Britain on Wednesday said outsourcing was "inevitable and beneficial" and asked India to lift the cap on foreign investment in areas like banking, insurance, accountancy, law and financial services.

"Outsourcing is a sensitive issue in the United Kingdom. But the British government is taking steps to boost competitiveness of the country and enable its workforce to be engaged higher up in the value chain," British High Commissioner to India Michael Arthur told a Confederation of Indian Industry function in New Delhi.

"Outsourcing is an inevitable and economically beneficial consequence of globalisation. But so too will Indian companies benefit - we believe - if you allow full access in India to services like insurance, banking, accountancy, law and financial services - where we in Britain are world competitive," he said.

Arthur said after the United States and Japan, the United Kingdom was the third largest investor in the country while India has become the eighth biggest investor in Britain.

He asked the Indian companies to do business through the London Stock Exchange which had greater financial depth than both NYSE and Nasdaq combined.

On World Trade Organisation, he said though India and Britain do not have identical interests in what the final Doha round conclusions should ideally be, "we do have a shared interest in ensuring that there is such a conclusion and that the global trading regime moves forward and liberalises."

Arthur said Britain would like to see greater Indian access to the European Union markets for agricultural produce. The two countries have a shared interest in avoiding protectionism, he added.