The Indian diaspora is the UK’s third largest ethnic group making up 3% of the population yet roughly half those are among the highest earning, highest skilled professionals working in business, healthcare, education and other sectors.
According to the Centre for Economic and Business and Research, accelerating growth will place India as the world's 3rd largest economy in the 2030s while Brexit is set to transform Britain into a trading and manufacturing hub with a global outlook. Current links between our countries are strong and the future provides enormous opportunities for Indian Professionals to benefit from developments in both countries:
- UK companies in India support close to 800,000 jobs according to the CBI
- UK invested $24.07 billion in India between 2000 and 2016
- The UK represents 8% of all FDI into India
- India is the third largest investor in the UK creating thousands of new jobs
- 800 Indian companies in the UK employ 110,000 people in diverse sectors such as manufacturing and IT
- Indian companies in the UK have a turnover of 47.5 billion pounds.
Trade and investment between the two nations is vital now and for the future. Our bilateral dialogues include:
- Finance Ministers Economic dialogue
- Trade Ministers bilateral
- Joint Military exercises
- Skills development and research dialogue
- Science &technology dialogue
- Culture exchanges
Speaking at the launch of the Indian Professionals Forum (IPF) on 22nd November 2017, HE Shri Y K Sinha, Indian High Commissioner said “UK and India are important partners in diverse fields... Brexit provides an opportunity to further expand the scale and scope of our vibrant and robust collaboration. Indian professionals in the UK are already playing a hugely important role in these and other areas."
Speaking at the same event Sir Vince Cable, Leader of Liberal Democrats "India is now a major economic power – on some measures the third largest in the world after China and the US. It is very much in Britain’s long-term interest to welcome Indian investment, students and professionals, and to have a stronger, deeper relationship with India." The IPF gathered at Asia House, London, on 9th July to hear Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for IT, Law & Justice, outline India’s digitisation efforts, which are estimated to add $154 billion to the country’s GDP by 2021 and present a huge opportunity for UK-based investors. Minister Prasad urged UK companies to make use of an open foreign direct investment regime in the IT sector to engage with one of the world’s “biggest markets”.
Minister Prasad outlined his vision for India as a land of digital opportunities for UK investment: “The UK-India relationship is politics neutral. It is very robust and stable, with a new ecosystem laid by the last visit of Prime Minister Modi to the UK with the UK-India Tech Alliance.” As the UK prepares to leave the EU it is actively engaged in bilateral talks with India to forge new partnerships, especially in key technology sectors and UK and India will continue to forge strong partnerships:
- UK will remain the dominant financial centre and Indian companies will benefit from this (Masala bonds have raised over $600 million in last two years)
- UK will remain R&D centre and Hub for innovation. Indian companies can establish R&D centres in UK – “Innovate in UK and Scale-up in India”. Many UK companies, such as JCB, are already establishing global operations in India
- Collaboration on healthcare will grow in UK and India: While India announced mass health insurance to cover over 500 million people, challenges in UK NHS will need Indian talent and skills.
- Partnership in IT and FINTECH will grow with the UK-India corridor providing opportunities for UK and Indian companies particularly Start-ups / Tech SMEs
India and UK will be the torch bearers for global free trade and the partnership between the two countries will grow stronger, irrespective of the results of Brexit.
