EU trade back to normal despite Remainer gloomsters claims – ready for India trade deal

Andrew bridgen said the eu’s claim to be concerned over northern ireland is fraud (image: burton mail)

The company, which has offices in both the uk and india, has already founded the oyo hotel and homes chain, one of the world’s handful of so-called decacorn because it is worth more than £10 billion.

And it aims to plough hundreds of millions of pounds worth of investment into britain, targeting start-up firms.

“we have a £16bn investment fund in india which we are looking to replicate here,” he said.

“We’ve already invested £1m into the fitech company creditenable.

“when you look at the world’s biggest companies now, they’re not the shells or bps, they’re the amazons and facebooks – companies that were start-ups just 20 years ago.

“china has now overtaken the us in the number of unicorns – firms worth more than £100bn. But india has the third largest number of these startups. That’s where the global shift is going.

Amazon and facebook are among the world’s biggest companies (image: getty)

“and while in the past indian start ups may have gone to the us to expand, now they are going to the uk where we not only have a common language but a shared history, too. India represents the largest diaspora here. The hinduja brothers and the mittal family are both in the top five of the uk’s wealthiest billionaires.”

He said the uk’s shift away from china has played a large role.

“there has always been an affinity to connect the countries as much as possible but five years ago  activity wasn’t there. Now there’s so much engagement.

“the confederation of indian industry (cii) is putting a lot of effort into the uk – much more than any other country.

“We’re talking about it areas like fintech, health tech and insurance tech, for instance.

“in india more than 200 million people are unbanked. The uk has led the way with digital banks.”

He said indian minister of trade piyush goyal’s “designed in uk, made in india“ concept would help uk firms expand globally.

“the uk gives a lot of government grants for research and  development which india doesn’t enjoy. This means capital being invited into important scientific and technical innovations.

“but a cancer microchip would need mass production and the uk may not be able to do this.

“when it comes to scaling something like this, india would be well placed.“

Another field was electric vehicles. “ev is big. The uk is way ahead in terms of research and development but india is one of the biggest markets.”