The High Commissioner of India to UK, HE Y K Sinha visited Birmingham from October 12-14th, accompanied by his wife Mrs. Girija Sinha. It was the first comprehensive visit of High Commissioner to Birmingham, after his brief visit to the city in January 2017, on the occasion of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2017. The visit comprised of 8 events spread across 7 different locations, across the region.
During his visit, the High Commissioner accompanied by the Consul General of India, Birmingham, Dr Aman Puri visited the JLR factory at Solihull. JLR is Britain’s largest car manufacturer was acquired by Tata Motors in 2008 from the then owners Ford Motor Company.
The High Commissioner was received by Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, Chairman of the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) and Dr. Ralph Speth, CEO of JLR. During his visit to this state of the art manufacturing facility, after witnessing a short audio visual presentation on JLR cars, High Commissioner met with the senior members of the company. Dr. Speth gave a short presentation which traced the company’s progress since 2008. He expressed his gratitude and appreciation towards Tata Motors who believed in JLR, and provided it with the much needed capital infusion at a time when the company was in very difficult financial health. The discussions covered a large arena of subjects including future plans of JLR especially its plans for new model of electric cars. Dr Ralph Speth also expressed his desire to undertake more activities in India in future, and spoke about the JLR assembly plant at Pune, India. The visit concluded with a guided tour of the plant.
The High Commissioner presented a specially engraved memento to Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya for his outstanding contribution to India-UK partnership. High Commissioner also presented a token of appreciation to Dr. Ralph Speth for his outstanding leadership of JLR as CEO since February 2010. During this period Dr. Ralph Speth has overseen a remarkable turn-around of the business with increased sales, over 8000 jobs created and new models launched.
Promoting Make In India and highlight Access India Programme
The High Commissioner met a wide cross section of personalities from the business and economic sector from Midlands and North England region, on October 13, 2017 over a Luncheon meeting at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The guests included entrepreneurs, business leaders, academics, innovators, investors and representatives from Chambers of Commerce.
In his address, the High Commissioner touched upon a large array of subjects including mutual need for focussing on Trade and Investments between India and UK, importance of greater economic engagements, and the need to create the right environment for growth of trade and investment activities. The High Commissioner mentioned about the recent launch of the Access India Program which is targeted at mentoring and handholding British SMEs, with the aim of attracting them to eventually set up businesses in India. Referring to the new website of the Access India program (www.accessindiauk.com ), the High Commissioner mentioned that it is an ambitious but open ended program which would help British SMEs to overcome the initial hurdles, and smoothen the way to access India, which is already recognised as one of the most attractive investment destinations of the world.
Speaking on the subject of GOI initiative of ‘Make in India’ (MII), High Commissioner also apprised the audience about the plans of the Consulate General of India, Birmingham to undertake a week-long series of MII seminars from 6th -10th November 2017, which will be spread across 6-7 major cities of Midlands and North England.
On the education front, the High Commissioner cited figures to show that in the recent times UK has lagged behind in attracting students from India. He pointed out that in the past, UK was the first choice of Indian students to study abroad, but this is not the case anymore. He emphasized that this situation needs to be recognised by the UK government and corrective actions taken, as this is an important component of our bilateral relation.
On the cultural front, High Commissioner mentioned about the launch of India-UK year of Culture by Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh, at a reception at Buckingham Palace on February 27, 2017 At the launch, a projection of Indian motifs in the form of India’s national bird, the peacock was done on the facade of the Palace. This projection which was done jointly by the High Commission of India and British Council, with the idea of creating an image to reflect the deep and intricate bonds of cultural heritage between the UK and India, highlighted the cultural relations between the two countries, and it had a telling impact on the spectators.
On this occasion the High Commissioner also presented specially engraved memento to the eminent Indian business leader of UK, Prof Nathu Puri, Owner, Purico Group, who is one of the most successful private entrepreneurs of UK. Prof. Puri is also one of the most significant philanthropist from UK supporting projects in India for almost three decades. The Luncheon meeting was attended by nearly 60 dignitaries including MDs of large enterprises, Director of Midlands Growth Engine, representatives from three of the Big Four Consultancies, various Chambers of Commerce, CII, UKIBC etc., managers of Indian Banks, Pro Vice Chancellors (International) from few Universities , and senior members of well-established Indian companies.
