Forging Closer Ties With Booming India Will Unlock Vast Opportunities for Britain

 

On the eve of Indian independence on 15 August, 1947 (whose anniversary was celebrated yesterday), the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said that “the achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us.”

 

India’s independence was not even 70 years ago, yet the country is now the world’s fastest-growing economy, expanding at a rate of 7.6 per cent. The country’s liberalisation started in 1991, but it has been the great reforms introduced in the past two years that have really seen its economy take off. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a clear vision for India, with policies such as Make in India paving the way towards his target of increasing manufacturing from 16 to 25 per cent of the Indian economy.

 

With industrial strategy now at the heart of our own government’s policy, British manufacturing has an unprecedented opportunity to partner with Indian business. But the potential goes much further than that – if we can get policy right.

 

Our previous government placed China ahead of India, as indicated earlier this year by the announcement of a pilot scheme offering Chinese visitors a two-year visitor visa for just £87. Currently, Indian visitors have to pay £330 for the same arrangement.

 

Meanwhile, the number of Indians travelling abroad is increasing 10 per cent year-on-year and, in spite of the cultural ties between the UK and India, France has overtaken us as the number one European destination for Indian tourists. The government should introduce a £87 two-year visitors visa for India immediately.

 

In education, while the number of Indian students planning overseas education is rocketing upwards, the UK is failing to ensure they are made welcome here. Britain risks missing out entirely to the US, Australia, Canada and, increasingly, other European countries. We need well-evidenced immigration policies, beginning with the reinstatement of a simple route into post-study work for foreign graduates whose skills our economy desperately needs.

 

The gains from closer cooperation could be even more significant in the future, as India works to move many more people from poverty into the middle classes. The Indian economic reform agenda is driving ahead, with one of the greatest developments, legislation introducing a nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST), being passed just this month. This will transform India’s economy by simplifying taxation across the 29 states and seven union territories, bringing the country’s 1.25bn consumers into a single market and creating a level playing field.

 

This latest bill will create wealth by reducing bureaucracy and costs, while also tackling corruption. It holds enormous potential to help move the Indian economy forward, with estimates that the introduction of GST will increase India’s GDP by 2 per cent per year.

 

Quite understandably, there is apprehension among Indian business leaders surrounding the effect of the EU referendum vote in Britain. The terms of our relationship with Europe will have significant implications for the possibility of a free trade agreement between India and the UK, and for the vast majority of those Indian companies whose European headquarters are in London, which they also consider by far the number one financial centre in the world.

 

In my view, UK-India trade relations will only continue to grow, and Cobra Beer along with our joint venture partner, Molson Coors, is continuing with expansion plans of our existing manufacturing in India. Now is the time for UK businesses, including our SMEs, to partner in India’s phenomenal growth story.

 

The article is available here

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.

The world’s brightest will shun the UK if isolationist rhetoric doesn’t stop now

We all have our own image of UK entrepreneurship. Sir Richard Branson is a common first choice, and Sir James Dyson is another. For me, it is the Indian Restaurateur.

When I first founded Cobra Beer 25 years ago, it was these tireless, unsung heroes of UK entrepreneurship who placed their trust and belief in my business. It is thanks to them that, today, I can see my Indian beer fill patrons’ glasses – both in the curry house and in that most British of all institutions, the pub.

That is what makes our economy one of the greatest in the world. It gives migrants the chance not only to build a business, but to see it become a part of the UK’s national identity – what, after all, could be more British than going out for a chicken tikka?

But as my own company has grown, so too has Britain’s antipathy towards migrants like myself. When I started Cobra in 1989, a little over 10 per cent of people considered immigration to be the most pressing issue facing the country; today it is nearly 40 per cent.

A report published this week by London First (and commissioned by Boris Johnson) highlights just how real the dangers of Britain taking the wrong path are. Calling openness to immigration one of the “critical underpinnings” of London’s success, it warns that turning away talented people could hamper Britain’s ability to remain competitive.

For a nation that still exports more to Switzerland than it does to India, this is sound advice. The long-term prospects of our economy depend upon Britain’s ability to successfully pivot its focus towards emerging Asian markets such as India and China.

Yet, in 2013, UK universities experienced a 25 per cent drop in the number of Indian-born students enrolling. Feeling spurned by Britain’s isolationist rhetoric, the world’s brightest and best are voting with their feet.

When politicians, like home secretary Theresa May, speak of moving towards “zero net student migration”, by sending foreign graduates home after they finish their studies – as she did last month, before having her proposals quashed by George Osborne – they are exhibiting a startling degree of economic illiteracy. While I’m glad that these specific plans look unlikely to happen, the broader shift in Britain’s immigration debate has not gone unnoticed abroad.

I recall being at a lecture in London where the Australian education minister Christopher Pyne thanked the UK government for its immigration policies because of the boost they provided to Australia’s higher education sector. Between May and Nigel Farage, we can hardly be surprised that Indian students are choosing to study in Brisbane and Canberra rather than Birmingham and Cambridge.

Today, 42 per cent of current international students profess an intention to set up their own business following graduation, but only 14 per cent wish to do this in the UK. If the government, and May in particular, persist with their vendetta, it will only be a matter of time before we turn away the next Steve Jobs or Sir James Dyson.

This year, Britain faces a fork in the road. On the one path lies openness and prosperity – on the other, isolation and decline. Let us hope we have the wisdom to choose the former.

The full piece is available online on City AM’s website.