UK Chancellor George Osborne gives a thumbs up to India growth story

LONDON: UK’s chancellor George Osborne came out with a solid vote of confidence for the India story despite a lack of business confidence in India’s progress. Osborne, who on his last visit to India was grappling with issues like Vodafone’s tax case, is now far more positive about India, and wants to encourage British SMEs to invest in India: “P Chidambaram has done a great job in showing the world and telling the world that India is open for business,” the Chancellor said, on a day in which he’s hosting finance minister P Chidambaram for a series of meetings at 11, Downing Street.


“There were some people who had questions a couple of years ago, but P Chidambaram has settled those doubts. The retail reforms, the pension bill – looking at them from the outside, the initiatives are the right initiatives and has done a huge amount to assure investors that India wants to trade and invest more with the rest of the world,” said Osborne. While everyone can hope that reforms are completed soon, “in a democracy it’s up to parliament to decide what to do, and as we know very well in Britain, democracy can sometimes be a very messy business,” he said.

To back up his positive outlook, the Chancellor, who himself drives a Landrover, made by the Tatas, said that Britain is putting a “huge effort” behind increasing trade with India, and to encourage small and medium British businesses to expand and engage globally with India. “We have announced a special scheme to help small businesses enter India – a lot of investment into India has been through family business, but if you are a small and medium British company thinking about entering India, this is the time to go for it,” he said. The UK government, along with private sector players like the Tatas are helping smaller firms to navigate India, with special funding from the Treasury.

Osborne believes that London can emerge as a global centre to raise capital for Indian infrastructure financing, and said Britain is keen to be involved with India’s massive infrastructure plans – he took Chidambaram on a tour of Cross Rail (the east west London train line being constructed). “There are some 14 or 15 Indian cities looking at new metros,” he said.