 | « Back to article | Print this article |
There were no insulting security men around when The Duke of York arrived at functions in Chennai, quite unlike what the Chennai press endured when Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai came to launch the exclusive Longines boutique recently.
The Prince's functions were very low-key and business-like. They have to as Prince Andrew was in Chennai in his capacity as the United Kingdom's Special Representative for International Trade and Investment. In this role, he supports British companies that trade internationally and encourages foreign investment.
On November 2, while addressing the employees of Scope International, the BPO unit of Standard Chartered Bank, The Duke of York said that the UK government encouraged outsourcing and he didn't agree with the idea that outsourcing in whatever form was a bad idea.
He added that he would go back to the UK with a message to the people that they shouldn't be afraid of outsourcing.
He also inaugurated the new building of the British Deputy High Commission in Chennai. Chennai is a very important city as it is the sixth busiest British visa post in the world.
The UK is now the third biggest inward investor in India. And India is the third largest foreign investor n the UK in terms of projects, second only to Japan and the United States.
For the period January-July 2006, the highest number of approvals were in the financial sector (3) followed by telecommunications (2). Service sector attracted the highest FDI approvals (Rs 123.5 crore) followed by the glass industry (Rs 58 crore)
In 2006, Indian investments into the UK rose by 110%, and the two way trade of goods and services between India and the UK has doubled since 1993. In fact, it grew by about 20% in 2005 to 7.9 billion pounds. UK exports to India (goods up by 25.3% and services up by 12.3%) grew by 21.3% in 2005.
On November 3, Prince Andrew inaugurated the BSI-Indian Concrete Institute seminar on 'Structural Codes, Concrete Structures and Earthquake design.' The seminar was to highlight to Indian engineers, consultants, academics and code writers the importance of adopting Urocodes.
BSI is the chief architect of Urocodes and is the National standards body of the UK in developing standards and standardisation solutions to meet the needs of business and society.
Structural Urocodes are modern design codes which facilitate innovative and economic designs, sufficiently flexible in their application to be used anywhere in the world.
"Events like these are extremely important in bilateral relations. This may be a dry, academic subject but will enable greater economic activity between India and not only the UK, but Europe and also globally," The Duke of York remarked.
(Above) Prince Andrew at a seminar in Chennai on Friday.
Photograph: Sreeram Selvaraj