India Inc with partners organised the fourth successful UK-India conclave on Friday at the Sheraton Grand London to celebrate 'a new era in UK-India relations'. This was attended by India's Transport and Infrastructure Minister Nitin Gadkari and India's Energy Minister Piyush Goyal, followed by the UK-India Awards.
The conclave started with an opening address by Manoj Ladwa, Founder and Chief Executive India Inc, followed by a short speech from YK Sinha, High Commissioner of India to the UK. Addressing the audience, Sinha said, “This conclave helps us to review the prospects for both India and UK.”
The day's agenda included two panel discussions- first: What does a ‘Global Britain’ mean for UK-India Relations? This was moderated by Sanjay Suri from News18 and particpants included Baroness Usha Prashar, Lord Jitesh Gadhia and Ashok Malik, Leading Indian political columnist and distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation.
The second discussion, that was moderated by Richard Heald of UKIBC, was about Financing India’s Growth Ambitions. Panelists included: Sanjay Nayar, Member and Chief Executive Officer of KKR India, Rashesh Shah, Chief Executive Officer of Edelweiss Group and Nikhil Rathi, Chief Executive Officer of London Stock Exchange plc and Director of International Development at London Stock Exchange Group.
The gala Awards in the evening was attended by Boris Johnson, Priti Patel, Lord Navnit Dholakia, Lord Jitesh Gadhia, Lord Dolar Popat, Piyush Goyal, Nitin Gadkari to name a few. The glittering gala was attended by crème de la crème of the community and enjoyed actor Vivek Oberoi's presence as the compere.
Gadkari and Goyal's UK visit
Indian Minister for Road, transport and highways and shipping Mr Nitin Gadkari was in London from 11 May to 13 May. He opened the market in London Stock Exchange on Thursday morning and promoted the Masala bond. His principle aim was to get private investors for the development of national highways in India. The uniqueness of this Masala bond is that it is in rupees and has already raised more than £1bn last year.
Speaking to Asian Voice Mr Gadkari said, "Whether there is Brexit or not, London financially is very important for us. And we have infrastructure partnership with the UK...”
Speaking about the existing partnership and the future of it he elaborated, "We have taken certain inputs from Britain very carefully. During my last visit, we had discussion about the road safeties and motor vehicle act with authorities here. There are still developments happening in India, as we continue to grow financially. I saw the hydrogen fuelled buses today and we want to implement that in India at some point. It is in compliance with our go-green cut pollution ideology.
"We also want to make India a hub for ship cruises. This year alone we had so far 70 cruises visiting, we are planning to have 140 next year. We are creating good cruise terminals in Mumbai, Goa, Cochin and Chennai to name a few...I want to have catamarans, sea buses, hovercrafts- doing ferry services for people to cross rivers more efficiently."
Discussing about airports and developments he further added, "We want to build runways on roadways. At the moment there are many places where there are long stretches of roads, but no airport around for 400kms or so. We plan to utilise the roads as runways where flights could land or take off- and we have so far identified 17 such spots- one being near Pakistan-Rajasthan border."
Talking about road safety he told the newsweekly, "There are more than 500,000 accidents every year in India. In 2004 I was in a similar accident and it was life threatening. In India still almost 30% people have have fake driving licenses. We are trying to stop it to save lives and having a transparent system like you have in the UK helps. Once the motor vehicle act is passed, there is going to be only one regulated centre for getting licenses- viz. 'saarthi'-and you will get license only if you take the test yourself..."
Finally speaking on green energy, he said, "Like the UK we are trying to make more cycle lanes on the possible highways. In Delhi we wish we could build cycle lanes and pedestrians roads further, but that is difficult. We are still trying. But some Indian highways have all the potentials. Imagine connecting the whole country through cycle lanes, what an achievement that would be!"
Mr Gadkari went to the Dishoom restaurant for his favourite breakfast on Thursday.
MOU on bilateral cooperation in urban transport
India & UK on Friday agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on bilateral cooperation in urban transport policy planning, technology transfer and institutional organisation of transport.
Duirng his visit to the headquarters of Transport For London (TFL), Gadkari was given a presentation on strategy and policy reforms, customer experience and data analysis in respect of London Buses and other integrated modes of public transport in Greater London area. The meeting lasted for 3 hours. The decision to enter into a bilateral cooperation arrangement between the Transport For London (TFL) and the Indian ministry of road transport and highways on a wide range of transport mobility solutions and associated activities in urban environments was taken during the visit.
Under the proposed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the TFL promises to share with the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways its expertise on the mobility and efficiency of transport system and methodologies to facilitate the planning and delivery of mobility solutions, including ticketing, passenger information, major project financing, infrastructure maintenance strategies and behavioural change and public transport promotion.
Gadkari later said signing of the MOU will be done through diplomatic channels shortly.
Possibilities of further cooperation on electric buses, double decker buses in Mumbai and Delhi, bus innovation and capacity augmentation and water transport were also explored during his interaction with the TFL authorities.
Gadkari addresses OFBJP
Minister Gadkari said while addressing the Overseas Friends of BJP on Friday said, State-sponsored terrorism with its epicentre in our neighbourhood is assuming alarming proportions and time has now come to take a collective and punitive action against the perpetrators harbouring terrorist outfits,
He added that the NDA government under prime minister Narendra Modi believed in peaceful co-existence and an all round regional deveoplment and progress among the SAARC countries.
He has been consistently taking initiatives to resolve all the outstanding regional and bilateral issues with all our neighbours in a peaceful manner through dialogue. But Pakistan's intransigence in disturbing peace and tranquillity in the region harbouring terrorist outfits and funding extremists in Jammu and Kashmir is a serious challenge and we need to isolate Islamabad at all international forum, Gadkari said.
LSE to list NTPC's Masala bond
State-run power giant NTPC has listed its Masala Bonds at London Stock Exchang(LSE) on Friday in the presence of Indian Power Minister Piyush Goyal.
The LSE listing promises to provide global investors access to Indian companies while providing liquidity to them, a power ministry official said. The NTPC Masala Bonds are be the first MTN and Masala Bonds to list on the new ISM (International Securities Market).
Looking at expanding its reach into the international energy market, India has taken a new initiative to supply cheap LED bulbs for Londoners. Taking this process to the final stages is Union Energy and Power Minister Piyush Goyal launched ‘Ujala’ scheme on May 13. The initiative was aimed at saving the energy of this European country.
India-Austria Collaboration on Clean Energy
Minister Piyush Goyal, along with a delegation from FICCI visited Vienna on 10-11 May 2017. FICCI, in collaboration with the Embassy of India in Vienna and Austrian Economic Chambers (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich WKO) organised The India-Austria Business Forum in the evening on 10 May 2017 in the presence of Ms Renu Pall, Ambassador of India to Austria, Mr. Pankaj R Patel, President, FICCI, and Ms Ulrike Rabmer-Koller, Vice President, WKO, Austrian Business Representatives.
Mr Goyal in his keynote address highlighted that India needs to put entire solar value chain under quality direction. He added that the Government will have a policy directive in place on quality of modules (by end of May), followed by solar cells in next 6-7 months and on wafers and poly silicon in the next two years.
Given that Austria is well known for innovations, Minister Goyal, said that this experience of discovery can be put to good use in India though scale, cost competitiveness. He also spoke of the trinity of financial inclusion, unique identification and digital penetration that can translate into businesses being able to function smoothly and scale up efficiently. India and Austria can leverage each other's strengths to benefit both economies. India can offer better pricing for Austrian products and provide low-cost manufacturing base.
He underlined that affordability is a paramount imperative to be able to change India's energy mix. He added that PM Modi has given a new dimension to renewable energy and that his vision of scaling up rapidly giving good returns in more ways than one - a case in point being the latest solar tariff of 4 cents. He exhorted that India can fast track with Austria what it has done with Finland by highlighting that within 6 months of his visit to Finland in November 2016 there have been multiple exchanges facilitated by FICCI.
Goyal speaks at Navnat Centre
To celebrate Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya's birth centenary, Minister Goyal spoke about Integral Humanism along with the various initiatives of the Modi Government at the Navnat Centre, an evening organised by the Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP).
He elaborated on how after 70 years of India's independence every Indian citizens now finally have a roof, road and infrastructure. He spoke about Indian values, how under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, out of 18452, 14000 villages receive electricity. He also elaborated on how by 2018 beginning he plans to make sure all Indian villages have electricity.
He also urged the OFBJP to waive off membership fee and encourage youths to be members and promised to visit London and address these young members if OFBJP could reach a mark of 100,000 memberships.
