Thread by @NISAU_UK

The India Conference will commence at 1 PM GMT / 6:30 PM IST. Please follow our facebook page for the live stream. facebook.com/NISAU.UK/
@SAsiaLSE @NISAU_UK #IndiaConf #BrexitBritain

Lord Karan Bilimoria (@Lord_Bilimoria) is Founding Chairman of the UK-India Business Council, President of the Confederation of Business Industries, and President of the UK Council of International Student Affairs.

Nirupama Rao (@NMenonRao) retired as Foreign Secretary, Government of India, and has served as India's Ambassador in the US and China.

Sanam Arora (@arora_sanam) is an LSE alumnus, and Chairperson, National Indian Students and Alumni Union, UK.

Ahaan Gupta (@LSESUIndiaSoc) is studying Politics, Philosophy & Economics at LSE, and is President, LSESU India Society.

Chair: Dr. Nilanjan Sarkar is Deputy Director, LSE South Asia Centre.

This event is in collaboration with LSESU India Society and National Indian Students and Alumni Union, UK.

.@Lord_Bilimoria "During lockdown in April and June 2020, British companies invested 140 million pounds into India, and if you go forth to September that went up to a billion pounds, and even now the figure would be much higher." @SAsiaLSE @NISAU_UK #IndiaConf #BrexitBritain

.@Lord_Bilimoria "The total goods and services bilateral between the UK and India is 24 billion pounds and that has gone up by 11%... and it was 5 billion pounds around 20 years ago… we should do far far more" @SAsiaLSE @NISAU_UK #IndiaConf #BrexitBritain

.@Lord_Bilimoria "… the whole of the commonwealth countries including India, make up less than 10% of the UK’s trade, America alone makes 15%, Germany makes 9%... that shows the enormous opportunity looking ahead” @SAsiaLSE @NISAU_UK #IndiaConf #BrexitBritain

.@Lord_Bilimoria “… the big opportunity is a UK-India free trade agreement, India has never been able to do one with the EU, decades of negotiations & it has never happened, why can’t we make it happen between the UK & India” @SAsiaLSE @NISAU_UK #IndiaConf #BrexitBritain

.@Lord_Bilimoria “We have the opportunity to lead now with Britain hosting the G7, the first thing PM did was to invite India to join along with Australia & S Korea. CBI will be hosting the B7, the business orgs of the G7” @SAsiaLSE @NISAU_UK #IndiaConf #BrexitBritain

.@Lord_Bilimoria “this year the UK will be hosting the COP 26 in Glasgow, co-hosted with Italy…. Look at the huge leadership India shows in Solar Power, look at the enormous leadership India shows in Wind Power…” @SAsiaLSE @NISAU_UK #IndiaConf #BrexitBritain

.@Lord_Bilimoria “As the first ethnic minority president of CBI, one of my 4 priorities is to champion ethnic minority participation in business across the board & in October we launched ‘change the race ratio’” @SAsiaLSE @NISAU_UK #IndiaConf #BrexitBritain

.@NMenonRao “We need more mobility for young intelligent & innovative minds, more research for educational collaborations & this has to be the 2-main bridge that works to & from the UK, and the global UK meets global India” @SAsiaLSE @NISAU_UK #IndiaConf #BrexitBritain

.@NMenonRao “now we in India see post-Brexit Britain as struggling to bring more coherence, clarity, and concentration to key bilateral relationships and being a significant enabler for a rule-based international order” @SAsiaLSE @NISAU_UK #IndiaConf #BrexitBritain

1/2 .@NMenonRao “Post Brexit Britain herself is reviewing and redefining her outlook on the world on trade, strengthening the global community of democracies and plural inclusive societies that celebrate and safeguard human values, fight terror, safeguard peace and security,…

2/2 …understand the importance of mobility and migration, multi-lateral cooperation, climate, global health and in deepening old partnership like the one with India” @SAsiaLSE @NISAU_UK #IndiaConf #BrexitBritain

.@NMenonRao “There’s much work to be done and it must involve a closer a much more granular and candid dialogue between our two countries UK and India. We have much more stronger strategic partnership with France for instance.” @SAsiaLSE @NISAU_UK #IndiaConf #BrexitBritain

1/4 .@NMenonRao “I also know that the prospects of free trade agreements in a world that's increasingly questioning the good of such arrangements may not be promising but India and Britain must arrive at mutual agreement about the way forward on such issues as the mobility of…

2/4 …professionals, students and researchers trading services, improving the ease of doing business and each other's economies and promoting, as I said a trajectory of growth in bilateral trade, building a partnership on technologies for the future in cooperation with other…

3/4 …sister democracies, drawing strength from our respective capabilities is also necessary if we are to deal competently with the threat of techno authoritarianism from China.¬ So, our slogan therefore should be that the good must become better and eventually the better…

4/4 …best where our relations are concerned.” @SAsiaLSE @NISAU_UK #IndiaConf #BrexitBritain

.@Lord_Bilimoria "CPTPP is the Trans Pacific trading bloc, which is made up of 11 countries, around that (Asia) region, including Japan. And we will be joining that. So that's a huge opportunity for us." @SAsiaLSE @NISAU_UK #IndiaConf #BrexitBritain

1/3 .@Lord_Bilimoria "And here's an important point, the United Kingdom may be 1% of the world's population. It's one of the seven largest economies in the world.

2/3 But here's the very, very important point people miss, we are the second or third largest recipient of inward investment in the world at any one time. And one of the main reasons I think that is, is because we're a very open economy.

3/3 And as long as we stay open and upward looking after Brexit, the partnership with India can only be enhanced." @SAsiaLSE @NISAU_UK #IndiaConf #BrexitBritain

1/5 .@Lord_Bilimoria "“The other commonality we have between the UK and India is since India's liberalisation in 1991. What has been unleashed more than anything else is India's entrepreneurial spirit. India is a country of entrepreneurs.

2/5 And those entrepreneurs had been curbed in a protected, inward looking country. All those years, perhaps for the best of intentions, but that entrepreneurial spirit was just suppressed. It has now been unleashed.

3/5 And in the UK similarly, since the 1980s, the entrepreneurial spirit has been unleashed. The UK is considered one of the most entrepreneurial countries in the world.

4/5 So, my one policy recommendation would be if India could open up its economy more, and allow the inward investment from the UK to come in even more than it is now and partner, and I'm not saying deregulate, you need good strong regulation.

5/5 But if we have a great free trade agreement that enables that flourishing of entrepreneurship, then we can quadruple very, very quickly and catch up with what the UK and the US and India have been doing”" @SAsiaLSE @NISAU_UK #IndiaConf #BrexitBritain

1/3 .@Lord_Bilimoria "...with regard to what more can we do to increase mobility, there is this new point based system. And we're going to now see whether this point based system works, we fought quite hard to bring the minimum salary threshold down.

2/3 Originally it was over 30,000 pounds, we've now got it down to just over 25,000 pounds, and there can be exceptions to bring it down even lower. So this point based system should make it easier for Indian professionals to come and work here in the UK.

3/3 And and there's a very clear pathway, in fact, after that, even to permanent residency should the person wish to do so. So let's see how this works" @SAsiaLSE @NISAU_UK #IndiaConf #BrexitBritain

1/3 @arora_sanam "This has been an absolutely fascinating discussion. This was a session full of diversity of views and neurodiversity covering so many different aspects.

2/3 So I am very grateful to the both of you for having taken the time out.... I think it's really heartening to note that more than half of the questions from the young people, including various Indian societies in the UK, are actually to do with climate change.

3/3 And this being the year of climate change, when the UK and India are investing so much in this particular areas of the world, I think that points to, as they say, two great nations and one glorious, shared future." @SAsiaLSE @NISAU_UK #IndiaConf #BrexitBritain

1/2 Nilanjan Sarkar "I think for someone like me, it's been so very reassuring, to hear so much said so easily & freely about so many strengths that both the countries have, and the very complex relationship that the 2 countries enjoy, but also the possibilities, the potential…

2/2 …that that is riding on this entanglement. Thank you very much, Ambassador Rao. Thank you very much, Lord Bilimoria, we hope that you will continue to support us, to support students and we wait to hear about the trade deal." @SAsiaLSE @NISAU_UK #IndiaConf #BrexitBritain