Scotland minister to lead delegation to India

Scotland's Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, will begin a week-long visit to India on Friday to strengthen bilateral ties with a focus on trade and investment and to boost cooperation in technology and life sciences, the UK Foreign Office said Thursday.

Swinney, the deputy head of the devolved Scottish government, will be joined by a delegation of senior leaders from Scotland's higher education sector during the visit from November 23 to 29.

The deputy first minister is set to hold a series of meetings in Delhi and Bangalore with business and industry leaders, as well as representatives from the Indian government.

"India is an important international partner to Scotland and we have successfully collaborated on hundreds of different projects in recent years from the Ganga River Health Project to delivering cost effective precision medicine solutions for diabetes," Swinney said, on the eve of his India visit.

The visit will focus on technology and life sciences, promote trade and investment, and strengthen education and cultural links, according to the UK Foreign Office said.

"Scotland already has a strong history of engineering and innovation and Edinburgh has been named as the best European place to start a tech business thanks to its top facilities, strong international connections, world class universities and fantastic quality of life.

"There is much we can learn from India, a country highly regarded for its spirit of creativity, entrepreneurship and young ambitious workforce," he said.

The senior minister stressed the two-way prospects of the relationship, as Scotland can offer a lot of expertise in areas that the Indian government has identified as important, such as clean water and data driven innovation, will be priority subjects for talks during his visit.

"Working with the delegation from our world-renowned universities, we will highlight the strengths and achievements of Scotland's higher education sector and promote the exciting opportunities for Indian students to visit, work and study here," he added.

The tour will include an official reception at the British High Commission in Delhi to celebrate St. Andrew's Day Scotland's official National Day and a separate St. Andrew's Day celebration with alumni from Scottish universities in Bangalore.

The visit programme has been organised in partnership with Scottish Development International, Universities Scotland, the British Council and Visit Scotland.

According to official data, in 2016-17 there were 1,425 higher education students from India enrolled in Scottish universities. India is Scotland's fourth-biggest international market for further and higher education students.

Scottish direct exports to India were worth GBP 235 million in 2016 and visitors from India spent a total of 334,000 nights in Scotland and spent GBP 17 million in 2016.