I have been promoting India-Latin America business since 1996 as part of Economic Diplomacy. I had created and maintained a website businesswithlatinamerica.com since August 2005. Due to technical challenges, I had to abandone it in 2018. Also, I had a blog Businesswithlatinamerica from 2005 to 2019. I discontinued this in December 2019. But the contents are still available in the blog.

My Latin Americanaffairs blog includes business information also from January 2020.

Here is some information on trade and investment between India and Latin America.

Contents

What is new

Trade

Investment by Indian companies in Latin America

Latin American investment in India

Latin American market

Embassies

What is new

Chilean President visiting India with a large business delegation 1-5 April

Business will be the focus in the visit. The delegation is visiting Mumbai and Bengaluru, besides Delhi.

India stops buying oil from Venezuela, after Trump imposes additional tariff on countries importing Venezuelan oil - 20 March 2025

Venezuela had supplied 2 billion dollars of crude oil in 2024 after the stoppage of supply in the previous 3 years due to US sanctions. But with the latest Trump threat, India had no alternative but to stop buying Venezuelan crude.

India has opened embassy in Bolivia- March 2025

Rohitkumar R. Vadhwana has been appointed as the first Ambassador of India to Bolivia. Earlier, the Indian embassy in Lima was concurrently accredited to Bolivia

Indo-Brazil JV to produce acrylic resin in Gujarat - March 2025

Brazilian chemical group OCQ has entered into a joint venture with Thermax of India for acrylic resin production in Gujarat. OCQ will hold a 49% stake and Thermax 51% in the JV...

https://valorinternational.globo.com/business/news/2025/03/11/ocq-expands-to-india-through-joint-venture-with-thermax.ghtml

India and Brazil sign MOU for cooperation in Digital Public Infrastructure- March 2025
Brazil’s Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services (MGI) and International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at enhancing the social impact of digital transformation in environmental and rural registries.

Details…https://www.gov.br/gestao/pt-br/assuntos/noticias/2025/marco/brasil-e-india-firmam-parceria-para-aprimorar-o-uso-de-infraestruturas-publicas-digitais

Petrobras to supply crude to BPCL - February 2025

Petrobras has signed an agreement to supply India's Bharat Petroleum Corporation 6 million barrels of oil annually between 2025 and 2026. The Brazilian company hopes to increase the supply to 24 million barrels in the future...

https://www.dw.com/en/india-and-latin-america-tighten-ties-to-diversify-trade/a-71746866

IFFCO investment in nano fertiliser in Brazil - February 2025

The Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) and its research arm, Nanoventions Private Limited (NVPL), are building Brazil's first nano-inputs facility in Paraná. This facility will be IFFCO's first nanofertilizer plant outside of India.

Paytm enters Brazil- January 2025

PayTM’s subsidiary Paytm Cloud Technologies has acquired 25 per cent stake in a Brazilian technology firm Seven Technology LLC for one million dollars. Seven Technology is the parent company of a start-up Dinie Correspondente Bancário e Meios de Pagamento Ltda. (Dinie), a start-up which enables digital platforms to provide financial services solutions to micro, small and medium-sized enterprise

Trade

India’s exports to Latin America in 2024 (January-December) increased marginally to 20.2 billion US dollars from 19.7 billion in 2023.- May 2025

Top destinations:

Brazil 6.54 billion

Mexico 5.72 bn

Colombia 1.38 bn

Chile 1.14

Argentina 1.0

Peru 947 million

Guatemala 616 m

Main exports:

Vehicles 4.66 bn

Chemicals 3 bn

Equipments and machinery 3 bn

Pharmaceuticals 1.75 bn

Exports of Motorcycles have increased to 1.4 billion dollars in 2024 from 928 m in 2023. India is the second largest supplier of motorcycles to Latin America after China.

PTA with Mercosur

Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) was concluded in march 2005. Preferential duty ( 10-20 percent in most cases) is given to 452 Indian products entering mercosur and reciprocal concession to 450 products of mercosur entering India. The PTA has become effective from June 2009.

Duty discount for 452 Indian exports as follows:

10 % : 394 products
20 % : 45 products
100%: 13 products

Duty discount on 450 Mercosur exports:

10 % : 93 products
20 % : 336 products
100 % : 21 products

Negotiations are going on sporadically for the last several years to expand the PTA. Bigger lists of items to be covered have been exchanged. The chances of any outcome in the near future are slim given the current uncertainty faced by Mercosur.

PTA with Chile

India and Chile signed expanded PTA on 6 September 2017 to build on the original PTA signed in 2006.

Under the expanded PTA, Chile has offered concessions to India on 1798 tariff lines with Margin of Preference (MoP) ranging from 30%-100% and India has offered concessions to Chile on 1031 tariff lines at 8-digit level with MoP ranging from 10%-100%.

In the original PTA concluded in March 2006, India’s offer list to Chile consisted of 178 tariff lines the Margin of Preference (MoP) ranging from 10%-50% at 8-digit level and Chile’s offer list to India consisted of 296 tariff lines with MoP ranging from 10% - 100% at 8-digit level.

FTA with Peru, Colombia and Mexico

The government of India has held seven rounds of FTA negotiations with Peru. The FTA is expected to be signed in 2025.

There have been some initial talks for a India-Ecuador PTA/FTA. There is need for FTA/PTA with Colombia and Mexico.

Indian Lines of Credit

The Government of India has been giving lines of credit (LOC) Latin American countries at concessional terms since 2003. These are being operated by Eximbank of India.

Cuba has been given 248.06 mn USD through 6 different LOCs

Nicaragua 94.98 mn USD, through 5 LOCs

Honduras 53.13 mn through 2 LOCs. Apollo International Ltd has done a 22 million dollar irrigationproject in Honduras. It includes supply of pumps and irrigation equipments. The project is estimated to irrigate 3,060 hectares of land and benefit about 1200 farmers. India had given earlier another credit of 35 million dollars in 2006

Eximbank has given its own commercial Lines of Credit to some Indian companies for exports and investment in Latin America. It has also given some commercial lines of credit to governments, banks and regional organisations in Latin America, which remain mostly unutilised. The Eximbank office in Washington DC deals with LOCs to Latin America.

Indian investment and business operations in Latin America

Indian companies have invested about 10 billion dollars in the region in energy, manufacturing, IT, pharmaceuticals, agro-chemicals, steel, mining, agribusiness and other sectors. The Indian investment reached its peak around 2012 after which some companies have pulled out/sold their operations in the region. These include Renuka Sugar investment of 500 million dollars in Brazilian sugar sector and Havell’s investment of 150 million dollars in the region in Sylvania lighting assets. On the other hand, there have been increase in investment by small and mid-level companies in manufacturing sectors.

Information Technology

Indian IT companies have established software development centres, BPOs, KPOs and Call Centres in fourteen countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and Guatemala) of the region employing 50,000 Latin Americans. The Indian companies have developed a new near-shore business model of 12/12 in which they service their North American clients for 12 hours from the same time zone operations in Latin America and the remaining 12 hours from India. The Indian companies leverage the multilingual skills of Latin Americans who speak Spanish, Portuguese and Italian to service European clients. They use the Latin Americans to reach out to the 40 million strong Hispanic market of US. The Indian companies have also got contracts from local Latin American companies.

TCS is the pioneer and has the largest presence in the region with Global Delivery Centres in eight Latin American countries employing 20,000 local staff in Chile (1600), Brazil (1500), Uruguay (1400), Mexico (7000), Colombia (1900), Argentina (250), Peru(1000) and Ecuador(2600) and Guatemala (150).

TCS has established a Regional Training Centre at Montevideo in Uruguay. Annual turnover in the region is close to a billion dollars.

Its unit in Londrina, Brazil will have 5,000 professionals focussing on strategic areas such as Business Transformation, AI and Cognitive Operations. It will be the company's main service center in South America.

In addition to the Londrina center, the company is establishing its first innovation center in the Southern Hemisphere in partnership with São Paulo think tank Insper..

HCL has IT centres in Brazil (315 staff in Sao Paulo and Port Alegre) and Mexico ( 70 staff) as well as a BPO in Guatemala. In September 2019, HCL has acquired the R and D facilities and services of Xerox in Guatemala. The centre has around 600 staff. Total Latin America staff of HCL is 3050.

Infosys- has set up Global Delivery Centres in Mexico, in Belo Horizonte and Araraqua in Brazil, in Argentina and a BPO in Costa Rica.They also have operations in Colombia. They have over 2000 staff in Latin America. Infosys employs around 1000 people in Mexico, mostly in Monterrey but some in Mexico City as well.

Wipro has presence in 8 major cities with 1400 local staff across Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Argentina with Sales offices in Sao Paulo (Brazil), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Mexico City (Mexico), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Santiago (Chile), and Bogota (Colombia) and Development Centres in Curitiba (Brazil-530 staff), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Mexico City (Mexico-100 staff), and Monterrey (Mexico). It has acquired a Brazilian company InfoServer (in April 2017) which provides custom application development and software deployment services especially for banks. Approximate cost of this acquisition 9 million dollars.

Tech Mahindra – has 4000 local staff in Colombia, Brazil (Sao Paulo and Londrina) , Peru, Mexico, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama. In February 2013 it had acquired Complex IT, a Brazil-based SAP consulting provider which has about 500 employees and focuses largely on the enterprise resource planning (ERP) market in Brazil. The company has started operations in Mexico from May 2014. It has later acquired a Colombian company LeadCom which has presence in nine Latam countries besides in Africa.

Mahindra Comviva acquired majority stake in January 2016 in Advanced Technology Solutions(ATS) an Argentine IT company which provides mobile software and solutions to telecom companies in many countries of Latin America. With this acquisition, Mahindra expects Latin America to contribute 15% to its global revenue in the next three years. Mahindra Comviva is a subsidiary of TechMahindra which already has operations in Latin America.

L&T Infotech has a BPO in Costa Rica with about 80 staff.

Genpact has BPO operations in Brazil, Mexico ( Guadalajara, Monterry and Juarez), Colombia, Costa Rica (Heredia) and Guatemala. Its Centres in Costa Rica and Mexico service Walmart.

Cognizant has five Delivery Centres in Latin America in Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Mexico city, Jalisco and San Jose. The biggest operations are in Argentina with 200 staff. The latest centre was inagurated in San Jose, Costa Rica on 19 December 2013.

24/7 from Bangalore has BPOs in Guatemala and Nicaragua employing over 4000 local staff.

Crisil/Irevna has set up a KPO unit in Buenos Ares for equity research with 130 Argentine staff. It has opened another office in Bogota in 2024

Copal Partners the financial research company has established an office in Buenos Aires since 2010.

E-Valueserve has a KPO unit for financial research services in Chile, with 70 staff.

Amba Research has a KPO in Costa Rica with 100 staff
WNS has a centre in Costa Rica with 300 staff
IDHASOFT has a BPO in Costa Rica with 50 staff.

CSS has a call centre/BPO in Costa Rica with 50 staff
Hexaware Technologies has acquired a Mexico-based IT company Fox Frames for 34 million dollars to expand its software testing business. It has operations in Brasil too.

Polaris Software has a centre in Santiago, Chile since May 2009.

Sasken Technologies has 140 staff in Mexico
Tec.Know Solutions has a BPO in Guatemala with 70 staff.

Sutherland has a BPO in Fortaleza with 60 Brazilian staff. They already have a centre in Bogota with 1600 staff and are planning to open in other cities such as Medellin and Barranquilla in Colombia. They also have a plan to open a BPO in Lima, Peru

UST Global, a Trivandrum-based IT company has opened a centre in Leon in Guanajuato, Mexico in July 2012 with ten staff. It plans to increase the staff strength to 80 by end 2012. The Mexican centre would provide near-shore service to its north american clients. The company plans to extend its operations to other Latin American countries and employ 5000 Latin Americans in the coming years both for outsourcing operations as well as to service Latin American companies. UST Global has a partnership with Fox Centre (former President Vicent Fox) in Mexico. Fox visited the Trivandrum office of UST Global in September 2012 and his Fox Centre is facilitating the entry of the company in Latin America.

Manthan Systems, a provider of Business Intelligence and Analytics solutions for the retail and consumer goods sectors has centres in São Paulo and Londrina in Brazil.

Mphasis plans to launch a ‘centre of excellence for financial services’ in Buenos Aires. Already, they have operations in Mexico and Costa Rica

KPIT Technologies of Pune has 3 centres in Brazil ( Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre and Rio de Janeiro) employing 120 Brazilian professionals.

Hindujas Global Solutions have global delivery centres in Bogota and Barranquilla and in Mexico with a total of 1500 staff.

Zoho’s enterprise IT management services company ManageEngine has opened offices in Bogotá and São Paulo. They plan a third one in Mexico. The company has reportedly more than 7,000 customers across Latin America. Zoho is setting datacenters in Brazil and Mexico.

Redbus, the online bus ticket booking company of India has acquired ( in July 2016) majority stake in Peruvian company Busportal. The Peruvian co-founders will continue to lead the operations in Peru and explore expansion to other countries such as Colombia and Chile

Zensar Technologies from Pune has got a contract to work with Unicomer group based in El Salvador. Zensar will upgrade the Oracle business systems of Unicomer, Group which is a large multinational retail firm with 1000 stores in 24 countries. It has started operations in Mexico with 50 local staff in April 2019.

Vrnda Software Technologies has a small centre in Peru with 11 staff

Practo, an online platform that connects patients with doctors, has launched its services in Brazil, starting with the city of Sao Paulo. Practo Search and Practo Ray services are available in English and Portuguese.

TraQIQ and Quadratyx have operations in Colombia

WinZO, India’s largest gaming and interactive entertainment platform has announced its strategic partnership with Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV EAESP) of Brazil, for research projects and hiring local talent to expand rapidly in Brazil and beyond. Winzo plans to invest 50 m dollars in Latin America...

https://www.covaipost.com/coimbatore/winzo-partners-with-fgv-eaesp-sponsors-20-indian-game-developers-for-the-first-ever-india-pavilion-at-gamescom-latam/

Paytm Cloud Technologies has acquired 25 per cent stake in a Brazilian technology firm Seven Technology LLC for one million dollars. Seven Technology is the parent company of a start-up Dinie Correspondente Bancário e Meios de Pagamento Ltda. (Dinie), a start-up which enables digital platforms to provide financial services solutions to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises

Indian start-ups in Start-Up Chile

Indian start-ups have been taking advantage of the invitation and financial support from Start-Up Chile programme (annual) to establish operations in Santiago, Chile. Some have continued and expanded in Latin America after the end of the Chilean financial support. There were 12 companies operating in sectors like software, biotech, and gaming.

Indian super computer for Brazil August 2024

India’s Center for the Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) will build supercomputers in Brazil's Paraná state for research in the fields of genomics, precision agriculture and artificial intelligence. This is being done under a MoU signed in April 24 between Paraná governor, Carlos Massa Ratinho Júnior, and C-DAC.

In 2018, C-DAC had signed MoU with ITAIPU Technology Park Foundation (PTI) - Brazil for similiar super computer job

Pharmaceuticals

There are about 30 Indian companies that currently have a physical presence in the region, either with a local manufacturing unit or offices. The Indian pharma companies have established 14 manufacturing units in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina and have marketing offices/subsidiaries in other countries.

Aurobindo does business of around 100 million dollars. It has invested in a warehouse facility in Anàpolis, Brazil.

Sun Pharma has production units in Brazil and Mexico.
Dr.Reddy's Labs had bought a pharma plant for 60 million dollars in Mexico in 2006 where they make APIs for exports primarily to US. Besides, they export over 50 million dollars of finished formulations to the region.

Lupin has acquired Grin Laboratorios of Mexico which has revenues of more than 30 million dollars. Grin specialises in opthalmic products. Lupin has 100% stake in the Brazilian pharma company Medquimica. Its revenue in Brazil is over 80 million dollars. Medquimica, which has 550 employees, is one of the fastest growing companies in branded generics.

Torrent has a Brazilian subsidiary with 300 Brazilian employees and a business of over 100 million dollars.

Zydus Cadila has acquired a Brazilian company Nikho, which has a turnover of over 60 million dollars.

Glenmark had taken over an Argentinian Pharma company “Servycal SA” in 2005 and has set up a new plant for oncological products. It has also invested in a new facility near Sao Paulo which has a turnover of 40 million dollars. It has a subsidiary in Dominican Republic.

MSN Labs have subsidiaries in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile.

Cipla has presence in Brazil with a subsidiary

ACG Capsules of Mumbai acquired (2017) Nova Nordeplast, a Brazilian company that makes films and foils for pharma packing. In 2018 it acquired Aclar Lamination and launched its new capsules manufacturing in Pouso Alegre in the state of Minas Gerais in 2019.

Hetero has been supplying to Latin America and has a plant in Mexico

Caplin Point is the largest exporter to Central America. It has regional headquarters in Guatemala and branches in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti and Dominican Republic.

Natco Pharma from Hyderabad has a subsidiary in Brazil
Micro Labs Ltd has presence in Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Dominican Republic, Peru

Himalaya Drugs has presence in Peru

TIL Healthcare of Chennai has an office in Peru and supplies to many countries in the region.

Biocon has entered into an agreement with Laboratorios PiSA SA de CV (PiSA) of Mexico for co- development of generic recombinant human insulin (rh-insulin) for the US market. This collaboration is a part of Biocon’s strategy to address the large demand for generic rh-insulin in the US, which accounts for over 40 percent of the global sales of $ 5 billion. The company has technological collaboration with Cuba for production of some biotech products in India.

Agrochemicals/chemicals

United Phosphorus Ltd (UPL) Latin America accounts for 1.7 billion dollars (35% ) of the total global revenue of 5 bn of UPL. The region’s share is more than that of Europe, US or Asia. UPL, the largest Indian agrochemical firm, has more business in Brazil (1.2 billion dollars) than in India. Brazil's share is 25% of the global business of UPL, which has manufacturing units in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Colombia. UPL had acquired in 2020 a Chilean agrochemical firm IngeAgro. It has a large Research and Development Centre for seeds in Argentina through its subsidiary Advanta.

IFFCO has invested 25 million dollars in Americas Petrogas, a Canadian company, which has oil and gas projects in Argentina and a potash mine in Peru. IFFCO is working on the potash project in Peru, as part of their global fertiliser production strategy. They are planning construction of a potassium chloride plant in Bayóvar (Piura) which will involve an investment of 200 milion dollars. IFFCO is also considering a Urea production plant based on the gas produced by Americas Petrogas in La Pampa province of Argentina.

IFFCO and its research arm, Nanoventions Private Limited (NVPL), are building Brazil's first nano-inputs facility in Paraná. This facility will be IFFCO's first nanofertilizer plant outside of India.

Naq Global, an Indian manufacturer of fertilizer additives, has a local business of over 80 million dollars in Brazil. It has plants in Porto Alegre, Uberaba and Rondonópolis. The Brazilian production is geared mainly to Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Mexico.

EID Parry has acquired Alimtec SA, a Chilean manufacturer of nutraceuticals, which belonged to Bayer. EID Parry will export the products of Alimtec to its US subsidiary

Camlin Fine Sciences from Mumbai has acquired 65% stake in Mexican chemical firm Dresen Quimica for $7.8 million. Dresen is engaged in manufacturing and distributing specialty intermediate chemical solutions used by the feed, food and other industrial products. Dresen has operations in five countries including Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Colombia and Dominican Republic. Camlin's Brazil operations began in 2014 through their 100% subsidiary company CFS do Brasil Ltda with production of antioxidant blends for food applications.

Sharda cropchem has agrochemical plants in Brazil, Colombia

Energy

OVL (ONGC Videsh Ltd) has invested over two billion dollars in the oil fields in Venezuela, Brazil and Colombia. It is the largest Indian investor in Latin America.

In Colombia, OVL’s investment is in a 50:50 joint venture with Sinopec. OVL investment is 600 million dollars in this jv company called as Manasarover Energy Colombia Ltd. Besides this,OVL has also taken exploration rights for some offshore oil blocks in Colombia.

OVL has offshore oilfield concessions in Cuba on its own as well as separately as part of a consortium lead by Repsol.

Bharat Petro Resources, subsidiary of BPCL had acquired ten blocs in Brazil valued at US$ 280 million. They have already struck oil in some of the blocks. The Indian government has given approval to state-owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) to invest an additional $1.6 billion in a Brazilian oil block.

BPCL has signed a MOU with Brazil's national oil company Petrobras for sourcing of crude oil through long term contracts.

Assam company has entered into a Farmout Agreement with Sismopetrol and R3 in Colombia for exploration and production of an oil block known as ANH EL Triunfo located in Casanare in Colombia. The block size is 10,200 hectares and contains one discovered well (La Cabana). Assam Company has 70% Participating Interest in the said Block with Sismoperrol holding 30% Participating Interest.

Joshi Technologies International has an oil field in Colombia which produces 5000 bpd. Joshi company, founded by Dr Joshi, also have oil fields in India and USA.

Gammon India Ltd has established a subsidiary company Campo Puma Oriente SA ( based in Panama ) which operates the Puma oil fields in Ecuador which consists of eleven wells with proven reserves of 8 million barrels. They have a 20-year lease of Puma since 2008. The Puma field investment is a joint venture with Joshi Technology International of USA. Gammon has 66.4% and Joshi 33.6%. The joint venture company in Ecuador is called as Consorcio Pegaso They have already invested 50 million dollars and plan to invest 51 million dollars.

Suzlon Energy Ltd has created a cumulative installed capacity of approximately 750 MW in Brazil and have supplied 185 turbines to a dozen projects.

The company has done projects in Uruguay and Nicaragua.

Sterling and Wilson Solar Limited has got four solar projects totalling about 700 MW in Chile. It has done a project of 93.3 MW in Argentina and a 6 MW project in Brazil

Vijay Electricals from Hyderabad has a Transformers plant in Joao Pessoa in the northeast of Brazil. They have another plant in Mexico.

DS Constructions Ltd. had acquired Globeleq America's power assets for $542 million, in 50:50 joint venture with Israel Corporation. The assets consists of natural gas and hydro power plants in Peru and Bolivia, fuel based power assets in El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and Jamaica totalling a capacity of over 2,180 mw.

Sterling and Wilson Solar Limited has got an order USD 63 million for a 107 MW solar project in Chile september 2020. The company already has a strong presence in the region with one project of 93.3 MW in Argentina and three projects of 588 MW under construction in Chile. Cumulative total of all these projects is USD 488 m.

Wipro’s Infrastructure Engineering division has acquired (may 2011) a Brazilian hydraulic cylinder manufacturer, RKM Equipamentos Hidraulicos which supply components to equipment makers such as Caterpillar and JCB.

Infrastructure/ EPC contracts

Sterlite has won large Brazilian power transmission line projects involving investment of 2 billion dollars since December 2017. They will build,own and operate the lines for 30 years. In April 2019, it got another power transmission project in which it will invest 200 million dollars in Rio Grande do Sul..They will build,own and operate the lines for 30 years. Sterlite has an optic fiber plant in Curitiba in a 50:50 joint venture with Brazilian company Conduspar Condutores Eletricos. Sterlite won two projects in the Brazilian power transmission auction held on 30 June 2022. These are lots 05 and 09 in the states of Bahia (113 km, annual revenue 22 million Reais) and Sergipe covering 505 kms with annual revenue of R$ 87 million.

Kalpataru Power Transmission Limited (KPTL), an Indian power transmission company has about a billion dollars of EPC contracts in Latin America. This includes a 430 million dollar contract in Chile. They have also won contracts in Guyana and Suriname

The company has acquired Fasttel Engenharia Ltda., Brazil (Fasttel) for USD 8.80 Million. Kalpataru has been operating in Brazil through its subsidiary Kalpataru Power do Brasil.

They have also supplied towers and transmission equipments to some countries in the region

Karamtara, the Indian power transmission company has supplied about 80 million dollars of towers to Colombia, Peru, Chile and Bolivia.

KEC International Ltd has acquired (sept 2010) SAE Tower Holdings of USA which has manufacturing facilities in Belo Horizonte, Brazil ( 65000 tons) and Monterry, Mexico (35,000 tons) as well as in USA. Cost of acquisition was 95 million dollars. SAE Towers is a leader in all three markets.

Skipper, from Kolkatta has supplied towers worth 70 million dollars to the region.
Voltech from Chennai has got some subcontracts to do engineering services in the power sectors in Chile and Brazil

Confident Engineering company from Coimbatore has done 21 effluent and waste water treatment projects in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala and Dominican Republic. They are exploring in other countries including El Salvador.

Mining and Metals

Aditya Birla Group has three aluminium plants in Pindamonhangaba, Ouro Preto and Aratu in Brazil. These were acquired as part of the purchase of the global assets of Novelis. It has mining rights to bauxite reserves in Ouro Preto, Cataguases and Crangola regions. The group has also two carbon black plants in Cubatao and Bahia in Brazil, acquired from Columbian Chemicals of US. The total annual turnover of the three Aluminium plants and two carbon black plants are over 2 billion dollars. They employ 2600 Brazilians.

Aditya Birla Group is the largest private sector Indian investor in Latin America.

Tega Industries Limited has acquired (2011) a Chilean company Acotec S.A which is a $35 Mn company providing products and solutions for abrasion, corrosion and fluid transportation systems to the mining industry as well as engineering solutions to problem of wear, separation and conveyance due to bulk handling of ores in the mines. Tega Chile is a major supplier to global mining companies in Latin America with offices in Peru and Brazil as well.

Jindal has acquired a iron ore mine in northern Chile for 53 million dollars

Zuari Industries Limited of KK Birla Group and its JV partner Mitsubishi Corporation has acquired 30% stake in Fosfatos del Pacifico SA, Peru (Fospac) for $46 million through the Singapore-based JV company - MCA Phosphates Pte Ltd. The mine is located in Bayovar area in the province of Pieura, Peru and is expected to have an initial production capacity of 2.5 Mn Metric Tons.

Zamin Group, promoted by Pramod Agarwal is the most successful Indian mining company in Latin America. Agarwal bought Bahia Minerals mine in Brazil for a few million dollars. He developed it and sold it for a royal sum of a billion dollars in 2010 to ENRC. Zamin has mine concessions in Bolivia, Peru and Uruguay. But the Uruguayan project is under litigation since there is opposition to the mining project from environmental activists and agency.

Kabil, the Indian public sector consortium has signed a $24 million lithium exploration pact for five blocks in Catamarca province of Argentina. The deal, signed with an Argentinian state-run enterprise, gives KABIL exploration and development rights for commercial production for 20 years on 15,000 hectares.

Greenko Energy Holdings, a Hyderabad-based company, has been granted a similar contract to exploit lithium in Catamarca province.

IRK International has acquired an iron ore mine in Julica, Peru for 35 million dollars. The name of their local company is Pacific Minerals and Metals del Peru.

Minergy Resources of India has acquired mining concessions in Brazil. It has a JV with Neepaz Mineral Resources in the Iron Ore and Gold Concessions in the State of Tocantins and in Parana State in Brazil,

Monnet Ispat and Energy Ltd (MIEL), India’s second-largest coal-based sponge iron producer has acquired majority stake in a coal mine in Colombia.

Indian Diamond business establishes presence in Panama Diamond Exchange - May 2015

About fifteen Indian diamond and jewelry firms such as Rosy Blue, Kiran Gems, Diarough (NV), Bhavani Gems, Interjewel, Jewelex, M Suresh and Niru Group have purchased office space at the Panama Diamond Exchange (PDE) and in the World Jewellery Hub (WJH) to cater to the Latin American market.

Sanmar Group from Chennai-based has invested in Mexico, owning and operating a state-of-the-art foundry, Acerlan Matrix Metals,

Autoparts and vehicles

Mexico has attracted 14 Indian autoparts companies who are mostly suppliers to OEMs

Samvardhana Motherson Group from Noida has 19 autoparts plants in Mexico, 7 in Brazil and 1 in Argentina. They employ 22000 local staff and supply auto parts to OEMs. Their annual Latin American turnover is close to a billion dollars.

Varroc Group of India has acquired manufacturing unit in Monterrey to make automotive lighting products. The Mexican unit (with 2200 employees) came as part of its global acquisition of an American autolamp company Visteon group. It has another plant in Brazil. The two plants with about 2250 employees generate annual turnover of over 100 million dollars.

RSB Transmissions has opened a plant at Silao in the state of Guanajuato in Mexico. The plant produces transmission parts and equipments for automobiles.Investment said to be around 20 million dollars. Employment upto 500 local people. It has entered into a JV in Brazil with a local company for autoparts production. Annual revenue from both plants around 80 million dollars.

Minda Group has an autoparts plant in Mexico and employes 230 people.

Sandhar Technoligies Ltd has a plant in San Jose Iturbide, Mexico, which supplies components to Tesla.

The other autoparts companies are:

SMP automotive systems

Moda para autos

Alphabet de Saltillo

MSSL

Vimercati viney

Autosystems de Mexico

SMR automotive systems

Sakti automotive group

Bill Forge de Mexico

Pricol, based in Coimbatore has acquired a Brazilian autoparts company in Sao Paulo, Melling do Brasil, which has a turnover of 50 million dollars. Melling do Brasil is located in Diadema Sao Paulo Brasil and is a manufacturer of pumps (water, oil, fuel, and power steering), cold start valves, and aluminum castings. It has a plant in Mexico too.

Rane, the Chennai-based auto components maker, has opened its first foreign plant in Aguas Calientes, Mexico to make parts which will go into Electric Vehicles. Their investment is about 6 million dollars.

Mahindra has a joint venture with Bramont for assembly of Scorpio 4-wheel drive vehicles in Manaus, Brazil and another JV for assembly of tractors in Venezuela. Mahindra plans to invest 70 million dollars to increase the capacity of its plant in Dois Irmãos, Rio Grande do Sul, to 4,000 tractors a year from its current production of 1000 a year in 2018. Mahindra has an assembly plant in Aguas Calientes in Mexico since 2016.

The company is setting up a tractor assembly plant in Brazil. They already sell 54,000 units in Brazil each year and has about 5.2% of the market.

Tata Motors inagurated its Jaguar Land Rover manufacturing facility near Rio de Janeiro in June 2016. The 342 million dollar- plant will produce Land Rover and Range Rover SUVs. The company will source some components such as seats, chassis and powertrain assembly from local Brazilian suppliers.

Sonalika Tractors is exploring possibility of assembling their tractors in Argentina in collaboration with Apache group.

Motorcycles

Royal Enfield has an assembly plant in the Province of Buenos Aires since 2020. This marks the first time in 119 years that Royal Enfield bikes are made outside their own plants in India. The plant will produce 36,000 motor cycles per year. The plant is located in Compana in the province of Buenos Aires. The plant is a joint venture with Simpa Group of Argentina, the local distributor. Initially the motor cycles will have 10 % local addition which will increase in the future. The three models which will be assembled are: Interceptor 650 y Continental GT 650 and Himalayan 410. The company has showrooms and distributors in other countries in the region.

In September 2021, Royal Enfiled opened an assembly plant in Envigado, Antioquia, Colombia.

They are setting up a CKD assembly unit in Manaus, Brazil in partnership with Grupo Multi.

There are 57 exclusive stores in Latin America, along with 40 other retail establishments selling Royal Enfield motorcycles.

TVS has tied up with DAFRA Motos, a Brazilian company of the Grupo Itavema which has an assembly plant at Manaus with capacity to produce 200 thousand motorcycles annually. In this plant TVS Apache RTR 150 motorcycles are produced. The TVS motor cycles run even with fuel ethanol, like the cars in Brasil. TVS has 26% stake in a Colombian company TVS Andina S.A.

Bajaj is the market leader among Indian two wheeler exportersto the region. It has 25% of the two wheeler market of Latin America. Bajaj’s exports to Latin America were USD 230 million in 2020.

Bajaj has a 50,000 unit capacity assembly plant in Lerma, Mexico. Its three wheelers are assembled in Medellin and Barranquila (plant set up in December 2019 with a capacity of 500 autorickshahs per month). The Colombian government has authorised Bajaj Autos to be used as public transport in municipalities with population less than 50,000. They have a 3 wheeler assembly plant in Nicaragua too. Bajaj has a motorcycle assembly plant in Mexico City in partnership with Autofin.

Bajaj has an assembly plant in Manaus, Brazil. It was inaugurated in June 2024 in the presence of the Governor of the Amazon state. The Manaus facility has a production capacity of 20,000 units, with engine assembly, vehicle assembly and testing facilities.

Hero Motors manufacturing unit was inagurated in 2015 by the Colombian President. It is located in the Parc Sur free zone of Villa Rica in Cali in the state of Cauca, 500 km south west of Bogota. Hero has invested 70 million dollars. Annual production capacity 80,000 motorcycles and scooters and can be expanded to 150,000 units in the next phase. production from this plant will also be used for exports to other Latin American countries and US. Hero motorcycles are sold in Colombia through 160 outlets.

Hero Motors has announced that its operations will start in Brazil in the first quarter of 2025. They have already developed motorcycles with flexifuel engines using ethanol.

Other areas

Parle has a plant in Mexico to manufacture biscuits and confectionary, since 2018.

Havells, the Indian lighting and fixtures firm have some business in Brazil and Chile. They had sold most of their Sylvania assets in Latin America.

Godrej has acquired two Argentine companies, Issue Group and Argencos,which are in cosmetics business with core strength in hair colour. They have a turnover of 50 million dollars and export their products to other Latin American countries. Godrej has acquired majority control in a Chilean cosmetic company too.
Besco has a joint venture in Brazil to make cast steel bogies for freight cars
Essel Propack has plants in Colombia and Mexico which produce laminated plastic tubes. The company is investing 20 million dollars in a greenfield project in Seropédica in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to produce plastic tubes for tooth paste for Procter & Gamble

JK Tyres has acquired a Mexican Tyre company Tornel in April 2008 for 68 million dollars. Tornel has three tyre plants employing 2000 people and producing 6.6 million tyres. It has a turnover of over 200 million dollars.

InoxCVA has a factory to make industrial gas equipment in São Paulo.
Elgi Equipments has a subsidiary at Sao Paulo in Brazil.
Megatherm has set up a Brazilian Subsidiary, Megatherm Group Brasil Ltda, in foundry sector.

Praj industries of Pune has executed ethanol projects worth 40 million dollars in Colombia.They have done projects in Brazil, Argentina and Central America. In 2019, they signed a collaboration agreement with Brazilian firm Dedini to provide ethanol technology solutions in Brazil. Dedini will market Praj’s technology solutions to set up ethanol production facilities using grain-based feedstock and modernize existing ethanol plants in Brazil.

Care Group from Gujarat has set up a joint venture in Mendoza province of Argentina to make intraocular lenses used in catract surgery in collaboration with Instituto Zaldvir

JBF Industries has a plant in Araraquara in the state of Sao Paulo to make BioMeg used in recyclable and biodegradable plastic bottles.

Sarla Performance Fibers has invested in a joint venture plant for polyester fibres in Honduras Sujana Universal Industries Ltd which makes appliances has a subsidiary in Honduras

MGM group from Chennai has seven Muthu hotels in Cuba and is opening 3 more...
Grand Muthu Cayo Guillermo, Cayo Guillermo
Gran Muthu Imperial, Cayo Guillermo

Muthu Playa Varadero, Varadero
Gran Muthu Almirante Beach Hotel, Guardalavaca Gran Muthu Rainbow Hotel, Cayo
Muthu Colonial Hotel, Cayo Coco
Muthu Las Tunas Hotel, Las Tunas
Gran Muthu Habana, Miramar (Opening Soon) Muthu Lincoln Hotel, Centro Habana (Opening Soon) Gran Muthu Ensenada, Holguin (Opening Soon)

Muthoot Leisure and Hospitality Services (MLHS), the hospitality division of Muthoot Group has acquired Costa Rica’s high-end property ‘Xandari Resort & Spa’. The resort has 25 villas in a 40-acre plantation. This is the first acquisition by an Indian hospitality company in Central America.

Oyo Latin America Softbank will use its Latin American Fund to help Oyo Latam to take over 1000 hotels in Brazil and Mexico. Oyo has already entered Brazil and has 140 staff

VA Tech Wabag has assets in the region for water treatment,desalinationand sewage treatment projects. Symphony from Gujarat has acquired a Mexican company IMPCO which makes industrial aircoolers in Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
Apeejay Shipping Ltd and Five Star bulk carriers have offices and operations in Panama
Eleganza Jewellery ltd has a set up in Panama
BFL Hydro has done small hydroelectric projects in Honduras and Guatemala.

Alok Master Batches has a joint venture plant (in collaboration with a local firm) in Paraguay to make colour additives used in plastic industry

Alivira Animal Health Ltd (Alivira) has 70% stake in veterinary health company Interchange Indústria e Comércio de Produtos Veterinários S.A. Brazil (Interchange Brazil).

Appasamy Associates, a global leader (from Chennai) in the ophthalmological market, has a plant of intraocular lenses in Argentina with a manufacturing capacity of 20,000 lenses monthly.

CRI Pumps Coimbatore has set up a Mexican subsidiary in July 2019. They are already exporting to these markets as well as the rest of Latin America.

Aziz Abdul of Pondicherry has acquired a vineyard and a microwinery producing wines in Mendoza, Argentina. The brand is Chateau Hana.

Sanmar Group, Chennai has acquired ( 2008) a steel foundry plant in San Juan Del Rio, Querataro, Mexico. The Mexico plant came as part of the acquisition of Matrix Metals of USA.

Gravita from Jaipur has plastic recycling plants in Nicaragua, Peru, Costa Rica and Dominican Republic.

Godrej has acquired a hair colour company in Argentina and another one in Chile

Entertainment Business

Latin American actors in Indian films

The Chilean actress Jennifer Mayani has been acting in Bollywood movies since 2005 starting with the Hindi film Dus. She has acted in a total of 10 films including Good Boy-Bad Boy, Heyy Babyy, Om Shanti Om, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, Bhram, Desi Boyz, Victory, Apartment and Golmaal 3.Mayani is the latest Latin American actor to enter Indian films.

Mayani has done modelling in Indian commercial ads and walked the ramps in fashion shows.

She is of Sindhi origin born in Punta Arenas, the southern most town in Chile.

Mexican actress Barbara Mori acted as heroine in the Bollywood film ̈Kites ̈ released in 2010

The following six Brazilian actresses have acted in Bollywood films:

Bruna Abdullah - started off with an item number in Cash, followed by a small role and a special number in I Hate Luv Storys (2010) and Desi Boyz (2011) respectively. In 2012 she appeared in a Tamil film, Billa II.

Izabelle Leite- Initially labelled the 'mystery woman' that cricketer Virat Kohli was spotted shopping with in Singapore, the Brazilian model has made her Hindi film debut with Raj Purohit's Sixteen.

Giselli Monteiro- She surprised the audience by playing a typical Punjabi girl in Imtiaz Ali's Love Aaj Kal, starring Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone. Then, in 2011, she appeared in Always Kabhi Kabhi, which was produced by Shah Rukh Khan.

Gabriela Bertante- came to India in 2010 and took part in a fashion week in Mumbai. she was roped in as a VJ on a popular youth channel. In 2012, she appeared in back-to-back Tamil and Telugu films, Billa II, Devudu Chesina Manushulu and Cameraman Gangatho Rambabu.

Nathalia Pinheiro- Also known as Nathalia Kaur, she was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She won a calendar's model hunt contest in 2012 and appeared in it that year. Later, she made her film debut in the Kannada film, Dev Son Of Mudde Gowda, followed by an item number in Ram Gopal Varma's Amitabh Bachchan-Sanjay Dutt starrer Department (2012).

Mariah Gomes- She made her B-town debut with a hit item song, Neeyat Kharab Hai in the Amitabh Bachchan-Ben Kingsley starrer Teen Patti (2010). Then, in 2011, the Brazilian model landed a full-fledged role opposite Prateik in Rohan Sippy's Dum Maro Dum.

Vallery Maravi, a Peruvian actress has acted in a Kannadiga film "Neenilada Male" which was released in 2018.

Reynaldo Arenas, a Peruvian actor, coproduced a film in collaboration with Bollywood producers and also acted in the film.

Indian actor in Latin America

Prabhakar Sharan from Motihari in Bihar, settled in Costa Rica, has acted as hero in a Costa Rican film, Enredados, La Confusion ( Entangled, the confusion).

Indian film producer in Honduras

Mathew Kodath of Kerala, settled in Honduras, produced a Spanish film “Amor y Frijoles” ( Love and Beans- 2009) and another film “Quien Paga La Cuenta” (Who Pays The Bill?-2013) His production company Guacamaya Films also makes television content, including serials and soaps, for two of the biggest television channels in Honduras.

Indian film shooting in Latin America

Indian producers have started going to Latin America for location shootings. A telugu film Sarrainodu starring Allu Arjun was shot in the famous Uyuni Salt field area of Bolivia in 2016.

Rajnikant shot a dancing sequence in Machu Pichu, Peru for his film Robot. This was the first ever and last ever film shooting in the sacred premises of Machu Pichu. The Peruvians have banned film shootings after Rajnikant’s dance.

Endemol India shot a TV serial ́Jor Ka Jhatka ́ in Buenos Aires in December 2010 – January 2011 with 28 Indian actors who stayed here for 40 days. This show was hosted by Shahrukh Khan in Imagine channel in February 2011.

Some parts of Indian reality show--Khatron ke khiladi--was shot in Argentina starring Bollywood actor Arjun Kapoor.

Film collaborations

An Argentine director Pablo Cesar made a feature film ̈Unicorn-the garden of fruits ̈ in 1996 as a coproduction with India and made a few more later. His new film ̈Thinking of Him ̈ based on the romantic story of meeting of Tagore with Victoria O ́campo in Buenos Aires was premiered on 28 November 2017 in the Goa Film Festival.

The Argentine musician, Gustavo Santaolalla composed music for the Amir Khan film ̈Dhobi Ghat ̈ directed by Kiran Rao. This was released in January 2011.

Toonz Animation Ltd of Trivandrum in collaboration with Illusion Studios of Buenos Aires coproduced a cartoon film ̈Gaturro ̈ costing five million dollars. It is based on a cartoon character created by Argentine Cartoonist Nick. The film released in September 2010 was a box-office hit.

Yash Raj Films had collaborated with Colombia’s 64-A Films to remake their Bollywood films in Spanish for Colombian audience.

Team Toon Studio of Barranquilla in Colombia has made a cartoon film for an Indian producer in 2017.

Bollywood is producing a film " The ghost of Che" directed by Nagesh Kuknor and produced by Mauktik Kulkarni.

Alfonso Cuaron, the Mexican film director and Oscar winner, supports and mentors an Indian film maker Chaitanya Tamnahne in the making of the film "The disciple". This movie, about North Indian classical music, became the first Indian movie to play in Venice competition in 20 years last week, where it won Best Screenplay award.

Mexico-India has a coproduction of a telenovela (soap opera) "Valentina, mi amor especial" . Vip 2000 TV from Mexico and Zee TV of India are the coproducers. The story is based on the Indian serial "Aapki Antara", produced in 2009 with portrayal of social issues, especially autism. The telenovela is shot in the city of Guadalajara, Mexico.

Television

Indian TV channels have shown Latin American soap operas such as Ugly Betty and Second Chance.

Omm Moo (yoga for kids 4-9 years) a famous Colombian TV serial (2013 production) was telecast in Tamil by Sun TV in Tamilnadu. The 26 episode (7 minutes each) series mixes 3D and 2D animation with live-action and shows cows solving their problems using the exercise method of yoga.

Zindagi channel of India telecast in 2017 a Brazilian soap opera" Total Dreamer" ( totalmente demais) which ran into 175 episodes. This is a Globo TV production telecast in Brazil in 2015-16

Vip 2000 TV from Mexico and Zee TV of India are the coproducers of a telenovela (soap opera) "Valentina, mi amor especial". The story is based on the Indian serial "Aapki Antara", produced in 2009 with portrayal of social issues, especially autism. The telenovela shooting in the city of Guadalajara, Mexico started in July 2024.

Globo TV of Brazil produced and telecast a soap opera ̈Camino das Indias – Passage to India ̈ in 2009. It was partly shot in India and there were Indian characters and Indian costumes. It got the highest ratings during the eight months of its telecast and stimulated Brazilian interest in India. It has been dubbed in Spanish and telecast in other Latin American countries.

Bollywood films popular in Latin America

Bollywood films are popular in Latin America. Zee TV has a Spanish channel ZeeMundo with Bollywood movies for Latin American viewers.

In Peru, there are even fan clubs such as "Shah Rukh Khan Fan Club Perú" and "Club Internacional SRK Universe Perú," which are recognized by SRK and have a strong online presence on Facebook and Instagram. The Indian embassies use Indian films as part of 'soft power public diplomacy’, through organisation of Indian film festivals across the region.

Latin American investment and ventures in India

Latin American investment in India is under a billion dollars

Brazilian companies

Weg has invested 80 million dollars in a plant in Hosur to make electrical motors and generators. It has gained 25% share of the Indian market for large motors. It also exports motors from Hosur to China. Weg is one of the major global electric motor makers.

WEG makes the largest wind turbine generators in India in their plant in Valliyoor in Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu. Its capacity is 4.20-MW and cost 11 million dollars.

Stefanini has set up IT development centres in Bangalore and Hyderabad.
Dedini has entered into an MOU with Walchand Group for supply of equipments for ethanol production in India.
COFAP has set up a 50:50 JV in India with the Endurance Group for shock absorbers.

Perto, a Porto Alegre based company making ATM machines has set up a plant in Jaipur ( 65 m dollar investment) and inagurated it in October 2016. They have already sold over 7000 ATMs to Indian banks including the State Bank of India

Metalfrio has a plant in Hyderabad to make commercial refrigerators.

Adhrit Solutions is an IT company with operations in Bengaluru and Brazil. The founder is Avishek Nigam, a Brazilian of Indian origin.

Zetrasoft/Salary Fits from Belo Horizonte offers a platform for salaried employees of large companies to take loans from banks and repay through salary deduction. The company has two employees in Gurgaon who are establishing contacts with Indian clients and banks.

Alpargatas has formed a joint venture with Periwinkle Fashion(Shoezone Lifestyle), where Alpargatas India will own 51% of the company ( investment 3 million dollars), to make and sell Havaianas brand of flip flops in India.

CBC Defence has a joint venture with the Indian firm SSS Defence, Bengaluru to make ammunition for arms used by military and law enforcement agencies.

Taurus Armas has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Indian steelmaker Jindal Group in 2019 to make small arms with Taurus technology. The JV Company will be set up at Hisar (Haryana) with equity participation from both in the equity ratio of 51:49. Initial investment is said to be 5 million dollars.

Companhia Brasileira de Cartuchos (CBC) Brazil, the world’s second-largest ammunition manufacturer signed a JV with Stumpp Schuele & Somappa India (SSS Defence) in January 2020 to make military grade ammunition in India. The plant located in Andhra pradesh will start production in August 2021. Part of production might also be exported.

Sunley Fashion has a joint venture in Chennai for production and exports of shoes
FITESA, one of the world’s largest non-woven fabric manufacurer for the hygiene and healthcare markets has acquired a plant in Pune. They have 23 plants in 13 countries.

FANEM is a medical devices company with presence in India since 2012. Based in Bengaluru, the company manufactures baby incubators and other products in related segments with an investment of 6 million dollars.

Randon subsidiary Fras-le has a JV with ASK Automotive Private for producing production of brake pads and linings for commercial vehicles in Manesar.

Nubank has invested about 45 million dollars in Jupiter, an Indian fintech in August 2021

Fras-le. The Brazilian auto parts major entered India in 2017 through a joint venture with India’s ASK Automotive. The company has reportedly invested USD 10 million in a factory in Manesar, Haryana, to produce brake pads and linings for commercial vehicles.

Polo (automobiles)

Compsis (Toll Road software system),

Farmas Kunz (footwear),

Embraer has supplied 44 aircrafts to Indian government and airlines as well as private jets to Indians. The Indian Air Force operates three EMB 145 AEW “Netra” military aircraft, while the Indian government uses five Embraer VIP jets.

It has signed contract with India's helicopter services company Blade to supply 200 electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) airtaxis. The airtaxi service is expected to start in 2026.

Embraer had sent a ten-member delegation in 2024 to Bangalore for sourcing parts and services such as aerostructures, composites, machining, sheet metal, and software development. They are offering its C-390 Millennium transport aircraft to Indian Air Force. In February 2024, Embraer entered into a partnership with Mahindra Group on this.

Embraer is the third largest passenger aircraft maker after Boeing and Airbus.

OCQ, a Brazilian chemical group has entered into a joint venture with Thermax of India for acrylic resin production in Gujarat in March 2025. OCQ will hold a 49% stake and Thermax 51% in the JV

The Brazilian business organisation LIDE (Grupo de Líderes Empresariales-Group of Business Leaders") has opened an India office in Mumbai to promote business between India and Brazil. José Francisco Dutra, an economist/entrepreneur, is the head of the India office. Abhishek Issar is CEO LIDE Índia. Leonardo Ananda of India-Brazil Chamber is the chairman LIDE India. LIDE is a network of top CEOs and entrepreneurs from Latin America, founded in 1978 in Brazil.

Mexican companies

Cinepolis is investing over 200 million dollars targeting to set up 500 film screens in various cities in India. The company started operations in India in 2009 and already has 360 screens. They are the fourth largest player in Indian film exihibition market and the only foreign company. In India, they focus on second and third tier cities opening multiplexes in shopping malls.

Grupo Bimbo has invested over 200 million dollars in India. In June 2017 a joint venture agreement with Ready Roti India Private Limited (“Ready Roti”), in which Grupo Bimbo will hold a 65% stake with investment of 32.5 m dollars. Ready Roti, generates annual sales of approximately US$ 48 million, with four plants and more than 500 associates. Grupo Bimbo is one of the biggest Mexican MNCs and a global leader in bread business. They have operations in 24 countries including in USA. In February 2021, they acquired Modern Bread company of India for 55 million dollars.

Mexichem, has set up manufacturing plant in Hyderabad (2015), to produce cable ducts and pressure pipes for the water, gas and telecommunications industries. The new plant is Mexichem’s fourth plant in India, with two other facilities located in Goa, and another in Rajasthan. Mexichem is a vertically integrated chemical company operating more than 120 plants in over 30 countries and generating annual revenues of $5 billion

NEMAK, part of the ALFA group, has invested in a manufacturing facility in Chennai for aluminium engine heads and blocks for automobile since 2012. It has 100 employees and invested 20 m dollars. Nemak is a global leader in its business.

Softtek, the IT firm has acquired an Indian software company Systech Integrators, founded by Indian Americans and headquartered in San Jose, California with a centre in Bengaluru. Systech specializes in SAP solutions and services.

Metalsa has invested US$44 million in India and have 141 employees. In two plants, in Jamshedpur and in Pune, producing upto 180,000 side rails for Indian truck makers like Tata Motors and Mahindra.

Ruhrpumpen has a plant in Chennai for making centrifugal pumps used in the petrochemical, mining, industrial, power, chemicals and waste water prevention sectors. The company’s clients in India include Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum and Reliance Petroleum. Nearly 80 per cent of products manufactured from the Chennai plant will be exported to clients in West Asia and South-East Asia, and the rest sold in the domestic market. The investment is about 15 million dollars

Kidzania has set up a theme park in Mumbai in collaboration with Shah Rukh Khan. The theme park lets children practise adult role as such as bankers, firefighters and salespersons in an educative and entertaining (edutainment) way. They opened the second theme park in Noida in 2016 and have plans to to open another one in Bengaluru soon. Total investment around 59 m dollars

Great Food & Beverages (GFB): has invested in Processed Foods (snacks and juices).

Argentine companies

Techint has an engineering outsourcing unit in Mumbai employing around 200 engineers to service their projects in Middle east and Europe

Globant acquired (2015) the Pune-based Clarice Technologies for about 20 million dollars. It has another centre in Bengaluru. Both the centres employ around 1200 staff. Globant is the largest Argentine IT firm. It has centres in Latin America, US and Vietnam and has ambitious plans for growth.

Colombia

Manipal Technologies Ltd has printing presses in India to print credit, debit and other secure cards in collaboration with a Colombian firm Thomas Greg and Sons

Peru

Aje Group has established a plant in Patalaganga in Maharashtra for production of cola drinks and mineral water ( 40,000 bottles per hour) since December 2010.investment around 20 m dollars. The company plans to open another bottling plant in Gurgaon.

Resemin, a mining equipment company has a Zinc mining project in Dariba, 100 km from Udaipur. The local company is known as Reliant Drilling Ltd in which the Peruvian company has 90% stake and an Indian firm 10%. There are about 85 Peruvians and 500 Indians working there. Investment 5 million dollars.

Vistony has up plant in Rajasthan for production of lubricants. They have plants in US, Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay.

AAC Mining Executors Ltd provides mining services in Rajasthan with 150 staff

Chile
CSAV the Chilean shipping company has an Indian subsidiary and also does some outsourcing work in India

Falabella, the Chilean reatil chain store has Technology Development centre in Bengaluru employing 250 Indian IT staff

Grupo Sigdo Kooers (Magotteaux) provides mining services in Gujarat and has an office in new delhi.

Cuba
Biocon has a joint venture with Cuba for manufacture of vaccines in India with Cuban technology.

Latin American market

The market consists of 19 countries, with a population of 620 million and combined GDP of about 6 trillion.

Except Brazil where Portuguese is spoken, all the other 18 countries speak Spanish.

The countries are:

Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile - Pacific Alliance, the group which aspires towards a customs union.

Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay - Mercosur, which is a customs union. It has common external tariff and allows free movement of goods, services, people and capital.

Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela - unattached South American countries

Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras - Central American Integration Group (SICA) with some common institutions and some free movement of goods

Dominican Republic and Cuba- the spanish speaking Caribbean countries

Brazil is the largest market with over 2 trillion dollars of GDP and over 200 million people. Mexico is second with close to 2 trillion dollars GDP and population of 110 million. But Mexico is the largest trading nation, thanks to its FTA with US and Canada.

Embassies

India has embassies in 12 countries and a consulate in Sao Paulo, Brazil

It does not have embassies in 7 countries: Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay, El Salvdor, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Honduras

The embassy in Colombia is accredited to Ecuador

Embassy in Argentina takes care of Uruguay and Paraguay

Embassy in Panama is in charge of Nicaragua and Costa Rica

Embassy in Guatemala deals with Honduras and El Salvador

Latin American embassies in India

!7 of the 19 Latin American countries have embassies in New Delhi

The only countries which do not have embassies are Honduras and Nicaragua

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