The UK-India Capital Markets Working Group's initiative, led by the City of London Corporation, in partnership with the India UK Financial Partnership (IUKFP), for attracting inflows to India’s capital markets will help the economy, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
"India-UK strategic collaboration helped to accelerate the development of GIFT City with Standard Chartered and HSBC opening offices in Gift City in 2020, becoming the first foreign banks to be licensed to operate an international banking unit," the finance minister said while participating in Global Responses to Coronavirus during the 10th India-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) through Video Conferencing in New Delhi on October 28.
Sitharaman said India-UK economic ties are important, as together they are two of the world’s top seven economies with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of over $5 trillion. "India-UK trade has more than doubled since the first EFD in 2007, with bilateral investment supporting over half a million jobs across both countries."
Sitharaman said India and the UK have joint investment of up to 8 million pounds between their departments of biotechnology for research into factors leading to severity of the novel coronavirus.
UK Chancellor of Exchequer Rishi Sunak conveyed to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman that he appreciated India becoming second largest PPE manufacturer in the world.
Sitharaman said the UK-India FinTech Joint Working Group met in March 2020 to seek greater acceptance of RuPay Cards in the UK. She said FinTech is a key engagement area for cooperation as a sunshine sector where India is number four in terms of potential.
"UK-India Fast-Track Start-Up Fund backed by SIDBI and the UK Government will fund early-stage tech start-ups with technical assistance focused on capacity building, policy advocacy, and deepening entrepreneurial connects with the UK," Sitharaman said.
