Modi, Cameron announce raft of commercial deals

Wax figures, natural remedies and Lloyd’s of London all feature in £9bn worth of commercial deals signed between the UK and India this week.

India’s prime minister Narendra Modi has spent the week visiting the UK and his British counterpart David Cameron, and on Thursday the pair revealed the extent of the deals.

Cameron promised the commercial cooperation will create 1,900 jobs in Britain.

“As the largest G20 investor in India, British businesses already support nearly 700,000 jobs in India and India invests more in the UK than in the rest of the EU combined, creating almost 8,000 new jobs here last year”, the Prime Minister said in a statement.

The visit is Modi’s first to the UK since he was sworn in as prime minister in May 2014.

Highlights included a £50m investment by Merlin Entertainment to open attractions in India, including branches of the Madame Tussauds, LEGOLAND and SeaLife brands. Holland & Barrett will open 1,000 health food stores on the subcontinent through a £20m partnership with Apollo Hospitals, and TVS will open a £20m logistics facility in South Yorkshire, as well as take the AA Roadside Assistance brand to the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

In finance, India’s Housing Development Finance Corporation and Bharti Airtel will list up to £500m in bonds each on the London Stock Exchange. Standard Life, Bupa and Aviva have applied for regulatory approval to invest a combined £238m in India, and with the passage of Modi’s Insurance Bill, Lloyd’s of London plans to establish its presence there.

“The United Kingdom is the third largest investor in India, behind Singapore and Mauritius”, Modi said in a speech to London’s Guildhall on Thursday night.

“We are two democracies, two strong economies, and two innovative societies. We have the comfort of familiarity and the experience of a long partnership”, he added.

But the visit was not without its detractors. The UK Sikh Federation organised a protest against Modi’s visit on Thursday calling on the Indian PM to “free Sikh political prisoners”, “recognise the right to self-determination for Sikhs, Kashmiris and others in India” and for “justice for the 1984 Sikh genocide”.

When asked about these concerns at a press conference with Cameron, Modi indicated his belief that violence and intolerance is not acceptable in Indian culture.

The Indian prime minister has come under fire at home and abroad since assuming office, over perceived human rights abuses and attacks on non-Hindu people in India. More than 200 writers have signed an open letter urging Cameron to raise these concerns with Modi.

Following a lunch with the Queen, the Indian prime minister has a speaking engagement at a mass rally at Wembley Stadium on Friday night, with 60,000 people from the British Indian community expected to be in attendance.