UK - India ties

British PM David Cameron has allocated to himself the charge of dealing with India, while Deputy PM Nick Clegg will handle China, says an informed source. This reflects the preference the new coalition attaches to ties with Delhi as opposed to Beijing. It emerged that Cameron will be accompanied by his secretary of state for business, innovation & skills, Dr Vince Cable, and a high level delegation of chief executives of FTSE 100 companies and elites of educational institutions on his state visit to India later this month. The new Conservative-Liberal Democrats alliance perceives that the former Labour party foreign secretary David Miliband caused a chill in Indo-British ties by appearing to meddle on Kashmir and giving a clean chit to Islamabad on 26/11. “Cameron bets future on India’s meteoric rise,’’ headlined a story in the pro-Conservative Sunday Telegraph. It quoted the director of International and UK operations at the British Confederation of Business and Industry (CBI), Andy Scott, as saying: “There has been a feeling that India has not perhaps had the kind of focus that China has.’’ A “special relationship’’ is being forged because of India’s impressive economic growth. Cameron aims to increase bilateral trade to £30 billion by 2015 from the present £11.5 billion, with licensing of intellectual property one of the core UK policies. India’s insatiable defence needs is another area British companies would tap into. They also see opportunities in pharmaceuticals and clean energy, where UK is quite competitive.