The United Kingdom is on the verge of a history defining change. Exit from the European Union would throw up many challenges. Crispin Simon, the UK Deputy High Commissioner and Trade Commissioner for India and South Asia, spoke to The Hindu BusinessLine on what this means for relations between India and Great Britain.

What does Brexit mean for the UK and India?

It’s good for the relationship between Britain and India. We have had over the years, a huge amount of attention to the EU and now we will have more time for our political relationship; business and government officials will be able to give more time to other countries.

India is going to be extremely important as we implement global Britain; what Britain will do after we leave the EU.

If you look at the contributors to global growth in the new year, China will contribute 32 per cent, America 18 per cent and India is the next at 8 per cent. So, the UK government recognises how important India is.

What is the overall approach to boosting trade?

Our focus is to try and make the trade relationship successful for both countries. It’s not just about export promotion, which may have been the case somewhat in historical times. What we are interested in now is developing the whole trade relationship to the benefit of the UK and India.

India has very complimentary sector skills. We know that IT systems, software development, communications, generally, have not only produced extremely strong businesses in India, but they have invested a lot in the UK. Thirty-one per cent of Indian investments in the UK are in tech, creating 33,000 out of 1,10,000 jobs.

There are reports of companies leaving the UK due to Brexit. How do you propose to retain them?

I would like to contest the premise of your question in the first place, which is that companies are leaving the UK. There are some companies that have left the UK, but that would have happened anyways; there is always frictional movement of companies coming in and companies leaving.

There are some companies that have moved their HQ, but there are other companies that have still set up their HQ in the UK, and it varies from sector to sector. It’s not a secret that with the new regulations that we have, the new regulatory environment when we leave the EU, pharmaceutical companies will need to look at their plans.

What about other sectors...

There is no particular reason why anybody should move in the near term because the (existing) regulatory environment would continue through the transition period.

There has been a period of uncertainty, but the rate of employment in the UK remains at extraordinarily high levels. So the economy continues to flourish. But, it’s not surprising in view of the headlines associated with Brexit that people will tend to think if there is any movement in any direction, that it must be associated with Brexit. That is not necessarily true, businesses are always dynamic.

The investment picture remains positive for the UK because of the fundamentals of the UK economy, which is the rate of new business formation, the rate of entrepreneurialism, the openness of the economy to entrepreneurs coming from overseas, relatively low taxation, high-class quality universities and also capital available for start-ups. If you put all that on the positive side of the balance, then we fully expect the momentum of the economy to continue.

There are still apprehensions…

The government has assured there is no proposal to increase the rate of taxation. As far as the regulatory environment is concerned, it is clear the deal that is now being debated in Parliament, we will maintain the same regulatory environment through the transition period, which gives business more than another two years. It is not the intention of the government to make a success of the exit from the EU by reducing regulations. Because, regulations are there to protect consumers and investors to some degree and that is not in the mind of the government that would be the way to make a success of Brexit, to make life easier for business by reducing regulations.

What is the bilateral technology partnership between India and the UK all about?

The technology partnership agreement would have a number of different features to it, one of the most important is what we call the tech cluster partnerships. The concept is to establish in Maharashtra, a partnership with the Midlands in the UK. That tech cluster partnership has already started with the Pune-Midlands relationship. In addition, we have Bengaluru in a partnership with the North of England.

We are going to establish a tech hub in Delhi, enabling start-up companies to accelerate their business, and there is a specific project in relation to use of artificial intelligence in healthcare.

We are working with the Niti Aayog on that because of the Ayushman Bharat programme, to bring healthcare into rural India. A lot of the technology partnerships relate to the use of data and that is another area in which we are working with India, because we have exactly the same challenges fundamentally, which is that if you are going to drive benefit in society through the use of artificial intelligence, you have to have the data.

But, in order to have the data, you need to protect the citizen’s privacy and interests and that balance is exactly the same in the UK as it is in India and it is going through policy specialists and, indeed, in some cases it will go to the courts. Part of the future tech festival will be devoted to how data is used, how it should be regulated because that is fundamental to artificial intelligence.

I’ve heard the statement that in the next 10 years, three hundred million jobs in India will be created in artificial intelligence and 230 million will be destroyed and it’s important that’s a net gain, but nevertheless it does illustrate the extent of the change that is potentially coming.

Does it include funding?

The technology partnership came with funding as well. The use of artificial intelligence in healthcare has got one million pounds of funding from the UK government, and the next event in that will be approval by the panel of independent experts and the selection of the first three companies, who will then go out in a pilot and demonstrate their technology in India. We hope to be able to announce that earlier in the New Year.

At the future tech festival on December 12, there is a planned announcement on a start-up fund that will be jointly managed by the government of India and the UK government.

We have launched a three million pounds 'UKRI Science, Research and Academia' scheme within our Tier-5 temporary work route, which allows overseas researchers, scientists and academics to come to the UK for up to two years, so that highly skilled individuals, such as specialist technicians, have an extra route to be sponsored to come to the UK.

So, there is a broader range of capital available and being invested in India from the UK than elsewhere.

What will the immigration policy be post-Brexit?

There is no doubt that for some voters, the freedom of movement within the European Union was a problem in the Referendum and the government has been clear from the beginning that it wanted to address those concerns, and in the agreement that is before Parliament at the moment, those concerns are addressed.

What it means is that we will be able to take control of our immigration policies and because the economy is strong, we will continue to need people coming in from overseas to take jobs throughout the economy. But, what the government has always felt was important was that it should be a question of government policies rather than an EU legislation that set the immigration policy.

How will the Visa policy pan out?

Prime Minister May has specifically referred to software developers from Delhi saying we would like to have greater access to them. It’s well-known that the importance of Indian workers in the national health system such as doctors, surgeons and nurses are extremely attractive to the UK, and there have been general statements of policy that indicate that the visa policy will be consistent with that.

For the last three years, we have issued more skilled work visas to Indian nationals than the rest of the world combined. Last year, we issued almost 55,000 visas to Indians. That was more than five times as many visas in that category than we issued to US nationals – the closest competitor. We are issuing more visas to Indian nationals than ever before.

Next spring, we will launch the new 'start-up visa', which will make the immigration process faster and smoother for entrepreneurs coming to the UK. Replacing an older route just for graduates, this gives more people from India the opportunity to build their business in Britain. We have doubled the number of spaces available on the Tier 1 Exceptional Talent Scheme, ensuring that more highly skilled people who enhance the UK’s economy can come to and work in Britain for five years – with the opportunity of settlement after three years.

Are Indian students going to the UK on the rise?

The numbers were published last week and they were up by 33 per cent in the year to September 2018, from a year ago. So, it’s been a high rate of growth over the last three years or so. We are thrilled that Indian students are coming to the UK in greater numbers.

What is the bilateral trade between the two nations?

It is 19.6 billion pounds. We are big investors in each other’s countries. Of all the countries that invest in India, the UK has consistently been in the top five. And, it is the same picture going the other way; India is a large investor in the UK.

Are there any collaborations on climate change in the offing?

One of the things in the technology partnership is clean growth. India is a much bigger force in solar power than is the UK, because you have more sun. It’s not true that it rains all the time in Manchester, but there is no doubt that India has more sun and has an extremely powerful solar industry and as a result of that you can see India’s leadership in solar power generally. So, clean growth is clearly important to India and it’s very important to the UK, and another absolutely shared concern.

You have partnered with the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund..

One part of that relationship is the green growth equity fund where both countries have put in 120 million pounds each into a fund and there are external investors who have put in an additional 50 million pounds and they will make investments that, in turn, will bring in partners on an investment by investment basis. So, all that government money will be geared up with the intention of focussing particularly on green investments.

Has that moved forward?

They intent to make their first investment in a green project in the next month or so.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW