Senior and key members of the UK department for international trade, Mike Short (left) and Chris Moore. (Photo: Danish Khan)
Two key officials from the UK Department of International Trade (DIT) attended the inaugural "Tech Tuesdays" meeting in London that aims to bring together various stakeholders in conversation with key officials from the UK government in the backdrop of the India-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations.
Mike Short, chief scientific adviser, and Chris Moore, technology specialist, at DIT, spoke freely and at length on the opportunities, challenges and the way forward for co-operation between India and the UK in technology and allied sectors. Considering that Indian IT companies have become global giants and have spawned a whole generation of software engineers and tech innovators, the UK is keen to attract and retain them.
Mike Short, key and senior member at the UK department of international trade. (Photo: Danish Khan)
Short played a key role in the launch of 2G and 3G mobile technologies in the UK and has the responsibility of boosting UK’s scientific and engineering exports. Short also has to ensure that DIT’s policies are “supported by the best science, engineering and technical advice.” Moore has interests in artificial intelligence, data analytics, cybersecurity and is responsible for assisting technology companies to enter the UK market and facilitate UK-based companies to expand globally.
Here are some of the key pointers that came out during the discussion which took place in the spacious office of the law firm K&L Gates LLP.
Mike Short: We also see a lot of interest in areas like electric vehicles, how do you roll out electric vehicles? That's an engineering challenge, but it's also a physical challenge. How do you get charging points around the country not just in India, not just in the UK, but anywhere. Actually, some of the skills in that area are still in short supply. How do you then make sure the amount of cars and the charging mechanisms relates to the charging positions that exist? How do you connect to the charging posts so that you know that they're vacant to park your car to charge it? How do you make sure the billing works routinely? So, there are lots of practical issues in that whole electric vehicle charging area that still needs some attention. And there was some interest in India in that area. I think we can also see the traditional university-university links that could be strengthened. Some of that already has some sign of movement in that positive direction.
Short: I have been an assessor for the AI startups that have gone into Technation for the last four years — to help them have the mentoring, to help them have the access to finance, to help them to make sure they can scale up their business plans. And that's been actually a very successful programme. Now it is in the fourth year and we were talking about how does that progress, and the UK actually is very strong in areas like AI and we can see that in the numbers; the investment numbers from a venture capital point of view, from relative to UK compared to other countries in Europe point of view, but also from the inward investment point of view as well. And I think what we are talking about is can we take this on to another level, like applied AI or Deep tech in a different way.
Chris Moore: And I think it's quite interesting to talk about Technation and what they do, because the applied AI is one thing amongst probably a dozen or more different program mes they have. Several of it focus on specific areas of technology — Fintech, cybersecurity AI and net zero. Really focusing on the clean growth agenda, and to have the UK based companies to grow by and to address the problems and issues in the clean space. I think the other thing that Tech Nation does is that they produce a number of reports, and the reports are very useful — a snapshot of what's going on in the UK. We also work across the whole of the UK through our regional partners to help companies based either in Manchester or Middlesbrough or London or wherever in the UK to be successful. So, helping them find work in this market, helping them to find funding sources. And ultimately, to think about opportunities and hence because they are also supporting, we [DIT] have a lot of overlap and collaboration with Tech Nation.
Short: Clearly we've come out of a pandemic where people have been locked in their bedrooms making zoom calls everywhere. But, as they come out of their bedrooms, we can see lots of interest in several settings. One of the things I did last October was the launch of the third health-tech directory looking at digital health. During the pandemic we've seen lots of people changing within the National Health Service (NHS) and also in health provision to more digital online techniques so we can see that almost as a boom centre where people are saying I can't see my GP, I need video calls. I need to have queuing systems. I need to have transfer of data. I need lots of systems that help me work in the digital world and that third directory is the third annual directory we've issued in the last three years.
Quite simply, it is evident that the NHS is trying different approaches to digital health, online care, new approaches to social care, and I think that will continue to grow as we have in some countries like the UK an ageing population we have a need to optimize and transform health and social services. And we have had since the first directory was published three years ago lots of inbound interest from international investors and also other countries interested in the directory. So, they're looking at the directory for solutions that they could take from the UK with the credibility of the UK and take it to other countries. It's opened up for some combinations where some startups combine with others because they can see complementary capabilities that are useful. And you often get that in accelerators where the companies sometimes come together because they see themselves as being complementary or having additional talent pool that could be useful to each other.
Indian businesses and UK universities
Chris Moore, key and senior member at the UK department of international trade. (Photo: Danish Khan)
Moore: The UK universities are a very strong driver for international businesses to come here, develop relationships with universities, and access some of these funding mechanisms. But I think overall it's just about talent. I've spoken to many countries from say North America who say actually the cost of data scientists in Silicon Valley is almost prohibitive for them. So many of those have moved forward with setting up R&D facilities in the UK. I think, if we look at collaboration between the UK and India, there are a lot of good examples of Indian companies who have established in the UK to grow their business internationally. There are lots more opportunities for such collaborations.
Short: I was at the Bangalore Tech Summit in November and it was just really impressive to see the start-up community. One of the reasons to be there was to understand how startups in India, could be startups in the UK. So we have recently talked to companies like Wipro and Tech Mahindra and Tata and others. And I think there's plenty of room for that Anglo-Indian collaboration with some of the big IT companies. There's also a need to exchange knowledge between the UK and India in some areas, not just about finance, not just about technologies, but in areas such as 5G, for example. 5G only launched in India in October, but it was launched three-four years ago here in the UK, and therefore is there some knowledge exchange that would help in that area. There's also a need, I think, to think about systems integrators — who are the leading systems integrators. There are lots of strong software companies in India who could be really strong system integrators in the UK. Some of them have a presence here, but not necessarily scaled up to serve all the operators or the whole needs of the IT community. But we can see a rise in interest in that area. Some of them as leading software houses serve the City of London already, so it's not too ridiculous to imagine some pivot into other sectors if they wish to do that.
Moore: One of the sectors that contributes to accelerator activities is cybersecurity, and not all companies want to come to London. In cybersecurity much of the activity is outside London. So one of the most successful acceleration activity made by the National Cyber Security Centre in collaboration with DCMS — Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sports — and other colleagues has operated from Cheltenham. More recently Manchester has much evolved as a centre for cybersecurity. It has come up as an easier location for companies to engage and explore opportunities, and it is being replicated in Scotland and Wales and particularly Northern Ireland. After Cheltenham and Manchester, Belfast is the other huge centre for cybersecurity activity.
Short: E-commerce is booming, whether it is B2B or B2C and therefore people want to make sure that the goods they have ordered come to them and not something fraudulent happens along the way or mistaken identity or stolen goods. There’s a lot of activity around making sure that the right level of cybersecurity applies to e-commerce transactions.
Imagine if you're in the City of London and you're handling stocks and shares that are traded every second or microsecond. That really puts pressure on the cybersecurity available with time in mind andactually the UK has some pretty good strengths at looking at timing and positioning, minimising fraud, minimising the risk. The Cyber security label sometimes comes across as a bit technocratic, but if you think about the usage side of cybersecurity, there are lots of skills in the UK. We have some really strong capability in those areas, but we also find a lot of interest from international investors look to the UK, and the varied skills that we have here. Some of the capability in GCHQ might be more protecting the nation, but actually some of the technocrats there have done a lot more than just that. Things like identity management, face recognition, capability to add value to make sure the right person is transacting, not the wrong person, or the right person gets the right delivery at the right time. I think some of the areas around timing quite important as well.
Short: I'm involved with the National Physical Laboratory and the National Timing program which is looking at atomic clocks and high precision play into the cybersecurity. I am also on the national Quantum Technology Program, which is a major program looking at different areas of quantum technology, but things like quantum sensing and quantum timing will play a part in cybersecurity. So, we've got a pipeline. It's not just applications today, it's a pipeline for the future. Quantum computers are a few years away, but actually we can already see in telecoms quantum key distribution playing a key part to make sure that data is protected. We can also see that there's the beginning of people thinking about quantum aware networks, and I'm sure at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona we will hear more.
Short: One of the events we are supporting at the end of February is something called Mobile World Congress. It may well hit close to 100,000 people going to it in Barcelona at the end of February. Let's see post pandemic the numbers are going up, but the number of UK companies we counted at the end of December was close to 100 out of 800 stands. We at DIT will be supporting 100 UK companies going to Mobile World Congress.
Moore: There was a big quite a big DIT team that participated in web summit, which is very much a focal point for startup companies, not just from the European region, but from all of the world. And of course, the other big event that takes place every year in the UK is London Technology week, which has been going on for quite a long time. The DIT presence has a role to to curate some of these events, to bring in speakers from all over the world and also to support companies that are participating. And many (small) companies discover that though they come just for the tech week, but within a number of months they decide that UK is the right destination for them.
