Osborne and Hague start India visit

[daring dude]

Chancellor George Osborne and Foreign Secretary William Hague are the latest high-profile foreign leaders to visit India after the general elections

Britain's Chancellor George Osborne and Foreign Secretary William Hague will begin a two-day trip to India on Monday.

They are looking to open up investment opportunities for UK firms in India's defence and infrastructure sector, and attract Indian investment into Britain.

The visit comes as a new government led by Narendra Modi has taken charge in India - Asia's third-largest economy.

Mr Modi is widely expected to announce new reforms to boost economic growth.

"I believe a stronger relationship with Britain will help deliver the new economic policy of the Indian government," Mr Osborne will say in a speech during the visit, according to advance extracts released by Britain's Foreign Office.

"Prime Minister Modi is seeking more investment in India's economy - and I want British companies to provide it, and the British government to support it."

Meanwhile, Mr Osborne is expected to announce that Indian pharmaceutical company Cipla is to invest up to £100m in the UK.

“Start Quote
It's great to be here at a time when the excitement about the Indian economy, and the optimism about the prospects for future growth, are palpable”
George Osborne-UK Chancellor

India's economy has struggled in recent years with rising price pressures and problems with bureaucracy and corruption.

That has hurt the confidence of foreign investors looking to enter the country.

However, a landslide win for the Mr Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recent general elections has sparked hopes of a revival in India's economy.

Both foreign and local investors have been hoping that Mr Modi will introduce fresh reforms and boost investment in key sectors to help spur growth.


“Start Quote

Mr Cameron and his Chancellor will need to do a good deal more cooing over Mahindra's babies, to win its big money”

Robert Peston-Economics editor
As a result, various countries have been keen to boost ties with India's new government and open up opportunities for their businesses.

"It's great to be here at a time when the excitement about the Indian economy, and the optimism about the prospects for future growth, are palpable," Mr Osborne is expected to say in a speech to business leaders in Mumbai.

"And the excitement here is matched by new confidence among international investors abroad in the future of the Indian economy.

"It is a measure of the ambition and drive and pace of the new government of prime minister Modi, that this complete turn-around in sentiment about the Indian economy has been achieved in just seven short weeks, since that stunning election victory."

The visit by Britain's two senior ministers follows a series of other high-profile visits to India - including those by the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

BBC News - Osborne and Hague start India visit

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[daring dude]

India investment no longer a one-way street, says Osborne

Government announces £120m of new UK investment from the country

William Hague and George Osborne are visiting India to drum up foreign trade Photo: AFP

The days when investment and exports were a one-way street from West to East are long gone, the Chancellor has said during a trip to India, as the British government announced £120m of new investment in the UK from the country.

Speaking in Mumbai on Monday during the first day of a mission with William Hague to drum up foreign trade, George Osborne announced that pharmaceuticals company Cipla is to invest £100m in UK-based research on a range of drugs.

Automotive manufacturer Mahindra will also inject £20m into the British economy as it develops its electric vehicle technology, with the company’s first car expected to go on sale in the UK within one year.

During his speech, the Chancellor cited moves by Diageo and JCB to expand their influence in the country, as well as a £250m deal for multinational group MBDA to supply defence equipment to the Indian Air Force which he said would create hundreds of UK jobs.

JCB, the construction machinery manufacturer, is also opening two new plants in India. It already has facilities in Mahindra World City, a corporate enclave near Jaipur subject to a host of tax and customs exemptions where the firm rubs shoulders with BMW and Renault-Nissan.
Narendra Modi, the new Indian prime minister, had been a forerunner on such zones: as chief minister of Gujarat, he signed over 100 zones into existence, and one of his first acts after election was to meet with officials to tackle a slowing in the scheme.
Mr Osborne praised the “ambition, drive and pace” that the controversial prime minister was giving the country’s economy.

“Prime Minister Modi is seeking more investment in India’s economy - and I want British companies to provide it, and the British government to support it,” he said.

“Good days are coming for the investment we make in each other’s economies,” Mr Osborne said.

“Good days are coming for the trade between our two trading nations. Good days are coming for the financial partnership we can forge to build, literally, the infrastructure of the future.”

The UK has boosted its exports to India by 50pc since the first quarter of 2010, and has also increased imports by a third, Mr Osborne said.

London is hoping a stalled deal for India to buy 126 French Rafale fighter jets may yet collapse, perhaps opening the door to a new arrangement involving the Eurofighter Typhoon jet, which is partly built in Britain.

The Chancellor will on Tuesday travel to Delhi with Mr Hague to see the new British-designed air traffic control tower at the city’s airport. He will also set out the Government’s plans to encourage further British investment and expertise in Indian infrastructure.

The investments are the latest in a series of deals forged from the historic India-Britain trade relationship.

The UK is the third biggest investor in India, after Singapore and Mauritius, with £3.2bn in trade during the financial year beginning in 2013, according to figures released by Bloomberg.

Additionally, with 1,000 companies in Britain, led by Tata, the Jaguar Land Rover parent – Indian investment in Britain is more than in the rest of Europe combined.

In January, it was revealed that Vodafone was eyeing up a multi-billion pound deal to acquire the Indian mobile phone company Tata Teleservices.

However, in April, Vodafone bought out the last minority shareholder in its Indian mobile network for £900m.

The company acquired the 11pc stake in Vodafone India from Ajay Piramal, one of the country’s richest men, meaning that it owns its Indian venture outright.

The deal secured Vodafone’s position in one of the world’s fastest-growing mobile markets. The Indian industry has been consolidating rapidly in the past few years and Vodafone India is among the major players.

During the same month, Tesco struck a deal with India’s Tata Group to open a dozen stores in the south and west of the country. The joint venture made Tesco the first foreign supermarket to enter India.

Three years ago, the Indian government opened up its supermarket sector to foreign companies to help boost its economy.

However, it is not the first British retailer on Indian soil. Marks & Spencer opened its first store in the country in 2001. The company now has 36 stores in India, with ambitious plans to operate 100 stores in the region by 2016, which would make it the chain’s second biggest market outside of the UK.

In December last year, it was revealed that shipments from British companies to India had jumped 20pc amid a government drive to double exports to the country by 2015.

India investment no longer a one-way street, says Osborne - Telegraph

 

[Arya Desa]

How the mighty have fallen...

 

[A Town]

It's all over the news here, british media hate Indians for some reason though

 

[daring dude]

as they will invest, and in return will take their returns back home,, so in that way also it's a 2 way track..
or if they can give little perks to India for their entry into more than one and half billion people of South Asian region's Market share....