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NEW DELHI: British prime minister David Cameron, who arrived in Bangalore on Tuesday night, will be looking at India to shore up his country’s economic recovery.

Accompanied by a 90-member strong delegation comprising six ministers, 50 leaders of some of Britain’s largest companies, Olympic gold medallists and academics, prime minister Cameron is pulling all stops to woo an old neglected partner with a booming economy. Britain was the fifth largest exporter to India in 2005, but has since fallen to eighteenth. Exports to India dropped from $6.4 billion in 2008 to $4.5 billion in 2009.

On Wednesday, Mr Cameron will be addressing a gathering at the Infosys headquarters. On the itinerary is also a visit to the Narayana Hrudayalaya Health City, a collection of hospitals spread over a 25-acre campus known for its high volume of low-cost operations and HAL, which has signed contracts with British military and aerospace company BAE Systems.

As the British prime minister navigates through the Garden City, his chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne will be with a delegation in the country’s financial capital, Mumbai. A visit to the BSE, which includes ringing the opening bell, introducing a new solar-powered mobile handset from the British telecommunications company Vodafone and delivering a speech titled “UK and India: A New Economic Partnership” to a crowd of bankers and businessmen are part of Mr Osborne’s day. Members of the official delegation will be visiting Chennai, where IIT Madras is a port of call.

The entire British delegation will be in New Delhi on Thursday. Prime minister Cameron’s meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to be dominated by India’s concern over the process of the reconciliation of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Besides the meetings with Mr Singh and other ministers, the British delegation will interact with business leaders in interactions organised by industry chambers Ficci, CII and Assocham.

While the emphasis is unmistakably on trade, there will be focus on education, another area of vast opportunity. The two countries will unveil the second phase of the UK India Education and Research Initiative. While the UK will commit 2.5 pounds sterling over the next five years, India will make a matching commitment of Rs 17.5 crore. The initiative will focus on skill development, institutional collaboration, student mobility and professional leadership at the school and higher education levels.

The British government has shown an interest in the proposed innovation universities, and would like to collaborate on at least one of these universities. Sources said that the British were open to discussion on whether the collaboration would be on a public innovation university, a private one or one set up as a public private partnership. This would be one of the areas of discussion during the official meetings. The British delegation is expected to participated in a televised debate and a round table on education as well.

Prime minister Cameron is being accompanied by secretary of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs William Hague, chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne, secretary of state for business, innovation and skills Vincent Cable, and others.

[Story Source]

This post was submitted by Harshit Agrawal.

Thanks to economictimes.indiatimes.com