Last week, Grant Thornton Bharat launched the Britain Meets India (BMI) Report in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and with the support of the UK’s Department of International Trade (DIT). BMI identifies the largest and fastest growing UK companies that contribute significantly to the Indian economy and the top UK companies in India in terms of revenue, growth and employment, their geographic preferences, sectors and the impact they have on the Indian economy.
BMI identified 572 UK companies in India with a combined turnover of around £33 billion, paying around £1.7 billion in taxes and employing 416,121 people directly in 2019-20. 91 companies, with an average growth rate of 26% feature in the 2021 list of fastest growing UK companies in India. According to BMI, the fastest growing UK company in India is Dyson Technologies, followed by Aviva Life Insurance Company with growth of over 100%. The highest revenue earner is Vedanta Ltd while the top employer is G4S Plc.
According to FDI statistics of India’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, the UK is currently India’s sixth largest investor, with a cumulative inflow (2000–2020) estimated at USD 29.5 billion, representing about 6% of the total FDI into India. India’s trade in goods and services with the UK expanded from USD 21.9 billion in 2015 to USD 26.7 billion in 2020.
The BMI report by GT/Bharat mirrors and complements the annual ‘India Meets Britain’ tracker brought out by GT/UK. The tracker is now in its seventh edition and identifies the fastest growing and top employment generating Indian companies in the UK. In 2020, the tracker identified almost 850 Indian companies operating in the UK, with combined revenues of £41.2 billion, down from £48 billion in 2019. Together, they paid £461.8 million in corporation tax, down from £684.2 million in 2019, and employed 110,793 people, up from 104,783 in 2019. In 2019, GT/UK had also brought out another report to assess the contribution of Indian diaspora owned companies in the UK. The report produced in collaboration with the High Commission of India to the UK and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, was the first attempt to make an objective assessment of the enormous contribution of the Indian diaspora in the UK through businesses owned and employment generated. 654 companies with an annual turnover of at least £100,000 were studied and found to have a cumulative annual turnover of £36 billion, providing jobs to over 174,000 people in the UK.
When we see the FDI and investment figures highlighted in the GTBharat/GTUK reports together with bilateral India-UK trade in goods and services, we get an appreciation of the enormous value of the India-UK economic partnership. It is heartening that both countries recognise the worth of this partnership, as demonstrated by the recent visit of UK’s Secretary of State, Liz Truss to India.
Despite Brexit, the UK remains one of the top investment destinations in Europe for India. Indian companies have made significant investments in the UK leading to the largest employment generation by any country. The world has been battered by the unprecedented impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, a disaster not seen in the last hundred years. The havoc it played with the global economy, has had a disastrous impact on lives and livelihoods and severely affected global supply chains. The India-UK trade and investment partnership stayed afloat during this adversity through collaboration particularly in vaccine research and manufacturing.
India has undertaken bold economic reforms in many areas, which has improved India’s rank in World Bank’s index on ease of doing business to 63 in 2019 from 77 in 2018. India, thus, remains an attractive investment destination, with a huge domestic market, growing middle class and skilled workforce. Post Brexit, there is an increased interaction between India and the UK to strengthen the trade and economic partnership, especially pertinent as the UK enhances its focus outside Europe.
As both economies seek to recover from the impact of Covid-19, increasing investment in each other’s markets is critical to support growth. GT Bharat’s report couldn’t have been more timely!
