesses to Northeast Ohio for economic development.
Reddy came to Cleveland from Hyderabad, India, 25 years ago to study at Case Western Reserve University. “I came as a student with $20 and a one-year scholarship,” Ms. Reddy once told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. She had a relative, Mohan Reddy, who was a professor at Case Western Reserve at the time. Ms. Reddy has since earned an MBA in Finance & MIS from Case and a Masters in Accounting/Taxation from Cleveland State University.
Ms. Reddy also offers international business, export/import documentation, finance, tax and IT services, to help US companies meet the challenges of operating in a global marketplace. Ms. Reddy has helped Ohio companies set up subsidiaries in India, Hong Kong, Canada, Brazil, Denmark, UK, and Singapore. She has a total of 30 years of management experience (20 years in the U.S. and a decade in India) in real estate, renewable energy, economic development, international banking, and business.
Ms. Reddy also offers international companies expertise in complex financial transactions and tax credits. She has helped to provide deal structuring, financial and cash flow modeling and compliance for over $1.5 billion of tax credit transactions, to structure multi-layered project financing in public-private partnerships, combining comprehensive economic development incentives to attract businesses and stimulate economic development.
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