India rise will be major phenomenon of this century: UK PM

The United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron is on a two day visit to India with the largest ever delegation taken abroad by a British Prime Minister. Kicking off the visit at Hindustan Unilever's campus in Mumbai, Cameron stressed on a wide range of topics from taxation to education and trade. CNBC-TV18's Farah Bookwala and Sunanda Jayaseelan report on the mood and the key focus of the Brtish PM's visit.

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David Cameron seems eager to foster new ties and to strengthen old ties. At the Hindustan Unilever campus, he engaged in an interactive session with the company's employees. Cameron stressed how India was Britain’s partner of choice in a range of issues including trade, business and investment, education as well as public health.

Cameron says, "India's rise is going to be one of the major phenomenon of this century. It is incredibly impressive to see the vibrancy of your democracy and great strength of the diversity of your country and endorse power of your economy. It is going to be one of the top three economies by 2030. That is why I am here. Britain wants to be your partner of choice."

Cameron was excited by the fact that Indian government will be doubling their spending on health as a share of the gross domestic product (GDP) and is eager to help India provide those services.

"There is no limit on the number of Indian students who can come and study in British universities. There are also opportunities in our universities to share expertise with Indian universities and to help provide these 40 million extra university places that Indian government is planning," adds Cameron.

Post the Hindustan Unilever interaction, Cameron is set to head to Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Colaba where he will meet the who’s-who of India Inc, the top business leaders.

British PM, David Cameron meets India Inc.

The overall theme for the visit by the first British sitting Prime Minister in over 20 years was economic cooperation. Several big names from the Indian corporate world including Ratan Tata, Adi Godrej, Naina Lal Kidwai were present at this meeting. Focus was laid on areas like education and healthcare, infrastructure, manufacturing and financial services.

In fact, closed door session which will be attended by the corporate India, will focus on how to improve cooperation with the British side. However, it is not just the high level talks, there were also concerns raised by Indian corporates on certain areas which the Indian government will need to do as soon as possible if we are to increase the investment into India specifically on clarifying the tax regime and also to ensure simpler, effective and better enforcement of tax rules and regulations.

Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus, Tata Sons says, "I think it has been a pleasant experience to be in the UK. We value the manner in which the government has supported us. We are in discussion with the government where we feel that incentives and support would make our operations more competitive."

"As far as the entire financial sector goes, banking insurance private equity, there is a lot of engagement in India right now, but it could go substantially up," adds Naina Lal Kidwai, President, FICCI, Country Head, HSBC India.

"The frustration from the UK has been that the sectors they are best and strongest at, are the ones which India is least able to absorb because of the regulations," further adds Kidwai.

Jaspal Bindra, Group ED & CEO, Asia, Standard Chartered Bank says "The Vodafone case made lot of headlines because of the size and being the first victim in the process. There is an accepted wisdom in the Indian authorities, within the government, ministry of finance that going forward there should be far more clarity about the tax regime and it should be as simple as possible."