Digital Secretary bats for British tech in India
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Matt Hancock visits India to launch the UK-India Tech Partnership and confirm regional link-ups.
Digital Secretary will confirm the partnership will link the Midlands Engine with Maharashtra with a focus on future mobility including low emission and autonomous vehicles, battery storage and vehicle light weighting.
He will say the Northern Powerhouse will be linked to Karnataka with a focus on data, augmented and virtual reality, advanced materials and artificial intelligence. He will say, if successful, he expects the partnership to link other regions in the UK and India.
The partnership, announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to London, will pair businesses, universities and tech institutions in the two countries and develop a new UK-India Tech Hub in Delhi.
In Delhi, Mr Hancock will address the Indian tech industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), meet leading Indian firms including Paytm, Quatrro and DevITPL, and confirm a new UK-India Tech Thought Leadership Summit will be held in India in the Autumn.
He will meet with UK and India investors to lay the foundations for new deals in areas such as fintech, cybersecurity, health-tech and smart cities. He also launched the expanded Tech Rocketship Awards, which helps Indian tech start-ups establish their businesses in the UK, boosting fresh innovation in Britain.
In Mumbai he will champion the UK’s artificial intelligence and fintech industries at an event hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Indian business leaders. This will build on recent agreements for the UK’s financial services industries to work closer together and build stronger economic links between London and Mumbai.
Digital and Culture Secretary Matt Hancock said:
The UK and India are global leaders in tech and by deepening our ties we can open up huge opportunities for business and citizens in both countries.
Our new UK-India Tech Partnership will not only lay the foundations for new investment, growth and jobs, but it will also boost collaboration on the technologies of the future that will improve and revolutionise our lives.
Matt Hancock will be the first cabinet minister to visit the country following Indian PM Narendra Modi’s visit to the UK for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting last month, where the countries announced £1 billion worth of new commercial deals and more than 5,500 tech jobs.
The UK and India have strong and historic ties in sport. Mr Hancock will also promote the 2019 Cricket World Cup and the ECB’s new South Asia Strategy, and will agree to work closer with India to tackle match-fixing and anti-doping in sport. He will visit the National Museum’s ‘India in the World’ exhibition developed in partnership with the British Museum, and support newly launched BBC World Service language services at the World Service Delhi Bureau.
Further information:
The UK-India Tech Hub provide access routes to markets for British and Indian entrepreneurs. It follows the success of the UK-Israel Tech Hub which has generated £62 million worth of deals over the past five years, with a potential impact of £600 million for the UK economy.
It comes as the UK and India’s tech trade associations TechUK and NASSCOM have announced they will work together through a new UK-India Tech Alliance, bringing senior tech leaders together to collaborate, help develop policy and encourage innovation.
The UK will initially invest £1 million to pilot the approach and potentially up to a further £13 million by 2022.
To build the network the government will engage in-country experts to work with the British High Commission in New Delhi, the Indian government and the private sector in order to increase tech investment, exports and research and development.
Smaller regional teams will link specific cities and regions in India and the UK.
The Tech Partnership will encourage innovation and productivity by helping businesses in the UK and India collaborate on emerging technologies, develop mentoring relationships and exchange staff.
The regional teams will also ensure the impact is felt across the breadth of both nations’ expansive tech sectors, and that successful approaches adopted in one region can be shared and adopted in others.
A recent report by Grant Thornton in association with CII showed the UK remains a highly attractive destination for Indian investors.
Investment by Indian companies in the UK has increased with capital expenditure rising from £4.25 billion in 2017 to £4.69 billion in 2018.
The report also identifies operating profits of £2.25 billion for Indian companies operating in the UK and a combined corporate tax contribution of £360 million.
The UK’s tech sector is already worth more than £116.5 billion a year.
The ECB announced its new South Asia strategy this week. More information can be found here.
The two countries will sign a memorandum of understanding on sport.
India is an emerging power in international sport and, given the historic ties, the UK government wants to share its knowledge with India as it seeks to further develop its national approach to sport.
The deal will help promote British sport in India and the government is working with the Premier League to support its activities there.
Given the cross-border threats posed by match-fixing and anti-doping, a key area of cooperation will be to work together to protect the integrity of international approach. Only a coordinated effort by governments can tackle these scourges.
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