‘Idea of India not based in reality’
EX-CHANCELLOR CALLS FOR REIMAGINED BILATERAL TIES AS PEER URGES GOING THE EXTRA MILE
BRITAIN needs to “earn its place” at India’s table, Rishi Sunak said last week, prior to his resignation as chancellor on Tuesday evening (5), as he noted the gap in perception in the UK about the Asian country, which is emerging as a key “global player”.
Sunak was speaking during a virtual interaction last Friday (1) with the Indian Journalists Association (IJA).
British-Indian ties should be a partnership of equals, Sunak said, adding the UK would help facilitate the flow of capital from the West into the fast-growing country.
Sunak said, “Britain shouldn’t take it for granted that India will always necessarily look to the UK. We have to earn that place. That’s why we have to reimagine our relationship for the future.”
He added, “India has changed an enormous amount over the last 75 years. It is rightly an increasingly important part of the global economy and the global conversation. It has to be a partnership of equals – that’s very much the approach we should take.
“The UK doesn’t have a monopoly on opportunity.”
Sunak’s comments were echoed by peers Lord Jitesh Gadhia and Lord Karan Bilimoria, who stepped down last month as the first British Indian president of the Confederation of Business Industry (CBI).
Gadhia told Eastern Eye on Tuesday (5), “We need to tap into the energy and entrepreneurial spirit of ‘New India’ and demonstrate that UK has also moved on, and bring a new attitude, approach and agility post-Brexit.
“With India’s economy expected to grow at seven-eight per cent per year in the coming years – and the pace of innovation steppingup with a new unicorn (a company valued at over $1billion) being created every 10 days – he is right to point out that the reality of India has moved on, well ahead of historic perceptions.”
Bilimoria, meanwhile, said Britain needs to go the “extra mile” in its relationship with India.
Outlining the three areas where he saw potential for stronger bilateral ties, the former chancellor said they would be people, trade, and innovation.
Sunak said UK firms could invest in India’s lucrative insurance market; that ministers wanted to make it easier for British students to study in top universities in the south Asian country; and that London would help raise funds in the UK for investment in India.
“India is a massive economy, the world’s largest democracy,” he said. “I don’t think there will be a greater champion of a country playing a more significant role in the region and in the world than the UK.
“We want to help support India to do that, particularly, as our two prime ministers (Boris Johnson and Narendra Modi) announced a greater defence and security cooperation, which is one of the pillars of the new 2030 Roadmap.”
Sunak was optimistic of a free trade agreement being achieved by Diwali, the festival of lights, which will be celebrated in October this year. “It’s about more access to more products and services, ultimately, and that’s good for consumers, good for citizens and good for businesses and creating jobs,” he said.
Unlike his other British Indian former cabinet colleagues (Priti Patel, Alok Sharma and Suella Braverman), Sunak is a frequent visitor to India as his in-laws live there, so he seen first-hand the rapid changes that are taking place in the country.
His wife Akshata Murty grew up in Bangalore, in south India, where her father NR Narayana Murthy was one of the co-founders of Infosys. The Indian IT giant also has major offices in the UK, Europe and north America.
The couple wed in Bangalore in 2009 and Sunak revealed how his travels to the IT hub have opened his eyes to advances in technology India has made, making it
an attractive destination for investors.
He told the IJA, “I think the perception of India has not caught up with the
reality… the external perception for many people here in the UK.
“That’s what’s great about being there (in Bangalore). I do a lot of family things, but I’m also just out and about, seeing what’s going on. The country has the third highest number of tech unicorns, it’s got the second-highest smartphone penetration anywhere in the world, and one of the most active social media markets.
“That’s what modern India looks like. It is producing companies like Zoho and FreshWorks and Mu Sigma (tech firms).
“If I think about our future relationship, one based on innovation, technology and sciences is really important.
“India has moved a long way from just being a place where lower costs of labour were the main value add. It is creating companies that are providing cuttingedge technology products and services to people. And that really impresses me whenever I’m there, seeing that pace of change.
“The perception, I don’t think, has caught up with that reality.”
Bangalore is also one of three places – along with Silicon Valley and Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the US – where the UK plans to set up a global talent network to help attract top talent to Britain. There are plans to open the hub in Bangalore later this year.
Bilimoria agreed that more needed to be done in order for Britain to capitalise on its relationship with India.
He told Eastern Eye on Tuesday (5), “We’re competing with the world who wants to do business with India. The world has woken up to the fact that India is this global, emerging economic superpower.
“And the opportunities in India are many. One is to do more trade, to export more products and services to India, and to import from India, but also to invest in India, and to get Indian companies to invest in your country.
“It is a global race. And India is on the move. It has an unstoppable momentum. And so really, the onus is on us to go the extra mile to engage with and do business with India.
“We’ve got to try that much harder to do it.
“Yes, we’re equals in terms of fifth- and sixth-largest economies in the world. But in the decades to come, India is going to be way, way bigger than the UK as an economy. India is going to be one of the top two economies in the world. And all being well, Britain will be one of the top five, but India will be one of the top two.
“India is going to be among the fastest-growing major economies in the world next year, in spite of all the global challenges. So we’ve got to go there. We need to really step up our game.”
Bilimoria explained how there was a lack in momentum in bilateral trade ties, saying “We’re not helping ourselves by not engaging as much as we could.”
He said the UK India CEO Forum (a group of British and Indian business leaders) had not met in two years, and there was no trade or business delegation that accompanied prime minister Boris Johnson on his visit to India in April this year.
Previous prime ministers –from David Cameron to Theresa May – led big delegations while on their visits to the south Asian country.
Britain also does not have a dedicated trade envoy to India (unlike for other countries), Bilimoria pointed out. He said, “You need champions to do this, people who are really committed to and believe in the UK, in this relationship, and who are willing themselves to go the extra mile.”
The peer, who founded Cobra Beer, said he was part of the UK delegation travelling with British prime ministers to India in previous years. “Every time we took big, impressive delegations – business leaders, universities leaders, we made an impact and business got done,” he said.
“This time (when Johnson visited New Delhi), we didn’t take a delegation. There were two of us from the UK who were present for the business interaction with the British prime minister, not India’s Narendra Modi.”
Bilimoria added that the Indian community in the UK provided an opportunity to make bilateral ties stronger.
“We need to put effort into this. There are one and-a-half million people of Indian origin here. What an opportunity that is – the biggest ethnic minority population in the UK.
“I’m so proud of how well we’re doing just about in every field. You’ve got to capitalise on that and get them to be ambassadors, so that you
get more out
of the relationship. There’s lots more we could do.”
In his interaction with the IJA, the ex-chancellor spoke of his ambition to expand the scope of financial services in the UK-India 2030 Roadmap, designed to revitalise bilateral ties.
“There’s enormous opportunity for both our countries,” Sunak said. “India’s goal is to spread insurance across the entire economy, because insurance is a great thing for enabling protection for individuals and growth.
“We can help with that in the UK, because we have a fantastic insurance industry. We’ve been able to provide more of those products, services and expertise to Indian firms and citizens.
“There’s also sovereign green bonds that India has announced.
We’ve gone through that journey in the UK very successfully. It’s an area where we can help India raise capital. It builds on a tradition of us helping to provide capital to India from across the world.
“One of the defining movements of capital of our time will be the flow from the west into fastgrowing India. That’s an incredibly exciting and significant event.
“And the UK can help to allow India access to the biggest pool of capital on the best possible terms to drive its growth.
“It’s one where we’ll already have positive momentum because of the very specific attention that I and my counterpart have put into that relationship.”
Britain also hopes to attract Indian students who have graduated from the world’s best universities – including MIT, Stanford or Singapore’s National University.
Sunak said the global talent visa enabled highly skilled Indian students studying in the world’s top 50 universities to emigrate to the UK without a job offer.
The chancellor went to a private school (Winchester) before graduating from Oxford. He later gained an MBA from Stanford and moved back to Britain where he worked in the private sector prior to becoming an Conservative MP in 2015.
On Brexit, the former chancellor noted how Britain’s exit from the European Union provided the opportunity for the trade deal with India and to change the UK’s immigration policy, “which means we are not discriminating on the basis of nationality”.
He acknowledged that there was room for improvement in trade, noting the UK exported “about £1 billion worth to India and imported about £15bn worth”.
“Of course, we would love to see both of those numbers grow,” Sunak said. “India deserves to play a significant role in the region and in the world, given its economy, economic strength, and its cultural influence.
“And there will be no greater champion of India taking on that bigger role than the UK.
“That is a shared ambition across government.”
Gadhia added, “The [former] chancellor’s remarks last week on UK-India relations demonstrate that he is comfortable with championing British interests while also being proud of his Indian cultural heritage. This dual identity is a positive advantage in our bilateral relationship as he understands the vantage point from both sides.
“The British Indian diaspora has a unique role to play in this reset, by sharing examples of their own successes in the UK and also helping to identify opportunities for positive collaboration with India.
“The forthcoming free trade agreement (FTA) is a unique opportunity to galvanise this process. I hope it will not turn out to be another missed opportunity through lack of ambition and political courage on both sides.”