An Unbeatable Combination

By Kealan Finnegan

One of the key plenary sessions at the 2015 India UK Business Convention focussed on the Indian Prime Minister’s description of the business relationship between the UK and India

Session objective

This session, featuring a keynote speech by Sajid Javid, the UK Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, and Skills, set out the success and the importance of the UK-India partnership – in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s words, an “unbeatable combination”. It also examined, in a Q+A session, some of the key factors within that relationship.

Session Participants

Rt Hon. Sajid Javid, the UK Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, and Skills, Patricia Hewitt, Chair of the UK India Business Council, Ivan Menezes, CEO of Diageo.

Key points

Javid said the UK and India have a “special, unique relationship” that brings benefits across business, education and culture.

He cited the Sterling Assets report as evidence of the depth of the business relationship. One in 20 organised private sector jobs in India is because of UK investment. UK companies in India play an integral part in the country’s development, spending more than 4.4 per cent of profits on CSR (more than twice the legal requirement) and seven per cent of revenues on training and re-skilling employees.

The story is similar in the UK. Indian companies invest more in UK than the rest of Europe combined. Tata Group companies employ 45,000 people in the UK and is the country’s largest manufacturing employer.

Javid said that innovation across sectors is an opportunity for collaboration. The UK is a hotbed of innovation, with three of the world’s top six universities and ground breaking catapult centres. The UK is the highest-ranked G20 nation in the Global Innovation Ranking.

During the Q+A, Javid said that the topics on the agenda for Modi’s visit to the UK would cover three broad areas: cooperation in the economic space – further trade and investment initiatives; skills – greater cooperation across education; and global security.

The panel addressed the question of the movement of talent from India to UK. The view is that the perception is not the reality. There are no caps on student numbers and students can remain to work in the UK after graduation if they secure a graduate level job.

Improving the quality of manufacturing in India was discussed. Scope exists for collaborations between the British Standards Institution (BSI) and Indian quality standards bodies so the quality associated with the Indian car manufacturing industry, for example, spreads to the aerospace, defence, and other sectors. India has the opportunity to set standards by encouraging partnerships between business, standards bodies, and higher education institutions.

Conclusion

The UK and India both contribute a great deal to very strong relationships in business, education and culture. The investment flows in both directions are significant and mutually beneficial, and the changes happening to both countries offer prospects for deeper partnerships, particularly in innovation and tech-collaboration. The forthcoming visit to the UK by Modi provides the opportunity to instigate the next phase.


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