DOHA: CEOs from India and the UK on Friday pitched for a more transparent and consistent decision-making regime as also a uniform treatment of corporates across the world, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to work “ceaselessly” towards Indian economy’s integration with the rest of the world.
A reconstituted India-UK CEOs Forum, during its first meeting, identified six overarching themes as important areas of collaboration to take forward — smart cities and the digital economy, healthcare, education and skills, engineering, defence and security, and financial and professional services.
The meeting took place in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as his British counterpart David Cameron. “We are confidently, consistently and ceaselessly working to integrate our economy with the world,” Modi told the gathering at 11 Downing Street, next door to Cameron’s office in London.
Cameron encouraged the company chairs and chief executives to identify the “best ways to build new trade partnerships and investment opportunities and use the strength of existing commercial relationships to identify and build more partnerships between innovative Indian and UK companies.”
The forum was co-chaired by Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry on the Indian side and Standard Life Chairman Sir Gerry Grimstone on the UK side.
Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, Lulu Group Chairman Yusuff Ali MA and Bharat Forge Chairman Baba Kalyani were the other prominent members of the Indian side where as the UK Side was represented by Standard Chartered Bank Chairman Sir John Peace, BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley, HSBC Chairman Douglas Flint, Rolls Royce CEO Warren East among others .
The UK is the largest G20 investor in India, with 535 UK businesses employing 691,000 people across the country in sectors as diverse as retail, infrastructure, construction, information and communications technology, creative industries and healthcare. In the UK, around 800 Indian businesses employ 110,000 people. “The two Prime Ministers welcomed the first meeting of the reconstituted India-UK CEOs Forum. This Forum will be tasked with advising the Prime Ministers about the trade and investment opportunities and challenges,” a joint statement issued by Modi and Cameron said.
The forum is backed by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Modi pre-empted some of the issues around taxation, foreign direct investment (FDI) and intellectual property rights (IPR) that were expected to feature in the closed-door talks on Friday, during his speech at the Guildhall in the City of London on Thursday “We have taken very decisive steps to remove a number of long-pending concerns. To give you some examples, we have expedited regulatory clearances including security and environmental clearance...,” Modi had said.
The Peninsula
