CIOReviewIndia Team | Wednesday, 10 February 2021, 05:09 IST
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and pharmaceutical and biotech major Wockhardt are included in the big investment wins being celebrated in the UK as International Trade Secretary Liz Truss concluded her five-day visit to India this week.
The Department for International Trade (DIT) has confirmed that the Cabinet Minister, who conducted talks with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal during her visit to Delhi from February 5th to February 9th, had agreed the terms of an Enhanced Trade Partnership (ETP) and set the stage for a potential free trade agreement (FTA) in the future.
Also, the minister clinched a major investment by TCS which brings 1500 high skilled jobs to sites all over the UK and further investment by Wockhardt at its Wrexham site in Wales, which will lead to more than 40 new jobs and extension of a COVID-19 vaccination contract for ensuring the UK’s ‘Uninterrupted’ fill and vaccination completion in 2022.
Truss said, “India is the world’s biggest democracy and a nation that shares our belief in free enterprise. Deeper trading ties will create opportunities for UK businesses that were simply not there as part of the European Union, and set the stage for a much closer partnership with one of the economic powerhouses of the present and future.”
She added, “We will be collaborating much more closely in the industries of tomorrow like science, tech and green growth, so we can build back better and deliver an export-led, investment-led, jobs-led recovery from coronavirus.”
As per to the official stats, the UK-India trade relationship was valued at 23 billion pounds in 2019 and supports key industries like technology and life sciences and around half a million jobs in each other’s economy.
During her visit to India, Truss met UK respiratory digital health company Smart Respiratory Products, which is helping doctors in India to manage patients remotely via smartphone app and telemedicine platform. The firm recently secured a GBP 5-million partnership with Indian company Care Ability Healthcare for supplying their Smart Asthma respiratory solutions.
DIT says, “Life Sciences has been a priority sector for both nations, with UK pharmaceuticals exports to India growing by 21.4 per cent to 96.75 million pounds in 2019.”
In life sciences and artificial intelligence (AI), AI healthcare startup Behold, AI announced during the visit, that it has entered a partnership with India’s Apollo Group for providing a diagnostic tool, which can quickly analyse chest x-rays for aiding in screening COVID-19 positive patients.
And the UK-based firm Micropore, which is a specialized firm in equipment and support services to enable pharma companies in improving their performance and economies of their formulated products, is setting up in Hyderabad for supplying its membrane emulsification technology to the region and neighbouring markets.
The DIT proposed ETP with the parameters of which were previously agreed by the ministers over the weekend. It is an important part of the UK government’s plan for deepen links and investment in strategic industries like science, tech and services. And India, as the fastest growing major economy in the world, is an important part of this post-Brexit outlook.
DIT said, “Throughout the global pandemic, India and the UK have supported each other by keeping vital supply chains open, tackling protectionism and collaborating on vaccine research – whether that be the production of over a billion doses of our life-saving Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine at India’s Serum institute or unlocking the export of nearly 3 million packets of paracetamol.”
The UK-India are pegged as “Significant Investors and Markets” for each other’s economies as in 2019-20, where the UK was the largest European market for India’s goods exports.
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