NEW DELHI, India — Gov. Phil Murphy landed in India on Saturday to kick off a seven-day business mission. He is now the first sitting New Jersey governor to visit this country.

Over the week, Murphy will travel to six cities for more than 50 meetings with at least 1,000 people from companies he’d like to lure to the Garden State.

But Murphy says the trip will also shine a spotlight on New Jersey’s growing South Asian community.

Last month, while marching in an Indian independence parade in Edison, Murphy highlighted the state’s Indian population.

“The Indian community in this state is one of our biggest and most important, and we want to celebrate that with this trip,” he said.

“You are one of the most important communities in this state," Murphy continued, as thousands of people lined the streets in Edison for the parade. "One of the largest, one of the fastest-growing and one of the most impactful across culture, education, business, (and) elected office.”

The Democratic governor is expected to make several jobs announcements during the week. State and business officials say New Jersey is ripe for Indian businesses to establish a foothold or expand.

“The sectors that we are strongest at in New Jersey are the sectors that India is the strongest at as well,” said Jose Lozano, the CEO of the Choose New Jersey, the group funding the trip.

“Given that New Jersey serves as a gateway to the U.S. market and given that New Jersey is a direct flight from not only Delhi but Mumbai, it puts the state in prime position to grow Indian businesses here,” he said. “I think we have all the ingredients and assets to be successful.”

Similar to his eight-day trip the governor took last October to Germany and Israel, Murphy’s schedule here is packed. He’s making the trip with First Lady Tammy Murphy and a three-dozen-member delegation.

After the 14-hour flight from Newark, Murphy will make the roughly 45-minute drive to the Oberoi hotel in New Delhi, the capital city of India.

Murphy will start his rounds of business meetings Sunday evening. First, he’ll visit the Taj Mahal and a museum dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi.

By day, Murphy will give keynote speeches and take part in business roundtables and meet and greets. At night, he’ll have private dinners with CEOs. The companies he’ll focus his attention on are life sciences and pharmaceuticals, and technology and advanced manufacturing to pitch the Garden State as a place to expand.

The governor will even look to India’s film industry as a way to grow jobs back home.

He’s expected to meet Indian’s prime minister, Narendra Damodardas Modi, on Monday, though the details haven’t yet been finalized.

And whether or not the meeting will take a turn away from business and steer toward the controversy in Kashmir is also an open question.

Last month, an Islamic advocacy group called on Murphy to cancel the trip after Modi sparked outrage by Pakistan and the Muslim population when his government stripped Kashmir of its limited autonomy.

Murphy said at the time he had no plans to pull the plug on the business mission. Instead, he said he will “speak truth to power” while he’s here, which includes multiple meetings with other government officials.

India has government control of Kashmir, but neighboring Pakistan has long disputed that. The countries have fought two wars over this.

Murphy will visit Delhi, Agra, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Gandhinagar. He heads back to New Jersey on Sept. 22.

Indian-Americans represent the largest group of foreign-born residents in New Jersey and are one of the fastest-growing communities in the state.

There are nearly 300,000 Indians living in the state, according to the latest U.S. Census data. The Garden State trails only California (530,000) and New York (314,000) in its Indian residents.

From 2000 to 2010, there was a nearly 73 percent increase in the number of Indians who moved to New Jersey, compared to the nearly 47 percent increase in California and only 6 percent bump in New York, according to the census.

India is also New Jersey’s second-largest foreign direct investor, Murphy’s office said. More than 50 percent of India’s foreign direct investment in the Northeast comes to the state, according to the Murphy administration.

Taxpayers will pick up the tab for Murphy’s security detail.

Choose New Jersey is a business-funded nonprofit formed in 2010 at former Gov. Chris Christie’s urging. The group is funding the trip — including the privately-chartered flights that will shuttle Murphy and his delegation across the country.

It’s made up of some of the state’s largest utilities, labor unions, and financial companies. Its stated mission is to attract businesses to the Garden State. The group’s board members — which include PSE&G, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and ONC Bank — have deep business stakes with New Jersey that intersect with government oversight.

Ahead of his flight, the governor tweeted he and his wife were “ready for takeoff!”

Ready for takeoff! @FirstLadyNJ and I are excited for our trip to India, where we will make the case for New Jersey as a leading investment choice for Indian companies, creating good jobs and boosting our economies. #NJIndiaMission pic.twitter.com/C7XSUYeY41 — Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) September 14, 2019

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook.

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