IN BREXIT MODE
Prime Minister meets Theresa May, Prime Minister of United
Kingdom at 10 Downing Street, London (April 18, 2018)
the Lord Mayor of London is visiting India, along with a
fi ntech delegation, to further explore these opportunities.
Infrastructure is also vital to increase connectivity and
trade, facilitate investment, and improve access to public
services like education and health. The City of London is
the best place in the world to raise capital. Over the last two
years, Indian companies such as the Indian Railway Finance
Corporation and the National Highways Authority of India
have raised over £5.6 billion in London, including through
‘masala bonds’.
Nowhere is the role of tech and fi nance more transformative
than our work on clean energy and growth. UK fi nancing
has been a powerful tool to support India’s clean energy
deployment, including £1.5 billion from UK-based investors
in Green/Masala Bonds issued by Indian companies through
the London Stock Exchange. The UK and Indian governments
have also contributed £240 million of seed capital into the
Green Growth Equity Fund, which will aim to mobilise capital
at scale for the clean energy infrastructure that India needs
to power its growth.
In past weeks, this aspect of our partnership has gone
from strength to strength. My colleague Graham Stuart, UK
Minister for Investment, was here in India for the recent
MOVE summit. During his visit to the UK, Minister Singh
confi rmed his desire for greater clean energy collaboration and
trade. This week, the UK Special Representative on Climate
Change, Nick Bridge, led a tech and fi nance delegation at RE
Invest, India’s fl agship event on renewable energy. He also
joined the First Assembly of the International Solar Alliance
initiative: an example of global leadership by India that we
are proud to support.
Already, 33,000 of the 110,000 Indian owned jobs in the
UK are in tech and telecoms. UK companies create one in
every 20 jobs in India’s organised sector; jobs requiring skills
and creating wealth that benefi ts both India and the UK. Our
deepened tech collaboration can only add to this number.
The next moment to celebrate this success is the India-UK
‘Future-Tech Fest’ in December. The thought leadership
summit will be an unmissable opportunity to celebrate our
joint progress on the partnership. It will also provide a unique
platform for discussing the future governance and ethics of
tech across multiple fi elds.
In changing times, the India-UK tech relationship is
only getting deeper: spanning innovation, fi nance, mobility,
and energy — harnessing the India-UK relationship as a
combined force for good in the world. As our two countries
embrace the technological revolution ahead of us, we can use
complementary strengths to create jobs, promote trade, and
tackle shared challenges.
*James Brokenshire is UK Secretary of State for Housing,
Communities and Local Government. His visit to India,
during the fi rst week of October 2018, is a part of the UK-
India Technology Partnership announced by British Prime
Minister Theresa May and her Indian counterpart Narendra
Modi in April. The visit comes ahead of the highly anticipated
UK-India FutureTech Festival which is scheduled to take
place in December 2018.
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 6 • Issue 10 • Oct-Nov 2018, Noida • 29