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.
This week, Lord Bilimoria, in his role as the founder of Cobra Beer, launched a national campaign that will see some of Britain’s best chefs share their knowledge and expertise with chefs from across the UK’s curry restaurant community.
The Chef Initiative campaign was announced by Cobra in response to the challenges faced by many in the curry industry, which have been exacerbated by a sharp decline in the number of highly-skilled chefs entering into the industry from abroad, as a way to give back to the ethnic restaurant community. The campaign was unveiled at an event in London’s Cinnamon Kitchen, and was co-hosted by award-winning chef Vivek Singh – one of the six chefs leading the training sessions over the coming months.
The initiative will see workshops taking place across the country, which will be led by Alfred Prasad, former chef at Tamarind, Vivek Singh, The Cinnamon Club & Cinnamon Kitchen, Cyrus Todiwala OBE DL, Café Spice Namaste, Mehernosh Mody La Porte des Indes, Vineet Bhatia, Vineet Rosi, and Atul Kochhar, Benares.
Lord Bilimoria recently spoke to the New Statesman about the Conservative party’s immigration policies and the business credibility of the Labour party in the run up to the 2015 General Election.
In the article, he put forward the case for implementing a coherent immigration policy that encouraged bright students to remain in the UK and explained the reasons why he is optimistic about Britain’s future.
Lord Bilimoria today wrote the following letter to the leading financial newspaper, City AM, critiquing the Home Secretary’s proposals to expel foreign students from the United Kingdom upon the immediate conclusion of their studies.
As former international student himself, Lord Bilimoria remains a vocal support of the rights of people to study in at British universities, as well as being allowed to remain and work in the country after graduation.
Speaking in the House of Lords on Tuesday, Lord Bilimoria’s addressed a number of issues emerging from the Second Reading of the SME. Touching on matters ranging from the pub tie, to entrepreneurship, to tax relief – his speech was well received and gained positive comments from the Business Minister, Baroness Neville-Rolfe, and from other members of the House including the former Energy Secretary, Lord Wakeham.
Lord Bilimoria was a guest on Sky News’ flagship ‘Murnaghan’ programme on Sunday 2nd November, where he was interviewed about the positive aspects of immigration following a recent study by UCL about British attitudes towards migrants from various EU and non-EU nations.
He was joined by the Bulgarian Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Konstantin Dimitrov, and Labour MP Barbara Roche, the former Immigration Minister.
The following transcript was kindly provided by Sky News.
Speaking on a debate on the level of employment in the United Kingdom, Lord Bilimoria expressed his continued support for manufacturing concerns outside London and the valuable role that aviation, automobiles and engineering all have to play in re-balancing the British economy. He also commented on the tremendous benefits of immigration to the country and the role that migration has played in numerous businesses at the regional, national and international level.
Lord Bilimoria participated in a major debate on Scottish independence, which was moved by the former Scottish Secretary, Lord Lang of Monkton. In his speech – Lord Bilimoria noted the tremendous benefits and potential that comes from the historic Union between England and Scotland, as well as the fiscal risks associated with the proposals for an independent Scotland to become part of the Stirling Zone;
Following on from David Cameron’s trade delegation to India in February 2013, Amarjit Singh, head of the India Business Group at Dutton Gregory Solicitors, interviewed Lord Bilimoria, about the follow up work taking place in the UK and in India. In the two videos below, Lord Bilimoria speaks about the best way to promote Anglo-Indian trade and business links – as well as advising UK small and medium-sized enterprises about the benefits deciding the enter the Indian market.
Lord Bilimoria was the interviewee on “Walk the Talk” on NDTV, one of the leading commercial broadcasters in India. During the discussion, he spoke extensively about his career as a businessman, entrepreneur and politician, as well as about his life at home and abroad.