Copyright Salt Lake City Deseret News
NEW DELHI — After a long day of meetings in India’s capital city, the trade delegation from Utah filed off of an unusually large bus and walked over to the Taj Hotel in Connaught Place. But not state Rep. Jason Thompson. The Republican state legislator from River Heights was in the mood for another adventure. A week earlier, he accidentally ended up at a political rally in Hyderabad, the city of pearls and a tech powerhouse. Thompson hailed a rickshaw like he’d done it a hundred times before and gestured me to join him on a mission to find Coke Zero. Thompson is on a two-week visit to India alongside other Utah lawmakers, businesses and policy experts. After spending the past week in Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Goa, the delegation is now in New Delhi until Wednesday morning, when they travel to their final stop: Bangalore. Thompson held a jute tote bag, in which he carried a jar of peanut butter, jam and bread. He was making sandwiches for himself and others. The bus was his makeshift kitchen for the day in true Indian “Jugaad” fashion. That’s a word the Utahn delegates are witnessing in action in India. It translates to ‘resourceful ways of problem-solving.’ “I love the rickshaw. We need some rickshaws in the United States,” Thompson said. The tuk-tuk driver stopped at a local convenience store but Thompson couldn’t find the soda he was looking for. So, the representative and I got back in the three-wheeler as the driver made it his personal mission to find Coke Zero for his passengers. Talking to the Deseret News about the day’s meetings, Thompson confessed, “I would much rather be with my family but this is important work.” As the rickshaw weaved through the street overloaded with heavy foot traffic and stands selling food, Thompson continued: “You look at Utah being the fastest growing economy in the country, which is phenomenal, the best state in the United States for economic development in the past 18 years and counting. “Well, it takes relationships to do that,” he said. “It takes, you know, a regulatory environment that’s conducive for business. You look at why our unemployment rate is so low, why our median salary is the highest in the nation at $96,000 — that doesn’t just happen, right?” Utah delegates meet Indian commerce minister On Monday, the delegates from Utah — including Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, who flew in that morning, and state Reps. Matt MacPherson, R-West Valley City, and Thompson — attended an event hosted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, as well as meetings with Minister of Commerce Piyush Goyal and former Minister of Tourism Vinod Zutshi. At several points during the day, Adams pointed out the similarities he sees between the Beehive State and India. For starters, they both share a very young population. Utah holds the title of the youngest state in the nation; meanwhile, more than a third of India’s population is age 30 or under. Utah and India have a “very smart population” that is well-versed in the world of IT and artificial intelligence. (In fact, India has the second-highest number of ChatGPT users in the world, as Goyal pointed out to the delegation.) In the meeting, the Utah State Senate president mentioned Utah’s high regard for moral character and trust while doing business; values that make it a good partner to work with. “They are also motivated to work on energy development, possibly even in collaboration,” Adams noted in conversation with the Deseret News. “They need energy here in India, cleaner energy,” he added. “There is a little hesitancy on their part with nuclear because of the overall public acceptance of it.” MacPherson said he found Goyal receptive to tangible ways of driving business between India and Utah. “We brought up some of the coal production we do and he asked right away, ‘Do you produce cooking coal? We’re looking to import $9 billion worth a month,’ right? And that’s something that is very just specific, direct, immediate sort of solution,” said MacPherson. He hopes to connect Utah’s coal industry to India’s commerce ministry in the coming days. “Utah does have some of the most efficient, cleanest coal in the U.S.,” MacPherson said but noted the concerns from Indian officials over the 50% tariffs imposed on India by Washington, D.C. Back in the rickshaw, Thompson said the Beehive State and New Delhi have a desire not only for shared growth but also for problem-solving. India’s plans to diversify its energy portfolio through solar, wind and green hydrogen are “refreshing” to see, the Utah state representative added while speaking about India’s air pollution problem, He told me he could feel the effects of the high Air Quality Index readings, which were well over 400 and considered “severe.” “I just forgot (my mask) today. My throat — it is itchy. My nasal cavity is itchy,” he said. “You walk into a lobby of whatever building you’re in and you smell it.” Six Indian cities are among the most polluted cities in the world, with New Delhi claiming the title for the pollution hotspot. Local Delhi authorities arrested roughly 100 people Sunday evening in response to protests at the India Gate monument against air pollution. “We have Utah companies that are innovating that can help,” Thompson said. “Why in the world would we not want to be a part of that, right?” Diplomacy at work This was the second time a Utah delegation paid a visit to the Indian Commerce Ministry. Jonathan Freedman, the president and CEO of World Trade Center Utah, led a delegation to the country in March 2024. Freedman said he hopes to continue building on this momentum and help develop opportunities between Utah and India. Guruprasad Sowle, the president and cofounder of Indus International Research Foundation and an advisory board member at World Trade Center Utah, who was also a part of the delegation in 2024, said the interest in Utah was “much more visible” compared to the previous visit. “(The commerce minister) looks at Utah as an opportunity, which he didn’t last time,” Sowle told the Deseret News after the meeting. “The last time he said, ‘What is the population of Utah? Look out of the window. We have 3 million people here.’” For reference, the population of New Delhi alone is approximately 34 million, and India’s as a whole is 1.43 billion. The Commerce minister assured the delegation that this is the first of “many, many visits,” Sowle added. “I think we can surely bring him to Utah.” David Carlebach, the COO of WTC Utah, also expressed optimism, saying, “I’m confident that that will trickle down into opportunities or the ability to clear hurdles for businesses in the state.” Speaking from the rickshaw, Thompson also reiterated the common links that tie Utah and India together. “You look at the similarities, where families are really an ... important part of the societal fabric here,” he said, “the emphasis on religion. ... There’s a lot of differences too, but you could always build off of similarities and that’s what’s exciting, that’s coming out of this trip.” Thompson added: “That makes for a natural relationship in a lot of ways.” The rickshaw driver drove the representative and me to a third convenience store, where a shop owner offered to have a case of Coke Zeros delivered. As we waited for 10 minutes, Thompson grabbed sweet and spicy Doritos. “They change the name in every country,” he said as he put the picks on the counter for billing. “It’s the purple bag.” After he paid 1,180 rupees, or $13.30, for the bags of chips and the case, delivered straight to his ride, the rickshaw driver started the engine to take his happy passenger back to the hotel.
