Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra hosted Christopher Skeete, Quebec's Minister of International Relations, and his delegation for lunch at the company's Mumbai office on Friday, 3 July 2026, in a meeting that covered critical minerals, cleantech, artificial intelligence, aerospace, and agri-innovation — five sectors where the Canadian province is positioning itself as a global hub.

Context

Mahindra shared details of the meeting on X, noting that Quebec holds particular interest for India across five domains. These include batteries and critical minerals — with the province emerging as North America's battery supply-chain hub for lithium, graphite, nickel, and cobalt — and a cleantech ecosystem of over 330 companies working on solutions from wastewater treatment to emissions reduction.

The chairman also highlighted Montréal's standing as one of the world's leading artificial intelligence clusters, Quebec's position as the world's sixth-largest aerospace centre with more than 235 companies, and its leadership in precision agriculture, automation, and digital farm management.

Policy Backdrop

The Mumbai meeting is part of a wider pattern of sub-national economic diplomacy between India and Canada. Negotiations for a comprehensive India-Canada economic partnership agreement were first launched in 2010 and have been periodically revived to cover trade in goods, services, and investment. Provincial-level engagements of this kind complement national bilateral diplomacy and reflect India's push to diversify critical-mineral supply chains for its expanding electric-vehicle and renewable-energy manufacturing base.

Quebec's strengths in lithium, graphite, nickel, and cobalt map directly onto India's domestic ambitions in battery manufacturing, making the province a strategically relevant partner beyond Ottawa's formal diplomatic channels.

Stakeholders and Impact

Indian manufacturers in the electric-vehicle and energy-storage space stand to benefit from closer ties with Quebec's battery supply-chain ecosystem, while Quebec exporters gain a direct line to one of India's most influential industrial conglomerates. The Mahindra Group, with interests spanning automotive, cleantech, and technology, is itself a natural counterpart for several of the sectors Skeete's delegation represents.

Beyond the formal agenda, Mahindra noted that the meeting's most memorable moments were personal. He recounted learning that the minister's grandfather, Clarence Skeete, was a Trinidadian all-rounder who represented Trinidad in West Indian first-class cricket and was regarded as one of Trinidad's leading cricketers of the immediate post-war era. Although Minister Skeete never played cricket himself, Mahindra observed that he was well acquainted with the term 'googly' — 'knowledge that could prove surprisingly useful in the world of international relations.'

What's Next

Analysts and industry watchers will look for follow-up announcements on joint ventures or memoranda of understanding emerging from the 2026 bilateral trade discussions. Investment missions between India and Quebec focused on critical minerals and AI could be an early deliverable, given the alignment between Quebec's export strengths and India's stated industrial priorities.

The personal rapport Mahindra described — built as much on cricket anecdotes as on boardroom agendas — underscores how people-to-people connections continue to shape the texture of India's economic diplomacy at the sub-national level.