London & India are natural partners

In September I visited Mumbai and Delhi. While India is my home country, this wasn’t a social visit - I was there to meet business leaders and politicians, to talk about how our cities can partner and collaborate in future, to grow our trading links and promote Indian investment into London. 

 As someone who came to London from Indore 16 years ago with just ￡200 in my pocket and went on to build a successful business, I am one of London’s biggest fans, primarily because it offers such fantastic opportunities to talent and businesses from all over the world - and of course the UK and India have strong and historical ties.

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and the British government’s misguided approach to visas has caused uncertainty and concern. So there has never been a more important time to ensure that London’s relationships with India, and many of our other big trading partners, are nurtured and continue to grow.

India is already the second largest investor in London, and the United Kingdom is the single largest G20 investor into India, supporting nearly 700,000 jobs.

As one of the world’s fastest growing economies, (albeit with a slight slowdown in the last year) India is already an important growth market for UK businesses and investors. Likewise, ambitious Indian businesses looking to internationalise can take advantage of London’s status as one of the world’s leading financial centres and Europe’s largest technology hub.

During a week of meetings, I had constructive discussions with major businesses and organisations including Santander, Yes Bank, Wadhawan Global Capital, Reliance, Tata, NASSCOM, PayTM, Oxigen and many others. And at a CBI roundtable in Delhi, I held productive and open talks with some of the UK’s biggest companies in India, including Vodafone, BBC India and Aviva.

The meetings gave me an opportunity to understand their future plans, and to tell business leaders that London is and always will be open for business, talent, and investmenbt.

I also met with the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, who was particularly interested in how we could work together, drawing on London’s knowledge and expertise in helping develop a ticketless public transport network in Mumbai.

In summary, interest in investing or doing business in London remains high, with several companies looking to do much more. Business leaders in India are very positive about London’s future, although of course some are adopting a wait-and-see policy as we approach a key stage in the United Kingdom’s Brexit negotiations.

 The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan and I know that London will always be a city full of opportunity and a city that embraces people of different nationalities, faiths and backgrounds.

We are determined to make London as welcoming and accessible to people of all nationalities as possible. We will also endeavour to find and grow new connections and collaborations which will help London and international businesses flourish in the years ahead.

If you are looking for the next opportunity to take your business to the next level, please do get in touch with London & Partners who can support your international expansion plans, or if you’re a high growth business with ambitions to enter the Indian market, then the Mayor's International Business Programme can help you scale your company internationally.