News – Lord Bilimoria launches PictoSo – the new photo-sharing app

by

On October 6th  Lord Bilimoria successfully launched PictoSo, a photo sharing app designed to operate in small groups, at the Cambridge Freshers’ Fair.  The launch saw huge interest in the picture sharing app, with students eager to learn more about how the Founder of Cobra Beer’s tech venture would change they way they shared photos with friends.

PictoSo provides a platform for groups of people to share photos among themselves in a more private setting than Instagram or Facebook.  Moving away from the traditional broadcasting nature of social media, PictoSo aims to help people share the moments that matter with the people that matter.  The app works well at any occasion, from small gatherings among family and friends to huge parties and boasts a number of innovative features – pictures can be customised before sharing with filters, effects, stickers and more, and 10-second videos can also be shared in groups of your choosing by creating albums and inviting your friends from your phone contacts.

Lord Bilimoria spoke to Tom Knowles of The Times  to discuss the launch:

 

Read More →

Article – Cobra’s crusading Lord bites back

by

In an interview with David Watts for Asian Affairs magazine Lord Bilimoria referenced his own background as an immigrant to demonstrate the damaging nature of Britain’s current immigration policy. He noted the negative consequences of the government’s approach to immigration, such as its impact on the UK’s  Higher Education and curry industries, and stressed that the government’s flawed approach, championed by Theresa May, is destroying Britain’s future business success potential.

Read More →

Article – Where Service is No Small Beer

by

Lord Bilimoria recently gave an interview with Customer Focus magazine, the quarterly publication from the Institute of Customer Service, where he stressed the importance of good customer service in any industry and explained how the partnerships he formed at the outset of the business were crucial to the continued success of Cobra. Read More →

Speech – Lord Bilimoria delivers ADRI Foundation Lecture

by ⋅ Video

On the 12th September Lord Bilimoria delivered the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) Foundation Lecture in Patna. In the lecture, which has previously been delivered by Nobel Laureates Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz, Lord Bilimoria discussed the role of Jamshetji Tata and the contribution of Parsis in the Indian freedom struggle. Drawing on his personal experiences as a Zoroastrian Parsi, Lord Bilimoria talked passionately about the role that the Parsi minority has had in business both in India and the UK.  He also highlighted how the struggle of Tata, both as a visionary businessman and as a freedom fighter, was representative of the struggle of the Parsi minority and closed with words by Mahatma Gandhi, stressing both their general importance, as well as the specific resonance they hold for the Zoroastrian community.

 

Read More →

Speech – Productivity Debate

by

Yesterday, Lord Bilimoria spoke about the government’s planned proposals to increase productivity in the UK in a debate in the House of Lords.  Titled: Fixing the foundations: Creating a more prosperous nation, the government’s productivity plan stressed the need for Britain to boost productivity and advocated a series of reforms designed to bolster long term investment and create a more dynamic economy.  Speaking in the debate, Lord Bilimoria welcomed plans to make the UK more attractive to inward investment but lamented the lack of action that the government has taken on funding for research and development.  He also quizzed the Minister, Lord O’Neill of Gatley, about the level of support that the government is providing to quickly growing businesses to scale up their operations.

Read More →

Article – To Get India On Tap

by

Monday saw Lord Bilimoria share his thoughts about the growth opportunities for beer  in India in an article for Indian news magazine, Indian Outlook.  The piece identified the substantial discrepancy between the consumption of beer and spirits in India, despite the recent rise in popularity of beer in the country, and made the case for reforming the taxation rates in India so that they better reflect the alcoholic potency of the products being sold and help to reduce the health and social problems associated with easily available cheap liquor.

Read More →

Article – Britain’s universities have been neglected

by

Lord Bilimoria, Chancellor of the University of Birmingham, recently spoke about the need to invest in higher education in the UK in an article for the Telegraph.  He stressed the discrepancy in funding received by US universities, compared to their UK counterparts, and argued that the neglect of Britain’s universities has contributed to the productivity gap currently facing the UK.

Read More →

News – Lord Bilimoria Appointed President of UKCISA

by

It was recently announced that Lord Bilimoria will succeed his long standing friend and colleague, Baroness Prashar, as President of the UK Council for International Students (UKCISA), the UK’s national advisory body for international students.

Speaking about the appointment, Lord Bilimoria noted the excellence of the UK’s universities on the world stage and praised the significant contribution that international students provide to our economy and to Britain’s society as a whole.  As a previous international student to the UK, Lord Bilimoria is certainly well placed to represent the concerns of students travelling from abroad and he has vowed to represent all international students to the best of his ability.

Read More →