India becomes second largest investor in Britain

Sufia Tippu
Monday, 30 October 2006 01:27

IT Industry - Market

India has become the second largest  investor in Britain in the past six months, moving up from being the third largest in  2005-06, after the US and Japan, said Sir Michael Arthur, British High Commissioner to India.

Although the US still continues to be the largest investor, India is moving ahead with more than 500-plus companies located in the UK and several India-UK business successes.

“More than 80 Indian companies from Karnataka are now located in the UK and the UK too has a similar growing number of investors in India, with over 80 UK companies in Karnataka alone,” Mr Arthur said, during the inauguration of the Bangalore IT in 2006, India’s premium IT exhibition.

For the first time in November this year, UK will be recognizing the Indian businesses and has instituted UK Trade and Investment Business India awards which will “mark a totally new level of India-UK investment in our two economies,” he added.

With both Britain and India having an objective of becoming world class knowledge economies, the two countries are recognizing their strengths in R&D and the importance of generating IP. “Our Prime Minister’s initiative of fresh funding of 10 million pounds in September 2005 was an early start. UK Education and Research initiative is now up and running and I believe there is an opportunity for Indian research teams from the state and private sectors to participate in this,” Mr Arthur said.

This year 400,000 visas for the UK will be issued. “I predict 500,000 visas for the UK would be issued within a few years. Over 90% of business visas are issued every year – so the bad news stories about UK visas are simply not true. We are looking at more and more ways to make entry into UK better and we believe that those doing good and honest business should be allowed to travel and meet,” he said.