SPEAKING at a session today at the India-UK CII-DST TECH Summit, in New Delhi, Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, said that India should push the limit when it comes to enhancing trade and investment with the UK after Brexit. Acknowledging UK's commitment to free trade, he added that free trade should be across the board as there is no such thing as selective free trade. Mr Kant said that while India has emerged as one of the most open economies in the world, the Western world has become more protectionist even while advocating free trade.  There is need for free trade in cross-border movement of manpower as well and the UK should allow meritorious people from India to work in the UK.  According to Mr Kant, there is immense potential between India and UK in the area of urbanization, education, defence, finance, creative industry, and start-ups, among others. The government has created a conducive eco-system for start-ups. The Masala Bonds, launched in the UK, could help meet the funding requirements for start-ups.

Mr Greg Hands, MP, Minister of Trade and Investment, Government of UK, said that the UK government has introduced same-day visa for businesses and its IT sector is open to India. He added that Brexit offers a huge opportunity for UK-India economic interaction in areas such as life sciences, infrastructure, and services, among others. The new Department of International Trade, which would have four Ministers, would help in trade facilitation. A Working Group has been constituted on Trade which would discuss the issue of India-UK FTA at an appropriate time, he added.

Dr Naushad Forbes, President, CII, underscored the importance of facilitating partnerships between companies in India and universities in UK as also between universities of the two countries. The Indian government needs to increase investment in R&D while the private sector needs to enhance its share from 0.3% to 1.5% of GDP. There is scope for collaboration between medium sized businesses of the two countries. On Indo-UK FTAs, Dr. Naushad noted that UK's exit from EU would provide a level playing field for the rest of the world. Dr Atul Chauhan, Chancellor, Amity University, spoke about the scope for industry-university collaboration in research between our two countries and initiating tie-ups in on-line education. Mr Sunil Sood, Managing Director, Vodafone, India, called for greater inter-government and Centre-State cooperation for increasing transparency in governance. He added that there is scope for Smart City collaborations between India and UK.

Dr. Swati Piramal, Vice Chairperson, Piramal Enterprises Ltd said that content was not enough for facilitating businesses, and a connection between people, cities and countries is required. There is huge potential to collaborate in creative business, movies, animation and design. Mr Tim Davie, Chief Executive Officer, BBC Worldwide, underpinned the importance in developing partnerships in areas such as distribution, human resources and others. He envisaged partnership in creative industries, services and Smart Cities.