The UK Rolls Out the Red Carpet for India's Modi

Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, is in the UK from November 12 for a three-day visit. There is pressure on both India and the UK to sign a package of business deals to mark the occasion.

Diplomatic business. Stefan Rousseau / Pennsylvania Wire/Press Association Images

The pair have a long, shared history, but trade between the two countries ranks low. There are many areas, however, where India’s needs complement the UK’s strengths, and we can expect deals struck. Here are six areas to watch:

1. Defence

There are reports that BAE Systems will indication a large contract to Indian of up to 20 Hawk trainer plane. This deal is likely to include the actual manufacturing of the aircraft in India, which would fit in nicely with the Modi government’s flagship Make in India programme, made to provide a much-needed boost to India’utes manufacturing sector.

2. Energy

The UK as well as India signed an agreement upon nuclear energy cooperation within July 2010 but a range of impediments in both countries is holding it up. Expect announcements amid a concerted effort to reduce bureaucratic hurdles on both sides.

3. Finance and investment

India has a huge need for new ways to bring investment into the country, particularly to feed its capital-hungry infrastructure sector. Here, the City of London wants to be of aid through helping market offshore Indian-rupee ties, which would in turn help finance railway expansion and housing in India.

Vodafone, one of the UK’s largest companies, has a substantial presence in India. While Vodafone may announce further investments during Modi’s go to, it is likely that it will join fingers with other UK companies in raising concerns with the Indian PM about various tax disputes they have been embroiled in with successive Indian governments.

Further investment from companies like Vodafone is dependent on a friendlier tax environment. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri

4. Skills

Skills are a huge section of need in India. Every month for the next decade, the country will add one million young people to its workforce. If these young people could be suitably trained and employed, they will fuel dramatic development that could see India end up being the world’s third largest economic climate by 2030. The UK has significant capabilities in the regions of training plumbers, electricians, carpenters, retail store personnel, and those who work in hospitality and tourism. Significantly, the UK also has many world-leading providers of English language instruction and assessment.

5. High technology

An essential area where India and the UK share significant, complimentary, strengths is technology – particularly in life sciences, software and, increasingly, hardware. India has lively pharmaceutical companies, many of which are making a concerted effort to maneuver into drug discovery and development.

The UK on the other hand is home to giants such as GSK and AstraZeneca with an interest in India as a market, a location to conduct clinical trials, and a place to outsource the processing of clinical trials data. Both countries also have a lively biotech sector exploring further collaboration.

6. Frugal innovation

India has developed a global track record of frugal innovation – the ability to develop highly affordable solutions inside a whole range of areas through healthcare to energy, automotive to education, computing, and software. The UK, for its part, especially in the triangle of London, Cambridge, as well as Oxford, is increasingly a global hub for lean start-ups in fintech (finance-related technology), edutech (education-related technology) and medical diagnostics.

Modi’utes visit might well highlight the potential for collaboration between these clusters of frugal entrepreneurship in the UK and India’s own expertise in these areas. Indeed, a number of India’s frugal innovation, in healthcare for instance, could even help bail out an increasingly financially constrained NHS.

The visit from the leader of India, with its huge and rapidly growing economy, to the UK is bound to bring thrilling announcements. Anything of the scale of the billion pound atomic agreement the UK did with China recently, though, is unlikely. Instead, a number of smaller offers seem a stronger possibility.

Indeed, Philip Hammond, the UK’s foreign secretary, has stated, “As the Indian economy includes a very large and important personal sector, many of the deals will be commercial and private sector offers rather than government to government.

Six deals to look out for as Indian PM Modi visits Britain is actually republished with permission from The Conversation