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Newsmakers of the Week SEPTEMBER 04, 2026 | The Indian Eye 34

NEWSMAKERS OF THE WEEK

Selected stories about Indian diaspora from our website www.theindianeye.com

NIRMALA SITHARAMAN PANKAJ OJHA

Finance Minister visits Canada and Techie leads deployment of Agentic

US to boost investments AI at Deutsche Bank

eutsche Bank is using agentic artificial intelligence to strengthen technol-
ogy resilience and help meet increasingly demanding regulatory require-
nion Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman is Dments through a platform developed in collaboration with Google Cloud.
currently on an official nine-day visit to Canada and the United States The initiative, known as the Agentic Resilience Platform (ARP), is de-
Ufrom August 25 to September 2, 2026, aimed at deepening bilateral signed to help financial institutions prepare for technology disruptions, assess
economic partnerships and advancing cooperation on global financial prior- their response capabilities and generate evidence that can support operation-
ities. al resilience reviews. Google Cloud recently highlighted the platform and
During the first leg of her tour in Toronto, Sitharaman will co-chair the identified Pankaj Ojha, Director at Deutsche Bank, as its lead architect.
inaugural Economic and Financial Dialogue alongside Canadian Minister of The platform comes as financial institutions face greater scrutiny over
Finance Francois-Philippe Champagne. Talks will focus on macroeconomic their ability to withstand and recover from technology-related disruptions. In
trends, financial sector ties, and mutual investment in key sectors including the European Union, the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) places
energy, artificial intelligence, critical minerals, and resilient supply chains, particular emphasis on testing resilience, documenting recovery capabilities
alongside progress toward a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agree- and maintaining evidence of operational preparedness.
ment (CEPA). ARP is designed to bring greater automation and intelligence to these
In 2025, trade between India and Canada shot up to USD 8.66 billion, a activities. By drawing on information about an organization’s technology envi-
jump from USD 8.4 billion last year. India exported USD 4.22 billion to Can- ronment and historical incidents, the system can develop disruption scenarios
ada and imported USD 4.45 billion, about CAD 13.3 billion in total. tailored to specific environments. It can then assist with tabletop exercises,
The Minister’s Canada itinerary also includes an investment roundtable, assess possible failure points and generate documentation that can be used
discussions with Indian Public Sector Bank executives on opportunities in during resilience and regulatory assessments.
GIFT City-IFSC, a fireside session hosted by the Canadian Club of Toronto The platform can also be used after a real technology incident to assist
and the Canada-India Business Council, and an interaction with the Indian teams with investigating potential causes and understanding how failures de-
diaspora. veloped across interconnected systems.
India and Canada are actively negotiating a Comprehensive Economic According to Google Cloud, Deutsche Bank is applying the approach
Partnership Agreement (CEPA), targeting a formal bilateral trade deal by the across several portfolios, with the platform positioned as a model that could
end of 2026. potentially be adapted by other organizations in the financial sector.
Sitharaman will then travel to the United States, spanning Chicago, Ashe- The project also reflects Ojha’s longstanding work in large-scale computing
ville, and New York. and technology resilience. Nearly two decades ago, while working with India’s
In Chicago, the Minister will hold investor roundtables and visit the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), he contributed
Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chi- to DMSAR, a disaster-management system that used the GARUDA national
cago. From August 31 to September 1, she will lead the Indian delegation at computing grid to accelerate satellite-radar data processing for flood assessment.
the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) Meeting Alongside his Deutsche Bank role, Ojha serves as an external expert on
in Asheville, North Carolina, held under the US G20 Presidency. NIT Delhi’s Startup Advisory Board, evaluating startup technologies and pro-
The tour will conclude in New York with high-level investor engagements viding technical guidance within the institute’s startup ecosystem.
and a ceremonial bell-ringing at NASDAQ. Continued on next page... >>

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