Business Standard

21 December 2009 - Business Standard

Marked by a strong bonding between their Prime Ministers, Indo-UK ties witnessed an upswing in 2009, especially in fields like education, IT and trade, with President Pratibha Patil's October visit here proving to be icing on the cake as it helped cement the bilateral relations.

Patil's October 27-29 visit, first by an Indian head of state in two decades, coincided with the launch of the Queen's Baton Relay, which will culminate with the start of the Commonwealth Games 2010 in Delhi next October.

While Patil hit off well with Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh forged a close relationship with his British counterpart Gordon Brown at the political level.

In fact Brown has often described Singh as "my old friend" and the two are in constant touch with each other on all major international issues, be it the global economic crisis, Afghanistan situation or counter-terrorism.

Britain is also working closely with India in its ambitious task of upgrading and expanding its education system.

India is keen to develop a number of centres of technical excellence in the country in which Britain, with its highly-skilled manpower resources could play a key role.

During her UK visit, President Patil emphasised a great deal bilateral relations, describing India and the UK, with their traditions of diversity and democracy, as "natural partners" which were set to shape the course of the 21st century.

Prime Minister Singh played an important role at the G20 summit here in April when leaders of the world's largest economies pledged a $1.1 trillion package alongside measures for a tighter regulation of international financial system to help bring the world out of recession.

The leaders agreed to another major Indian demand by deciding to sell IMF gold reserves to raise $6 billion that would go towards helping out the world's poorest countries with cheap loans over the next two to three years.

There were also other senior level visits from India to the UK during the year.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee participated in the G-20 Finance Ministers meeting at St Andrews in Scotland. He was very vocal in expressing India's views that rich States must "contribute substantially" to funds that will help developing nations in the global fight against climate change.

India's Law and Justice Minister Veerappa Moily visited the UK to participate in traditional ceremonies marking the opening of legal year in England and Wales from September 29.

Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Murli Deora, attended the 'London Energy Ministers Meeting', emphasising the need to rediscover a stable market with transparent regulations.

It was also yet another year of success for 'Incredible India' campaign, which received the World Travel Award for the best destination marketing campaign in November.

India's Tourism Minister Kumari Selja received the award at a glittering event organised in London. She also received an Asian Guild award in recognition of her outstanding performance as a Tourism Minister.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was present at the World Travel Mart, London, the world's leading travel business market, to promote Kashmir as a tourist destination.

Describing Kashmir as "a heaven on earth", he invited tourists to visit the valley according to their convenience. "Efforts are being made to make this place a round the year tourist destination," the Chief Minister said.

Indian companies continued to invest in London in 2008-09 financial year despite the global recession and are set to emulate the strong growth registered in the previous year.

Results of the financial year confirm that 14 Indian companies have either set up or expanded their operations in London, according to a new data from Think London, the foreign direct investment agency for the British capital.

"Encouragingly the outlook for the full year suggests that the growth seen in 2008-09 will be sustained through this year," the agency said.

India is the second largest investor in London and projects from the country helped create over 4,000 jobs worth 46.1 million pounds to the London economy, making it the second highest source of jobs after the United States.

"The strength of the Indian community in India and their commitment to this city never fails to impress me. India-owned businesses in the capital generate over 14.4 billion pounds and represent 5 per cent of London's economy," city Mayor Boris Johnson said.

Separately, a life-size wax statue of India's batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar was launched at the renowned Madame Tussauds in London -- the very first Indian sports personality to be portrayed there. He follows in the famous footsteps of Bollywood greats Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan.

British film-maker Danny Boyle's 'Slumdog Millionaire', a Mumbai-based rags-to-riches movie, won top honours at Britain's most prestigious film awards with a sweeping seven wins, including best film. No doubt, the film went on to win several Oscars including two Oscars to music maestro A R Rahman.

The year also saw a change of guard at India House. Nalin Surie, a veteran career diplomat, assumed charge as the new High Commissioner, succeeding Shiv Shankar Mukherjee.

In the field of science, India-born Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, senior fellow at the Trinity college in Cambridge, won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in October along with two others, for showing the world exactly how information contained in DNA is translated into life - a process that benefitted the fight against infectious diseases.

Ramakrishnan was named for the $1.42 million award along with American Thomas A Steitz and Israeli Ada E Yonath for their "studies of the structure and function of the ribosome", which is found in cells with nuclei and translates the DNA code into life.

Source: Business Standard

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