UK minister to visit India on Monday to strengthen tech alliance

Britain's Foreign Office minister Mark Field will arrive in New Delhi on Monday on a two-day India visit for high-level talks on strengthening the bilateral tech alliance.

The Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific, who is also in charge of India, will also hold talks on cyber security, energy and girls' education during his visit to New Delhi and Hyderabad.

His visit comes soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Theresa May launched the UK-India Tech Alliance in London last month.

"I am looking forward to visiting India once more to discuss a range of bilateral issues and build on the tremendous success of the recent visit to the UK by Prime Minister Modi," Field said.

"As two countries with a global outlook, the UK is committed to working with India to unlock the full potential of our trade and investment relationship," he said.

The minister said he will be meeting Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar and Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog, to follow up on the "ambitious" set of deliverables that were agreed last month during the UK visit of Modi, specifically on the India-UK Tech Partnership.

While in New Delhi, the senior Conservative party MP will also visit ASHA a civil society organisation working for women empowerment and the environment.

On Tuesday, Field will travel to Hyderabad to attend a roundtable on "Corporate Green Leadership" and also visit T-Hub, India's largest incubator housing over 200 start-ups.

He will also interact with rural girl students at Voice Camp, an event organised by civil society organisation Voice4Girls in collaboration with British Deputy High Commission (BDHC) Hyderabad.

Voice4Girls, a social enterprise, partnered with BDHC in a project on sensitisation of college students and adolescent girls on sexual harassment and safety in Hyderabad.