Cycling on Bengaluru's Church Street with ‘Masala Chai’ and UPI payment impressed the Dutch PM

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was casually cycling on the streets of Bengaluru after attending the G20 summit in New Delhi with his business delegation. He wandered and cycled from the city’s famous Brigade Road to Church Street Social. He stopped at Chai Point for some local masala tea and said that milk tea should become a popular concept in the Netherlands. He was impressed by how UPI worked to make the payment of the tea. He stopped along the way to take selfies with the onlookers and the local street market. He was curious about how the garden city Bengaluru with a lot of traffic congestion can become a cyclable city with the contribution of the Netherlands. He said that India is a place to do business. He chatted with Bengaluru Mayor Sathya Sankaran and discussed the ways to increase the habit of cycling among people and expand the city’s infrastructure to support cycling.

He further said that the Netherlands is in discussions with the Indian and Karnataka Governments to make and expand the presence of Dutch companies in the semiconductor space. Deputy CM DK Shivkumar on Monday while discussing investment opportunities and other technical aspects with the PM of the Netherlands Mark Rutte said that the Dutch industries should not restrict themselves to Bengaluru but to set up shops in entire Karnataka.

DKS further said that the Dutch companies apart from Bengaluru need to look at other important cities of Karnataka like Mysuru, Hubbali, Dharwad, Mangaluru, Davanagere, Tumkuru etc.  

As per the official release, the Dutch PM informed that in India there are 25 Dutch companies and 9% of the investment was in Karnataka. Industries Minister MB Patil and Priyank Kharge were also present at the round table discussion with the Dutch PM Rutte and other Dutch delegates. MB Patil drew the focus of the delegation toward investment opportunities in biofuel generation, tourism development, and pharma.