British firms ink multi-million pound deals in India

NEW DELHI - Visiting British Business Secretary Vince Cable Thursday announced a series of multi-million pound deals signed between British and Indian firms.

The deals spanning sectors like infrastructure, high-technology and defence were signed during the two-day trip of the British Prime Minister David Cameron.

“India is a country where you don’t have to be a multinational to succeed. We have superb UK companies operating here in partnership with Indian firms, and I would encourage more UK firms to explore the opportunities here,” Cable told reporters.

“While Benoy architecture firm will develop infrastructure projects, picoChip will provide technology for the 4G network, other companies like BAE and Griffons will collaborate and do business in the defence sectors,” said Cable on the sidelines of the launch of 1,00,000 J.C. Bamford (JCB) excavator manufactured in India.

Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath, who was present on the occasion, remembered the visit of the then British Premier John Major in 1993 and said 17 years had passed since India and Britain forged economic partnership.

“I remember the visit of then Prime Minister John Major, and now after 17 years we have to fully realise the economic potential between India and Britain.”

The deals which were announced by Cable include:

- London-based Benoy architecture firm bagged three projects in Bangalore and Mumbai. The company will develop retail centre on the Bangalore airport expressway, and a residential complex in Bangalore, while it will develop mixed-use commercial site in Mumbai.

- PicoChip an Information Technology (IT) company will provide its wireless baseband technology for the development of 4G base stations in India. The firm will work with its Indian partner Rancore Technologies Limited under a multi-million pound deal.

- Griffon Hoverwork, the manufacturers of hovercraft has bagged a 34 million pound contract to sell hovercraft to the Indian coastguard.

- Xchanging, an business processing firm has signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Karnataka government to build 2,000 seat processing centre in a Special Economic Zone

(SEZ).

The multiple deals, come a day after British aerospace major BAE Systems Wednesday inked an 700 million pound agreement with state-run Indian defence behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) for the licensed production of 57 additional Hawk advanced jet trainers (AJTs).