How British business can make India a jewel in the crown

India has changed, and continues to change rapidly. The world is starting to recognise that India’s economic and political influence in the world is growing. At Davos in 2006, India launched a branding offensive — India Everywhere — the posters were, well, everywhere. Kamal Nath, the former commerce minister who is now in charge of India’s ambitious road-building programme said that in 2006, the world noticed India at Davos. The world then started to talk to India. Now, Mr Nath says, the world is listening to India.

No doubt, the branding blitz helped, but the world’s leaders listen to India because it is important. In foreign policy and political terms, in combating climate change, and, of course, in economic terms. We all know India’s economy is large and growing rapidly, by 7.4 per cent in 2009-10, and that its major businesses are internationalising rapidly. The Tata business group is the largest private sector employer in the UK.  India therefore matters to the UK. With sluggish economic growth in the UK and the EU, India matters for our short and long-term prosperity. The UK India Business Council and our members naturally very warmly welcome the UK Government’s clear recognition of India’s strategic importance and the prime minister’s visit to India.

This high-level engagement is an impressive next step. The key moving beyond that visit, from a business perspective, is enabling the right UK companies to access the business opportunity in India.

We have found that the two important enablers are knowledge and networks. We need to plug an information gap; many first-class SMEs simply don’t know about the modern Indian opportunity and, if they do, they don’t know how to access it. It is important that UK businesses are encouraged to take a long-term view of India. That means understanding how the country is now, and then considering what it will look like in the future.

Businesses need to looking at emerging cities, emerging sectors and emerging leaders. Emerging cities are vital. There is much more to India than New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. There are 39 cities in India with a population of over one million. Many are home to world-beating companies, for example Pune has a population of over five million people and is home to Tata Motors and other advanced engineering businesses. It is also an education hub; a real university city creating tens of thousands of forward looking graduates every year.

India is looking to lead the world in emerging sectors, such as renewable energy, gaming and animation, and the life sciences. There remains a myth that Indian IT is just about call centres and back office work. Yes, India is a world-beater in this area, but the quality of technology R&D being done in India is incredible.

India is a young country — half its population is under 25. The emerging business leaders — the young entrepreneurs and professionals starting to make their mark in business — are enterprising and determined. They are also confident and outward-looking.

Place this dynamism inside a fast-growing large economy and the potential is awesome. Alongside the emerging India, the UK needs to listen to what India wants from the business relationship. When he was in London last month with a delegation of CEOs, the Indian Commerce Minister, Anand Sharma, stressed the importance of ‘inclusive growth’ in India; growth that benefits all 1.2 billion people in the country. UK business can play a key role in helping India achieve inclusive growth. It is a broad agenda, but the UK can particularly help India in two vital areas:

• Education and training. India wants to create 40 million new university places and it wants to provide vocational training for 500 million people. UK education and training providers are very highly regarded in India, and several are already active and successful in India. But with the staggering scale of the demand, there is scope for much more UK input.
• Infrastructure. To sustain its rapid growth and improve connectivity to the poorer rural areas, India is investing heavily in its infrastructure. India’s networks of roads, railways, airports, and ports are all being substantially expanded and enhanced. Given the scale and speed of infrastructure development, there is a need for more UK technology, project management know-how, and finance.

Business in India is very relationship driven. We at the UKIBC and our partners UKTI take great pride in being able to connect people. Businesses can only gather the all important knowledge but joining the all important networks, in the UK and in India. The UK has done a great deal over the last decade to deepen trade links with India; bilateral trade grew from £4.58bn in 2004 to £7.2bn in 2009, a CAGR of 9.5 per cent. There is, of course, scope for much more. Latest figures show that the UK exports more to Ireland than it does to India, China and Russia. Looking to the future, accepting that the global economic balance is tilting eastwards, the UK needs to firmly focus on India. India has certainly arrived. It is everywhere, not just Davos.

Kevin McCole, COO, UK India Business Council.