As is traditional at the start of every Leaders Programme, the Secretary General of the Spain India Council Foundation, Alonso Dezcallar, met with the participants to welcome them to Spain and explain the structure and purpose of the Foundation: to bridge the knowledge gap between the two countries. Dezcallar stated that “Spain and India still have a lot of work ahead of them to get to know one another better.”
Another objective of the Leaders Programme, he said, is “to facilitate contacts with relevant people in the participants’ sectors in Spain in order to create bonds that will allow them to carry out joint actions in the future.”
Alonso Dezcallar emphasised that the Indian Leaders Programme, which celebrates its 6th edition this year, enables participants “get to know Spain better and for us to get to know India better through you. We would like you to participate as actively as possible, to ask as many questions as you like and to explain whatever you consider necessary.”
Water management is at the core of this edition. In the opinion of the Secretary General, “we face many of the same challenges and we can share our experience. Spain has a solid international reputation in this area with large water management projects.”
Architect Pankaj Vir Gupta mentioned some of the projects carried out in Spain that have achieved international renown, such as the transformation of Barcelona around the city’s port and the recovery of the Manzanares river area in Madrid, and said he would like to learn more about them.
“That is precisely the objective of the Programme”, said the Foundation’s Secretary General, “for you to be able to understand how things have been done here and be able to share your own experiences.”
Report: 6th Indian Leaders Programme 2018
