Sporting legend, and India’s first-ever boxing Olympic medallist, Mary Kom, was awarded the ‘Global Indian Icon of the Year’ at the 5th Annual UK-India Awards. Presented by India Global Forum (IGF), UK-India Awards honour the contribution of key figures and businesses driving the UK-India partnership.
Receiving the award to a standing ovation, Mary Kom said, “It is my privilege and honour to be part of this evening. I have been fighting for 20 years and have put in a lot of hard work in my life, in boxing, making sacrifice for my country, for my family. I really thank you from the bottom of my heart for this recognition.”
Held at the Fairmont Windsor Park on Thursday (June 29), the evening was hosted by Rory Bremner, Britain’s celebrated comedian and impressionist, in his characteristic wit and flair. The star-studded black-tie gala was graced by VIP guests, industry stalwarts, influential personalities and celebrities.
Manoj Ladwa, CEO and Founder of IGF set the tone for the ceremony stating, “this evening, we celebrate the enterprise, the grit, the innovation and the success of British and Indian businesses and organisations, big and small, who represent what is now the super-highway of UK India Relations. Whilst there can be only one winner, I pay tribute to all the nominees, and all those who enrich every aspect of the winning partnership between our two great nations.”
Receiving the award for ‘Lifetime Contribution to UK-India Relations’ from Vikram Doraiswami, High Commissioner of India to UK, and Manoj Ladwa, Director Shekhar Kapur expressed his gratitude, and paid tribute to UK-India ties.
The prestigious awards recognised outstanding contributions of leaders in business, professional services, government, culture and social impact, highlighting their remarkable achievements in strengthening bilateral ties.
Recipient of the ‘Significant Contribution to UK-India Relations’ Award, Nehru Centre London Director Amish Tripathi, said, “This is one of the most exciting times to be an Indian in the last many centuries, and India's growing economy has made many others, including many Westerners think differently about India. But India's culture will actually make many others, including many Westerners think differently period. And it's our privilege at the Nehru Centre to contribute to the growth and to the popularisation of Indian culture in the West.”
Spanning across several categories, the UK-India Awards 2023 celebrated excellence in:
Market Entrant of the Year – Won by CrowdInvest
Consultancy of the Year - Won by SannamS4
Legal Practice of the Year – Won by Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas
Financial Services Organisation of the Year - Won by ICICI Bank UK Plc
Technology Company of the Year - Won by Mphasis
Business Promotion Organisation of the Year - Won by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI - UK)
Social Impact Project of the Year - Won by Action Aid UK
Significant Contribution to UK-India Relations – Nehru Centre
Lifetime Contribution to UK-India Relations – Shekhar Kapur
Global Indian Icon of the Year – Mary Kom
Powered by Knowledge Partners Grant Thorton, UK-India Awards was the penultimate day of an invigorating week of purpose-driven, enterprising conversations, collaboration, and thought-leadership. The evening showcased the depth and breadth of co-operation between the two nations, reaffirming India Global Forum’s position as the premier, most definitive platform for UK-India ties.
Encompassing 12 marquee events with 150 speakers and 2,000+ participants, ‘UK-India Week 2023’ brought together business leaders, policymakers, and thought leaders from India and the UK, who discussed opportunities for further collaboration and growth between the two countries through a series of exclusive networking opportunities, panel discussions, and keynote speeches, covering a range of topics including trade, investment, innovation, technology, and sustainability, that are aligned with the objectives of Roadmap 2030.
India has rightly put culture and creative industries at heart of G20 presidency, says British Culture Minister
Addressing the Creative Industries and Cultural Economy Summit in London, UK Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer committed to maximising the creative industries collaboration between the United Kingdom and India.
“It's a relationship that goes far beyond just our economic and historical ties. You can see it in our culture, our music, our theatre, our design, and so much more. As everyone at the event today will testify, our countries are both creative superpowers. India has rightly put culture and the creative industries at the heart of their presidency of the G20 this year. And my department is working closely with India's Ministry of Culture to facilitate even greater collaboration in this area,” she said
Held at the Nehru Centre in London, the second edition of the summit brought together leaders from the world of art, culture, fashion and cinema to highlight the transformative power of culture in fostering diplomacy, economic growth, and mutual understanding between the two nations.
Recalling her journey in Bollywood, actor Sonam Kapoor said, “There have been changes slowly, but surely. There have been more roles for me. There weren’t as many female centric roles…That is also because the audience has changed. but it hasn’t been quick enough. The gender pay gap is humongous and I don’t think that will be narrowing anytime soon unfortunately. But I think the roles are getting meatier.
“Diversity has become token word. We have a diverse cast, but who is your lead? I’ve been represented internationally for a while, and I know, you are always cast as the exotic Indian girl in a film. I don’t think that has not changed much. There are strides being made, but not enough. There could be more stuff that could be done. Diversity is a token word that needs to be explored more and taken more seriously.”
Fashion Designer Anita Dongre underlined the importance of empowering rural women artisans. “India’s growth is its women. Women in India need to be empowered. Even 40 years later, there is so much change we need to bring in, especially in the villages. The only way you can empower a woman is to economically empower her.
“I believe you need to empower a woman in the village, the whole village is empowered. The minute the woman is empowered, her daughter gets a better education, and she keeps the family unit going. She gets the respect of the whole village as she is earning money and she can do that from the comfort of her home without having to move to a village. To take work back to Indian villages is very important.”
Part of UK-India Week 2023, the event put the spotlight on the living bridge between India and UK with the aim of fostering deeper connections and collaboration in the creative industries, ultimately creating a thriving cultural economy.
“The Creative and cultural economy is one of the sectors in which the UK-India cooperation can be world beating. The more partnerships we build amongst creatives in the UK and India, the better it will be for the global creative economy,” stated Amish Tripathi, Director, Nehru Centre London, stated.
The Creative Industries and Cultural Economy Summit witnessed thought-provoking discussions on the power of cultural economies in strengthening the bilateral relationship, promoting local crafts in a global market, building a more inclusive and diverse cultural landscape, leveraging digital growth in the creative industries and nurturing talent and skill development.
Alison Barrett MBE, Director India, British Council, said, “Discussions like these help promote respect and appreciation for each other's education and cultural heritage and plurality of perspectives. Culture and education are the mainstays of people-to-people connections and pivotal in shaping the future of both our countries.”
Labour: We back India’s Global ambitions, understand importance of strategic partnership
Backing India’s global influence and aspirations, David Lammy, Shadow Secretary for Foreign Affairs asserted the need for a nonpartisan approach to the relationship with India.
Speaking at India Global Forum’s flagship ‘IGF Studio’ on Day 4 of UK-India Week 2023, the Labour leader referred to the current geo-political climate, and went on to say, “India plays a very, very important role. It's a country to which many others in the Global South look to. When we talk about the Indo-pacific region, ‘Indo’ means something; India plays a very important role in relation to that.
“We in the UK have long said, for example, that India should have a place on the Security Council of the United Nations. No doubt about it, India is going to continue to play a very important role.
“The UK and India because of a long history, particularly need a relationship, and must have a relationship, like the relationship that we would talk about with the United States - it doesn't matter who is the incumbent the White House or number 10, it's a strong close, powerful relationship.”
Describing the UK-India as “natural partners,” Gillian Keegan, Secretary of State for Education noted, “What we know about India is that it is a very fastmoving country, very innovative, so there is always lots to learn from each other. Often ‘partnership’ is the word used, but we have a foundation that goes back many decades, that it makes is easier to build this partnership. So, I think we are very natural partners.”
Commenting on the ongoing Free Trade Agreement talks between India and the UK, Nick Thomas Symonds, Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade said, “I hope it is completed, and if it isn’t, the next Labour Govt will complete the deal. Even if the FTA is not completed this year, there are still huge opportunities to deepen trade ties even without FTA like renewables, pharma - clear sectors where we can do so much more together.”
Asked about the challenging relationship between the Labour Party and India in the recent past, Jonathan Ashworth, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, reiterated Keir Starmer’s message at India Global Forum on resetting ties with India, “There have been one or two issues in recent times but the friendship between labour and India is deep and does go back many, many years. But more importantly, we need to look to the future and our relationship should not be based on nostalgia or what happened years ago. It should be based on the fact that the UK and India can work together to confront so many of the big economic challenges we face.”
“Have to ensure AI does not reduce human intelligence,” says Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan
Artificial intelligence and India’s technological progress took centre stage at India Global Forum’s flagship ‘IGF Studio’ on Day 4 of UK-India Week 2023. Senior business leaders, politicians, and entrepreneurs from the UK and India participated in the broadcast studio-style moderated discussions across key pillars of the UK-India partnership.
Calling it a debate between AI and HI, India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the challenge was to ensure that Artificial Intelligence does not reduce Human Intelligence. “We don’t have any option to judge whether it is good or bad. AI is there today, ChatGPT is there today. The debate that is going on is what about God-gifted human intelligence - this is a debate between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence. Policymakers and academia are concerned about how it will affect normal critical thinking, but we have to accept innovation. How can we use AI in human civilisational development that is the responsibility with us today. Data analytics, AI, ML, AR, BR are new tools to create ease of living in society.
“Human have their own capacity to innovate such things and navigate the future challenges also. Digitisation is the order of the day. Globalisation, mobility and future skills are the need of the 21st century knowledge-based economy. AI is going to affect, help and promote these things in a big way. As a policymaker, we have to see that AI should not reduce human intelligence - that is the primary ethical aspect of the challenge.”
Participating in the conversation with Pradhan, Gillian Keegan, Secretary of State for Education observed, “There have been a couple of different reactions; some people have embraced it, a few have said we should pause it, it is going too fast and we don’t know what it is going to do to various aspects of our life. In my experience, you don’t get to pause technology, it happens so you have to embrace it. But we are at the beginning of the journey. Every G20 country will be grappling with the same challenges at the same time. There is huge opportunity within education.”
India’s digital growth came in for praise from Jonathan Ashworth, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, UK. “Who is the world’s leader in using AI to improve welfare services? Who is the leader in using AI, design and tech can provide citizens with their rights, social security payments they are entitled to, or providing their citizens the opportunities to progress? It is India! And as Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his address to the US Congress, this has been a remarkable progress.
“AI can be better utilised in the UK to ensure our citizens rightly get their entitlements and I really want to learn from India and the tech companies and government in India about how we can best adopt some of the remarkable progress we have seen in India.”
While identifying cyber co-operation as an important component of the 2030 Roadmap, Lindy Cameron, CEO, National Cyber Security Centre, UK Government said, “But India goes so far beyond that. The market is huge, both as a set of consumers and also a potential producer of low-cost technology for so much of the globe. So, the standards that India sets, the demands that it makes for its own domestic market will shape how technology is used in so much else of the world. So, we want to be part of the conversation thinking about how to work with that.”
