PM leads British businesses on trade mission to India      

Prime Minister David Cameron led the largest ever trade delegation to India during February as part of the UK Government's determined effort to promote British business abroad and to help Britain succeed in the global race.

Over 100 companies participated in the three day visit including more than 30 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), along with Ministers Lord Green, David Willetts, Hugo Swire and Greg Barker. They met with a number of Indian Government Ministers, inward investors and businesses in both Mumbai and Delhi, as the Government seeks to link British businesses up to one of the world’s fastest growing economies, predicted to become the third largest by 2050.

At the start of the mission (Feb18) the Government announced that it would support the creation of a new pan-India network of British Business Centres by 2017, the first pilot in a scheme of 20 overseas business networks, backed by £8 million of Government funding. The new business centres will offer business-led, business-backed, support to UK businesses, particularly SMEs, in India.

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he Government has also produced a study for business called 'UK India: A Natural Fit' that identifies eight key sectors where UK strengths match India’s economics requirements. This demonstrates that there are valuable opportunities for British businesses, big and small, from all sectors of the economy stand to gain from India’s growing prosperity.

he trip took place as a series of trade and investment deals were announced which will create 500 new jobs in Britain and safeguard around 2000. This included the announcement by specialist filtration and environmental technology group Porvair that it has been selected by India's largest private sector enterprise, Reliance Industries Limited, to design and build char filtration systems for its planned gasification plant at Jamnagar.