A high-profile senior industry leaders’ delegation led by Uday Kotak, President, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Managing Director & CEO Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited visited the UK, albeit virtually. The three days’ virtual visit was the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Annual CEO’s Mission that comprised of senior industrialists and CII leadership.
The visit marked an important landmark for CII as it entered its 125th year of operations and approached its 40th year of presence in the UK.
The theme of the virtual Conference was "A New India-UK Economic Partnership in a New World: Lives, Livelihood & Growth" to reflect the deep impact and challenges that the pandemic has brought with it, and to explore how the UK and India can deepen collaboration in various areas like healthcare, advanced manufacturing, defence, financial services, digital and data services for mutual benefit in a post-pandemic, post-Brexit world.
Over three days, the delegation organised high level industry led engaging discussions on the evolving political and economic scenario in the UK and the new opportunities for collaboration between the businesses of the two nations.
Every year, during the delegations’ visit, CII holds its annual conference in the UK.
Economic recovery roadmap plans to strengthen India-UK relations ahead of Brexit
The interaction with the Indian industrialists provided an opportunity for UK industries, government and institutional partners to receive a business briefing on Indian economy and to discuss plans for economic recovery during and post the Covid-19 crisis, the future roadmap in the post Brexit world and particularly on exploring and scaling-up the global business opportunities for India in the UK.
The delegation comprised of 20 industry leaders and CEOs from India with a strong interest and presence in the UK, each representing some of the fastest growing Indian businesses in the UK. The group met with diverse stakeholders - including government, parliamentarians, industry and academia, in a bid to strengthen the overall strategic and economic imperatives.
Leaders included: Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, Uday Kotak, President, CII, Sanjiv Bajaj, Vice President, CII and Chairman and Managing Director, Bajaj Finserv Limited, Dhruv M Sawhney, Past President, CII, and Chairman and Managing Director, Triveni Turbine Ltd, Dr Naushad Forbes, Past President, CII, and Co-Chairman, Forbes Marshall Private Limited, Vineet Mittal, Chairman, Avaada Group, Vir S Advani, Managing Director, Blue Star Limited, BVR Mohan Reddy, Executive Chairman, Cyient Limited, Sanjiv Puri, Managing Director, ITC Limited, Sameer Gupta, Chairman & Managing Director, Jakson Limited, Subir Chowdhury, Managing Director & CEO, JCB India Limited, Rajan Navani, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Jetline Group, Neel C Raheja, Group President, K Raheja Corporation, Dr Anish Shah, Deputy Managing Director & Group CFO, Mahindra & Mahindra India, Ajay Piramal, Chairman, Piramal Enterprises Limited, Shreekant Somany, Chairman & Managing Director, Somany Ceramics Limited, R Mukundan, Managing Director, Tata Chemicals Limited, Jim Bligh, Chairman, CII-India Business Forum UK, and Director, Corporate Affairs, Tata Consultancy Services, R Dinesh, Managing Director, TVS Logistics Services Limited, and Joint Managing Director, T V Sundram Iyengar & Sons Private Limited, Sudarshan Venu, Joint Managing Director, TVS Motor Limited, Marut Sengupta, Deputy Director General, CII, Kavita Choudhry, Senior Director, CII, and Lakshmi Kaul, Head & Representative – UK, CII.
CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led and industry-managed organization, with about 9100 members from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 300,000 enterprises from 288 national and regional sectoral industry bodies. The top 300 members of the CII contribute to at least 23% of India’s GDP; demonstrating the strength of our representation in the Indian economy.
Indian business footprint documented each year by the CII in partnership with Grant Thornton has already attributed this at a high 850 Indian companies in the UK. India also enjoys the 2ndhighest FDI contributor into UK, having created over 110,000 jobs annually and contributed over GBP 43 billion in net revenue.
Several Opportunities for British Business in India: Foreign Secretary
There are several opportunities for British Businesses in India said Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India while addressing the Inaugural Session of CII@125 Annual Conference in the UK.
According to the Foreign Secretary, major reforms had been carried out in India in areas such as infrastructure, tax, Aadhar card, mobile connectivity, agriculture among others. This has led to India becoming one of the leading destinations for foreign investments in the world. He stated that India had already received US$ 20 billion worth of FDI this year despite the global slowdown. He invited UK companies to take advantage of the business opportunities that were emerging due to the reforms.
Mr Shringla added that the Covid-19 outbreaks provided a unique opportunity for India to transform itself from a passive market to an active manufacturing hub. He was of the view that India and the UK could cooperate in areas such as drugs and pharmaceuticals especially vaccines, services, manufacturing among others. He stated that despite the pandemic, TVS Motors completed the acquisition of Norton Motorcycles in the UK. He observed that the India and UK economies were complimentary, and items designed in the UK could be manufactured in India.
HE Gaitri Issar Kumar, High Commissioner of India to the UK said that India and Britain have created a well-established trade and investment eco-system. She stated that as India seeks to connect up with Global value Chains, it finds a ready partner in terms of the UK. She stated that the two countries have synergies in areas such as healthcare – specifically in terms of development of APIs, medical equipment manufacturing, creation of health infrastructure among others. Other areas where the two countries could work together included Fintech, renewable energy, information technology, manufacturing especially in the defence sector among others.
Uday Kotak, President, CII stated that India is the 2nd highest FDI contributor to UK and the UK is 6th highest FDI contributor to India. The two nations had a long history of collaboration. He observed that the UK was currently undergoing a transformation due to Brexit and this created an opportunity for India to step up its engagement with the UK.
Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII stated that with Brexit around the corner, there was an urgent need to discuss trading arrangements, by way of Free Trade Agreement or Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. He also stated that with the US – China trade war and the Covid-19 pandemic playing havoc with supply chains, it’s an opportunity for India and the UK to enhance the bilateral partnership in manufacturing. In terms of skilled worker mobility, he welcomed the new Points Based Immigration System in the UK and hoped that it will create a level playing field for these professionals coming to the UK from India.
