UK-India Week 2022: Reimagining True Potential of a Winning Partnership

The UK-India Week is organised by India Global Forum (IGF) annually as a celebration of the myriad facets of this important bilateral relationship, which is poised at a critical point this year with the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations going full steam ahead towards a Diwali timeline.

According to official estimates, an FTA with India is expected to nearly double UK exports to India and massively boost jobs in both economies. A trade deal is expected to boost Britain’s total trade by as much as £28 billion a year by 2035 and increase wages across different parts of the United Kingdom by £3 billion.

The ongoing FTA discussions are expected to be central to the wide-ranging deliberations and interactions over the course of UK-India Week (27 June to 1 July). However, the UK-India partnership goes beyond just trade and economic exchanges and touches upon every sphere of life – from the cultural and creative to collaboration in crucial sectors such as climate action, healthcare, technology, innovation and much more, with the vibrant Indian diaspora in the UK acting as the living bridge of this deep bond.  

UK-India Week 2022 is themed as Reimagine@75 to celebrate the scale and multi-faceted aspect of this winning partnership while celebrating 75 years of bilateral relations.

Some of the highlight speakers confirmed:

• Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, UK Government
• Dr S Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs, Government of India
• Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, UK Government
• Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Government of India
• Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Education and Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India
• Bhupender Yadav, Minister of Labour & Employment, Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Government of India
• Dr Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Skill Development, Entrepreneurship, Electronics and IT, Government of India
• Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State for External Affairs of India
• Alok Sharma, President, COP 26
• Lord Gerry Grimstone of Boscobe, Minister of Investment, Government of UK
• Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade, UK Government
• Bill Winters, Group Chief Executive, Standard Chartered
• Arianna Huffington, Founder & CEO, Thrive
• Harmeen Mehta, Chief Digital & Innovation Officer, BT
• Dr Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, Lok Sabha
• Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-Founder & CEO, OLA
• Amit Kapur, Country Head, TCS UK and Ireland, Tata Consultancy Services
• Sadhguru, Founder, Isha Foundation

Complete list of a galaxy of high-level speakers here

Prof. Manoj Ladwa, Founder and CEO of IGF, said: “We desperately need to reimagine the mutual value and potential of UK-India relations in the face of growing global mistrust in the established multilateral world order.

“UK-India Week 2022 comes at an opportune moment in this winning partnership, just as we are in the process of reimagining our trading relations with an FTA in the works. The sheer breadth and depth of the programme of this high-power week reflects the ambitious scale to which this relationship can be elevated and reimagined!”