Thursday 30 June 2011

UK-India is about strategic partnership - Lord Stephen Green

"UK-India partnership is about strategic partnership and not just about buying and selling transaction" said Lord Stephen Green, Minister for Trade and Investment, UK at the ‘UK -India: Next steps towards greater partnerships’, a conference jointly organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and the University college London (UCL) in London, today.

UK is now very focused on its needs to be engaged in India and naturally seeking their place in the very exciting, rapidly developing Indian market, he said.

Lord Green added that while India faces challenges especially in infrastructure, it also presents huge opportunities to businesses especially in the entire urbanization process and the digitalization of the economy. As new technology sweeps through the world, both UK and India can do a lot together. Lord Green later released a  CII and UCL Report on “Partnerships in Manufacturing: Roadmap Ahead”.

Speaking at the conference, Mr Nalin Surie, High Commissioner of India to UK pointed out that the Report contains recommendations  that the two governments have been focusing upon. Mr Surie further said that there is a need for both our economies in the near and medium term to refocus on manufacturing especially in the SME and advanced manufacturing sector. This shift is necessary not only for providing additional employment but also sustainability, he said.

Mr B Muthuraman, President CII speaking on the occasion said that the manufacturing sector in India is under rapid transformation and innovation in manufacturing is the way forward. This will be the prominent area of cooperation between Indian and UK. Both countries can jointly explore emerging areas in manufacturing and also cooperate in new technologies in the small and medium enterprises.

Also speaking at the session were professor Michael Worton, Vice provost UCL, Mr Anil Shrikhande, President Rolls Royce, India and Prof David Begg, Principal, Imperial college business school.

The Conference also covered a session on Partnerships in Innovations and Design and Skills development, speaking at the session on Innovation and Design, Mr Adi Godrej, President Designate CII, identified Education, Health and IT as the key areas for Partnerships in services sector.

During the conference, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) signed two MoUs in the field of higher education and research -with University College London (UCL) and with Imperial College. Director-General of CII, Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, signed the MoUs with Vice-Provost (Academic and International) of UCL, Professor Michael Worton, and Head of Imperial College’s business school, Professor David Begg. The MoUs were signed in the presence of UK’s minister for trade and investment Lord Stephen Green.

The objective of the MoUs, is to promote co-operation between the two institutes of higher learning and CII in the field of research, education and training. The understanding with UCL is that it will contribute to social engagement, community building, regeneration and social mobility through collaborative projects.

With Imperial College the identified areas of co-operation are aeronautics, automotive, water, bio-inspired technology, climate change, earth science and engineering, innovation and entrepreneurship, nanoscience, nanotechnology, energy, materials and health. Besides conducting joint seminars and workshops, the MoUs will see promotion of technology offers and requests from both the countries through a common portal. Joint studies will also be undertaken on models of success.

Mr B Muthuraman, President, CII, and Vice Chairman, Tata Steel, is leading the annual CII CEOs’ Mission to UK . The CII delegation had a fruitful interaction with Rt Hon Dr. Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovations and Skills. The 16-member CII CEOs Mission to the UK includes Mr Adi Godrej, President-Designate, CII and Chairman, Godrej Group; Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII; CII past presidents, Mr Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman, Hero Corporate Services, Mr Rajive Kaul, Chairman, Nicco Corporation, Mr Subodh Bhargava, Chairman, Tata Communications, and Mr Dhruv M Sawhney, Chairman & MD, Triveni Engineering and Industries together with Mr. Phiroz Vandrevala, MD & Vice Chairman Diligenta Ltd.; Dr. Naushad Forbes, Director Forbes Marshall; Mr Deepak Premnarayen, Chairman ICS Group; Mr Atul Punj, Chairman Punj Lloyd Ltd.; Mr Mukesh Aghi, CEO(Asia Pacific), Steria; Mr Prashant Jhawar, Chairman Usha Martin; Mr Sanjay Nayar, CEO KKR India Advisors and Mr Suhel Seth, Managing Partner Counselage India Pvt Ltd. The delegation also met Lord Mc Nally, Minister of State and Deputy Leader of the House of Lords Ministry of Justice

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