India Week 2025, a landmark international celebration of India’s global engagement, concluded this week in London as the first major India-focused event following the deadly Pahalgam attack and the signing of the UK-India Free Trade Agreement.
Organised by global advisory firm EPG and the non-profit think tank Bridge India, the event brought together over 1,200 delegates from countries as far afield as Australia, Hong Kong and Canada, underlining growing global interest in India's expanding role on the world stage.
The series opened with the UK’s first official UK-India film Co-Production Market, showcasing 17 curated projects ranging from documentaries to narrative features across a variety of budgets and stages. The event welcomed luminaries such as Gurinder Chadha OBE and Raul Niño Zambrano, Creative Director of Sheffield DocFest. The accompanying Drinks Reception for the film sector drew more than 200 guests, including representatives from Netflix, BBC and ITV, along with creatives like Taha Shah Badussha, Richie Mehta, Purab Kohli, Kulvinder Ghir and casting director Mukesh Chhabra.
In Westminster, a special joint reception with the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Asian Business Association (ABA) marked nearly three decades since the ABA’s formation. The event, led by hotelier Tony Matharu, attracted attendees from India, Mauritius and the UK business community. Pradyot Manikya, head of Tripura’s royal family and founder of the TIPRA Motha party, addressed the potential of India's Northeast and encouraged greater investment in underexplored regions.
Bridge India’s flagship Ideas for India conference emerged as a defining moment in the week, gathering high-profile political, business and technology voices from both the UK and India. Telangana’s KT Rama Rao, Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha, and Lord Simon MacDonald, former head of the UK’s Diplomatic Service, were among the prominent speakers. The event’s timing—just weeks after the Pahalgam attack and UK-India FTA signing—gave urgency to discussions on India’s evolving diplomatic posture, regional stability, and economic partnerships. Other sessions explored UK-India business ties, featuring Bar Council Chair Barbara Mills KC and Jupiter Asset Management’s Avinash Vazarani; a comparative discussion on religious investment ethics with Junaid Wahedna and Shaunaka Rishi Das; and political consultancy insights from I-PAC co-founder Vinesh Chandel.
The black-tie Celebration Dinner, hosted in collaboration with the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council, offered a vivid cultural showcase. Traditional dance troupes travelled from Tripura to perform ancestral forms like Hojagiri, Mamita and Garia. Pradyot Manikya introduced the performances, adding a personal and royal touch. The evening also included a wide-ranging conversation between BBC presenter Rajini Vaidyanathan and former Union Minister Sachin Pilot, covering governance, leadership and the implications of the Pahalgam incident.
The evening saw the presentation of three special awards honouring individuals and institutions building meaningful bridges between the UK and India. Harshad Kothari received the Community Service Award for his behind-the-scenes work connecting global East African Asian communities. Soumik Datta was honoured with the Contribution to Music Award for his genre-spanning sarod artistry, while State Bank of India (UK) was recognised for its strides in digital banking innovation, including major improvements to the YONO SBI UK app.
India Week closed with the London edition of the Khushwant Singh Literature Festival, where authors and screenwriters such as Farrukh Dhondy, Francesca Kay, Imtiaz Dharker OBE and Keshava Guha led conversations on literature, politics and identity. The next edition of the festival will return to its flagship home in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, later this year.
India Week 2025 was made possible through collaboration with partners including the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council, the LCCI, Integrity International Group, ReelN, PACT, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, the UK-India Business Council, Maharaja Drinks and Indri. Organisers said the success of the series reaffirmed the importance of dialogue, cultural exchange and economic cooperation in a complex and rapidly shifting global landscape.
