Britain to hold trade road show in Bangalore

To boost bilateral trade with India, Britain will hold a trade road show with multiple events this month in this tech hub, which is home to major British firms in aerospace, financial services, IT, manufacturing, pharma and retail.

"We are ideally placed to engage with Bangalore and be its partner of choice as it has a large footprint in technology and innovation and India's IT bellwethers Infosys and Wipro have large operations back home," British Deputy High Commissioner Ian Felton told reporters Monday at a preview of the road show here.

With a total investment of pound 11.3 billion ($17.6 billion) till June 2013 from April 2000, we are the third largest investor in India, accounting for nine percent of its foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows.

As part of Britain's GREAT campaign, launched in 2012 to maximise the economic potential of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games and promote its assets the world over till 2015, the road show will flag opportunities the country offers to Indian businesses in key sectors, including technology, innovation, life sciences, healthcare, entrepreneurship, knowledge exchange and culture.

"The road show will have a series of events to build our business brand in Bangalore, translate Indian business interests with our delegations, encourage Indian firms to work with and in Britain," Felton said on the occasion.

The events planned are the British oncology mission this week, Cambridge-Oxford alumni meet, luncheon seminar with Indian and British CEOs (chief executives) and tea session at a popular restaurant in third week, Bangalore Cambridge innovation network engagement, digital innovations in healthcare and biotechnology and interactive session between the British High Commission family and Indian universities/institutes in fourth week.

"Bangalore is one of the future faces of India -- hi-tech, cosmopolitan and global in outlook. It is a great place for British-Indian collaboration in science, innovation, trade and cultural relations," Felton asserted.

Britain's retail major Tesco has a facility in the city, which controls operations of its stores the world over. For instance, the temperature in the freezing cabinets in its London outlet is controlled remotely from Bangalore.

With its large skilled workforce, technical expertise, innovation, sound ecosystem and scaleability, the city has been able to attract scores of British firms in diverse verticals such as Rolls Royce and BAE in aerospace, chip-maker ARM in electronics, Cambridge Silicon, Silicon Radio, NDS, Zenith and Genisys Software in IT, Aviva, Barclays and HSBC in financial services and Astra Zeneca and GSK in life sciences.

Besides Infosys and Wipro, other leading Bangalore-based firms across verticals having presence in Britain are Mindtree Consulting, Microland, Sasken, ITC Infotech, Symphony Services, Biocon, Avethagen, Strides Arcolabs, HighTemp Furnaces, JVS and Dynamatics.