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Consolidating the ongoing engagements across a number of business segments, the UK India Business Council seeks to tap more areas of business focusing on advanced manufacturing, aerospace, meditek, life sciences, pharma among others.
A touring delegation headed by Kevin McCole, Managing Director of UK India Business Council (UKIBC) said “The industry is growing rapidly and there is rapid change in technology which calls for updates to stay competitive in the twenty first century.” “In the recent times, there has been significant momentum towards Ease of Doing Business. This has added to comfort of the investors from the UK. We believe there is scope to add to the ease and collaborate,” he said.
Maharashtra most preferred destination
Referring to Maharashtra, where a number of British companies have their base, Delhi, West Bengal and Telangana, he said Maharashtra for instance has become the most preferred destination for British companies. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has visited London couple of times to boost investments into Bengal. The Telangana Government too has taken proactive steps to attract business and investors.
“Our focus is on bringing a delegation of small and medium sized enterprises. As of now about 70 of them have signed up evincing interest. At least 10 of them have formalised some engagements. We expect this number to go up,” he said. “Now we are at a situation where our focus has to be on business to business engagements, closing deals and setting up manufacturing units in India to boost the Make in India initiative,” he said.
“As a part of this initiative, a number of Universities in the UK in the area of higher learning and research are keen to partner with Indian varsities towards research and development. We have been engaged in talks over the past few years and expect to strengthen this segment with some agreements leading to new tie ups,” he said. “We are engaged with Niti Aayog and some of the Ministries seeking to bring about some changes which could lead to bilateral engagements in the education sector. As of now, only top 200 universities in the world are allowed to tie up with Indian universities,” he explained.
New education policy
“This leads to leaving out a number of good research centres across the world and the UK. For instance, a university in the UK is ranked 600 but one its faculty is in top 10 in the world,” he said. “A draft new education policy is in the works in India. We hope to see this being finalised soon and enacted so that there is a change which will enable more engagement with higher learning institutions,” he said.
Sheffield for instance is known for precision instruments and knives. The University of Sheffield has expertise in Advanced Manufacturing Research. It has partnerships with Rolls Royce, BAE, Boeing among others. “The number of investors to the UK and into India is growing, we expect this to go up as we make strides with new tie ups,” he said.
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