India: Factbox

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon heads to India on March 15 to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and to attend the Raisina Dialogue, a multilateral geopolitical conference in New Delhi. 

Luxon will travel on to Mumbai on “one of the largest delegations a New Zealand Prime Minister has ever travelled with” and will be accompanied by the Louise Upston, Minister for Tourism and Hospitality; Todd McClay, Minister for Trade and Investment; and Mark Mitchell, Minister for Ethnic Communities.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met Modi on the sidelines of the EAS in Vientiane, Laos on October 10, 2024. Image: Press Information Bureau/Government of India

The stakes are high for Luxon: in 2023’s election campaign, he promised a free trade agreement with India in National’s first term, a notoriously tricky deal to make if New Zealand’s key dairy exports are to be included.  

Trade isn’t the only item on the agenda though, as Luxon attends India’s premier geopolitical conference, the Raisina Dialogue. This conference is committed to addressing the most challenging issues facing the global community - and right now, that list is only getting longer. 

Ahead of the visit, we’ve pulled together a quick fact box on India – and on the outsized relationship New Zealand has with the country. 

New Zealand and India relations 

Official diplomatic ties between New Zealand and India stretch back to 1950, with the beginning of the Colombo Plan. In 1958, New Zealand established its first High Commission in New Delhi, while in 1963, H.E. Mr. V.K. Ahuja arrived as the first New Zealand-based commissioner to the country (previous Indian High Commissioners had been concurrently accredited to Australia and based in Canberra). 

Since then, the two countries have enjoyed a friendly relationship spanning cultural, economic, and sporting links. 

Two-way trade between India and New Zealand reached NZ$2.83 billion annually for the year ended March 2024. Primary exports New Zealand sends to India include wool, scrap iron, and scrap aluminium, while top exports from India into New Zealand include pharmaceuticals and refined petroleum.

For the last few years, there has been a focus from successive New Zealand governments to establish a Free Trade Agreement between the two countries. The last round of negotiations on an FTA happened in 2015, but progress has been slow to non-existent since then. 

Dairy is a sticking point in free trade negotiations between New Zealand and India. Image: Unsplash

Despite the good relationship between New Zealand and India, there remain at least one major obstacle to signing a trade deal: one of New Zealand’s biggest exports, dairy. 

India is protective of its dairy and agriculture sectors. The country is the world’s largest milk producer, while agricultural workers form a large part of the country’s overall labour force. Back in 2019, India pulled out of negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade agreement, citing concerns about a potential flood of dairy imports into the country. RCEP currently comprises 15 countries, including New Zealand.

As previous negotiations have proven, keeping dairy in an FTA for New Zealand will be difficult, if not possible, and strengthening other elements of the trade relationship may be needed instead.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi 

India is the world’s largest democracy – in the country’s 2024 general election in 2024, roughly 970 million eligible voters headed to the polls. Given the sheer scale of the democratic exercise, voting takes place over several weeks to elect members of the Lok Sabha (the lower house of parliament or the House of the People). 

Narendra Modi being welcomed by members of the Indian diaspora in Philadelphia in September 2024. Image: Wikimedia Commons

India’s general elections are held every five years. Since 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been the ruling party in the Lok Sabha, under the right-leaning, multi-party National Democratic Alliance coalition.  

The current prime minister, BJP’s Narendra Modi, has held the office since 2014 and is currently in his third term. He has enjoyed massive popularity over his time as leader but has also drawn criticism for the rise of Hindu nationalism under his party’s rule, fanning ethnic divides in the country.

India’s biggest industries 

India is the world’s fifth-largest economy and is on-track to become the third largest by 2027, overtaking Japan and Germany.

Historically, the largest sector contributing to India’s economy and employment has been agriculture. Today, it – alongside its associated sectors - is “unquestionably” the largest livelihood provider in the country, supporting 42.3 percent of the population, but its contribution to GDP has steadily declined over the decades. The sector makes up 18.2 percent of India’s GDP, according to an economic survey presented to the Indian parliament in November 2024, compared to 22.3 percent in 2000 or 47.6 percent in 1960.

Agriculture has been a major part of India's economy. Image: Wikimedia Commons

However, there has been dramatic and rapid growth in the service sector industry as agriculture has declined – particularly in the areas of IT and fintech.  

Fintech refers to technologies which help smooth and speed up the use of financial services. One of India’s largest fintech companies is Paytm, a digital payment app you can use to pay bills, send money to friends and family, or buy groceries at your local store. More than 300 million people use the app in India.  

In 2023, the service sector made up 49.58 percent of India’s $US3.568 trillion GDP. In that same year, India’s national investment promotion agency Invest India predicted the fintech sector would reach a value of $US150 trillion by 2025 up from $US580 billion in 2022.

India has also earned the name ‘Pharmacy of the World’ for its dominance in producing pharmaceuticals – particularly generic medicines. 

India has the third largest pharmaceutical industry globally by volume and is also the largest provider of generic drugs.

Food  

Indian food is famous the world over – and what better way to learn about another culture than through its food? We have a number of articles exploring India’s history and identity through food, so have a read: 

A culinary journey through India’s biryani trail

Soaked in history: the cuisine of Goa

The intricacies of Kashmiri Wazwan

The tale of India's iconic chilli - Bhut Jolokia, aka Ghost Pepper

Cricket 

No discussion of India is complete without its national sport, cricket. 

Cricket is played everywhere in the country, from kids playing on the most convenient patch of land, to in front of crowds of tens of thousands. 

The largest cricket stadium – and one of the largest sporting stadiums in the world is in India: the Narendra Modi Stadium in Gujarat with a capacity of 130,000. It has seen its fair share of packed out games. 

Indian cricket fans seem to have a soft spot for the Black Caps, and it seem every taxi driver in Delhi is a walking cricket compendium, able to discuss India's long history in the game.

Sport is undeniably important as a way of building country-to-country connections - and if we’re looking for the power of informal diplomacy here, let’s see what India’s four wicket win over New Zealand at the Champion’s Trophy final over the weekend does for trade negotiations... 

Banner Image : New Delhi's Red Fort/ Image AMC

Other resources

India country profile - Asia New Zealand Foundation

India-New Zealand 2025: Investing in the relationship - MFAT

Asia Media Centre