PM leads trade mission to India  

Prime Minister David Cameron led the largest ever 3-day trade delegation to India on February 18th, with over 100 companies including more than 30 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) participating. Ministers Lord Green, David Willetts, Hugo Swire and Greg Barker were also in the party that met with Indian Government Ministers, inward investors and businesses in both Mumbai and Delhi.

Kick-starting the mission was the announcement of £8 million funding of a pan-India network of 20 British Business Centres, with a pilot in 2017, that will offer business-led, business-backed support particularly to SMEs in India linking British businesses to one of the world’s fastest growing economies, predicted to become the third largest by 2050.

The Government has also produced a study for business called 'UK India: A Natural Fit' that identifies eight key sectors where UK strengths match India’s economics requirements. This demonstrates that valuable opportunities do exist for British businesses, big and small, to gain from India’s growing prosperity.

The trip took place as a series of trade and investment deals were announced which will create 500 new jobs in Britain and safeguard around 2000. This included the announcement by specialist filtration and environmental technology group Porvair of a contract to design and build filtration systems for a gasification plant at Jamnagar.

The Government also used the trade mission to encourage more innovative technology companies from India to set up in the UK. A new competition supported by British Airways, is offering 3 entrepreneurs the opportunity to visit Britain on a tailored programme that will encourage them to set up here within the next 18 months, creating jobs and bringing innovative IT processes and solutions to the UK
Commenting on the visit, the Prime Minister said:
"As India grows, it needs a partner that can support its ambition – in infrastructure, in energy, in healthcare and more. It wants its business to have unrivalled access to European and global markets and its students to get the best education in the world. Britain can do all these things and more. So, we have to get out there, make the case for Britain and open doors for British business"