Page 3 - India-uk

'Eager' to secure trade deal with India, says UK's Home Secretary Braverman

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has said the UK is "eager" to secure a trade deal with India to boost both economies and that Brexit has meant that Britain no longer has a Eurocentric mindset towards trade or visas, days after she caused a stir with her "concerns" over what she feared could be an "open borders" approach in the ongoing trade talks with India. Addressing a Diwali event organised by UK-based India Global Forum (IGF) here on Tuesday evening, the Indian-origin Cabinet minister spoke of being a proud member of the British Indian community and hailed the contribution made by the Indian diaspora to British life. In an apparent effort to override her recent controversial remarks about Indians forming the largest group of visa overstayers, the minister said the UK's villages, towns and cities have been profoundly enriched by immigration from India. "Naturally, there is an economic imperative for our countries to work together, which is why we are so eager to secure a trade ..

Wait for India-UK free trade agreement likely to extend until mid-2023

One of the officials said that the trade deal between India and the UK is at the last stage

No longer working to Diwali deadline for India trade pact: Kemi Badenoch

The free trade agreement (FTA) talks with India are no longer working towards a Diwali deadline though negotiations are progressing well, UK Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch has said as New Delhi expressed confidence on Friday of an "early date" for a mutually beneficial deal. "There are ongoing negotiations as we know on the FTA. There is interest on both sides to see if we can work towards a deal, an FTA, that is beneficial to both the countries at an early date," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told reporters in New Delhi. It came as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to his UK counterpart, James Cleverly, and referenced the Roadmap 2030 bilateral agreement signed between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former UK PM Boris Johnson in May last year, with no specific reference to the FTA. A good conversation with UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly. Reviewed various aspects of our bilateral relationship and committed to taking forward Roadmap 2030 ...

India-UK free trade agreement to miss Diwali deadline, says report

Previous sticking points have included a steep import duty on British whiskey for sale in India and India's demand for more visas for Indian students and businesses.

UK wants stronger trading relationship with India, says FM Cleverly

UK FM James Cleverly said Britain wanted to have an even stronger trading relationship with India after reports that remarks by a fellow minister about immigrants could put future deal in doubt

Still looking for free trade deal with India by Diwali, says Britain

New Delhi is also seeking to claw back half a billion pounds in payments made by Indian workers toward Britain's social security system as part of the deal

India-UK trade deal on verge of 'collapse' over visa comments: Report

The India-UK free trade agreement (FTA) is reportedly on the verge of collapse after the Indian government was angered by comments made by UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman questioning action over visa overstayers from the country, a UK media report claimed on Wednesday. The Times' newspaper quoted government sources to say that ministers in New Delhi were shocked and disappointed by the disrespectful remarks made by Braverman, who said she had concerns of an open borders offer to India as part of an FTA. The likelihood of meeting the Diwali deadline for the pact, set by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is now believed to be diminishing. There's still a lot of goodwill but if certain individuals are still embedded in the [UK] government it will paralyse the talks, the newspaper quoted a source as saying. Last week, Braverman, the Indian-origin Home Secretary said in an interview that she feared a trade deal with India would increase migration to the UK when Indians already ...

India-UK free trade deal stuck on free access to skilled workers

Any failure to conclude a trade accord with Britain will be a missed opportunity for India, a nation upon which many economies are pinning their hopes amid intensified geopolitical struggles

India-UK Free Trade Agreement talks face deadlock over data: Report

Data localisation and UK companies being allowed to bid for Indian government contracts are among the issues causing a possible deadlock in the final stages of the India-UK free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations towards a Diwali draft completion deadline, according to a UK media report on Sunday. 'The Daily Telegraph' quoted a source close to the talks to say that data localisation rules that prevent foreign companies taking data out of India and allowing UK firms to bid for public sector contracts are two key "sticking points" to a comprehensive deal. The likelihood of a so-called "thin" trade deal within the symbolic Diwali or October 24 deadline and further iterative deals at a later stage is now looking like a likely outcome. "The stumbling blocks are absolutely to do with digital. How ambitious and comprehensive this deal is is in some way a function of time," the newspaper quoted an "insider" as saying. It follows UK Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch indicating earlier this week

Action initiated on all cases: India on UK's visa overstayer claim

India has countered UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman's claim that the Migration and Mobility Partnership (MMP) had not "worked very well" to say that India had initiated action on all cases raised with it under the agreement. In response to a PTI query about Braverman's interview in The Spectator' that branded Indians as the largest group of people who overstay their visas in the UK, the Indian High Commission here said that India awaits demonstrable progress on certain commitments undertaken by the UK government under the MMP that was signed last year. As part of our wider discussions under Migration and Mobility, the government of India is committed to working with the government of the UK to facilitate the return of Indian citizens who have overstayed their visa period here in the UK, the High Commission of India statement said on Thursday. As per the data shared with the Home Office, as of date, action has been initiated on all of the cases referred to the High Commission. ...

India won't yield on national interest to meet FTA deadlines: Piyush Goyal

Comments come a day after UK home secretary cast doubts over the proposed FTA with India over the issue of migration, and branded Indians as the largest group who overstay their visas

Free trade agreement with India won't be 'free-for-all deal': UK minister

The free trade agreement (FTA) being negotiated with India won't be a "free for all deal" but something that is good for both countries and not a particular sector, the UK government cautioned on Tuesday as a Diwali deadline set at the prime ministerial level for the pact approaches. UK Secretary of State for International Trade Kemi Badenoch, who is in charge of the FTA negotiations under the Prime Liz Truss led government, was addressing concerns around access for the country's services sector into the Indian market at the Conservative Party annual conference in Birmingham. The senior Cabinet minister also indicated that the Diwali timeline set by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was not "arbitrary" and could be met with further aspects covered beyond that deadline. "We want something comprehensive, but it has to be right for both countries," said Badenoch. "The Prime Minister has a deadline, which the previous Prime Minister had. That was quite a long deadline, so it's not ..

India-UK free-trade agreement: Carmakers object to sharp import duty cut

India's auto industry push for a phased duty reduction to protect interests

India-UK FTA first step in evolving trade, economic ties: UK official

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a very ambitious desire to get the India-UK Free Trade Agreement signed by Diwali and his new British counterpart Liz Truss wants her administration to "match the pace and ambition" of the Indian leader, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has said. Cleverly also said that the bilateral relationship between India and UK is longstanding and wide-ranging, which is both a "huge plus" but it also means that "quite understandably there is a desire to have a very, very wide-ranging, meaningful free trade agreement." "Obviously, Prime Minister Modi has set a very ambitious desire to get a free trade agreement signed by Diwali. Now that means that both us and Indian negotiators are going to have to work very, very hard but we are very willing to do so," Cleverly told PTI in an interview here Wednesday on the margins of the high-level UN General Assembly session. "We want to make sure that the deal that we do, ideally by Diwali, is the first step in a ...

India, UK working to meet Diwali deadline for completing FTA: Piyush Goyal

Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said the UK is keen to stick to the Diwali deadline for India-UK free trade agreement and both countries are working towards it

Diwali an auspicious date to sign India-UK FTA: British High Commissioner

Currently, both countries are at the last leg of negotiations towards a trade deal that kick-started in January

'Signing India-UK free trade pact will be best way to celebrate Diwali'

The best way to celebrate Diwali will be to have a good free trade agreement between India and the United Kingdom, British High Commissioner to India Alex Ellis said on Tuesday. He observed that the free trade agreement (FTA) will lead to creation of more jobs, growth and opportunities for both India and the UK. Speaking on the sidelines of an event, he asserted that there was "high ambition" to complete the India-UK FTA by Diwali -- a deadline set earlier by both nations -- and added "that would be an auspicious date". Asked if one could expect a 'Diwali Dhamaka' for India in relation to the FTA, the British High Commissioner quipped, "I hope so." Earlier addressing an Assocham conference, Ellis said: "We have the aim to finish the FTA by Diwali." Speaking at the conference, Joint Secretary in the Commerce and Industry Ministry Rajendra Ratnoo said leaders from the countries "are very very committed towards this FTA and have set a very, very ambitious goal of gifting to the peopl

Indian industry welcomes UK's timely Scale-up Visa to attract professionals

Indian industry on Thursday welcomed the UK's new Scale-up Visa, which is aimed at attracting more skilled professionals from around the world, including India. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) said the UK Home Office announcement directed at high-growth businesses to access a worldwide talent pool to boost their scale-up ambitions are well timed and likely to benefit many Indian businesses and also help UK companies tap into the vast Indian talent pool. Companies, including small businesses and those in the tech and financial services sectors that have achieved growth of 20 per cent or more in either employment or turnover year-on-year for at least three years and employed a minimum of 10 people at the start of those three years are eligible to sponsor workers under the new route. In the last few years, India has seen a large number of rapidly growing businesses from tech and financial services expand into the UK, said FICCI Director General Arun .

UPI expands; Indian flyers to UK to enjoy hassle-free digital transactions

Expanding further outside India, the indigenously developed real-time payments solution UPI will foray into the UK market starting with QR code-based transactions. The NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL) has forged a partnership with payments solutions provider PayXpert to internationalise the acceptance of its payment solutions in the UK. NIPL is the wholly-owned subsidiary of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) which developed the world's largest real-time payment solution the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and the RuPay card scheme. "This collaboration will make the Indian payment solutions available in the UK on all PayXpert's android point-of-sale (POS) devices for in-store payments, starting with UPI-based QR code payments and later integrating the possibility for RuPay card payments," NPCI said in a release on Thursday. Counted as one of the most successful Real-Time Payments (RTP) systems globally, UPI clocked a volume of USD 940 billion (39 billion ...

Huge opportunity for business in India's fintech space, says UKIBC

Negotiations for a trade deal between both nations started in January this year, and the deal is expected to be signed by Diwali