LONDON: British Prime MinisterTheresa May is expected to visit India early next month, according to highly-placed sources involved in finalising the details of her first trip to the country as premier.

May’s visit is likely to coincide with the India-UK Tech Summitin New Delhi between November 7 and 9, they said.
The India UK TECH Summit 2016, will provide a platform for promoting technology-intensive trade and investments between the two countries.

“Tech summit will show that when we work together, the UK and India are an ‘unbeatable combination’ as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stated. Britain is open for business and we want to do even more business with India.

“The UK has been the top G20 investor in India, consistently, since the turn of the century, and India invests more in the UK than it does in all other European Union countries combined. Our trade relationship is booming, our researchers collaborate on all manner of issues, and our people visit each other’s countries for study and tourism.

“The TECH Summit will see British and Indian entrepreneurs, experts and leaders in various fields related to technology converge and drive our partnership further still,” a British High Commission statement quoting British Deputy High Commissioner to India Alexander Evans said.

The summit will comprise of separate thematic summits on ‘Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship’ and ‘British Expertise in Higher Education’, ‘Design and Intellectual Property’.

Narendra Modi (R) shakes hands with Britain's PM Theresa May at G20 Summit 2016 (AFP PHOTO )
Narendra Modi (R) shakes hands with Britain’s PM Theresa May at G20 Summit 2016 (AFP PHOTO )

The summit will also host a major delegation from the UK, highlighting the UK’s capabilities across important sectors like smart cities, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, agri-tech, education and skills.

The Summit will also host a major exhibition of UK-India technological collaboration and excitingly, a Hackathon organised by Barclays Rise, where young Indian students, entrepreneurs and tech-professionals will participate in a competition to find a solution to a specially-posed technical problem.

There will also be a focus on Indian investment and entrepreneurship in the UK and the 10 winners of the Tech Rocketship Awards will be announced at the Summit.

The bilateral summit was among the major announcements made during Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s visit to the UK in November 2015.

The India-UK partnership has since moved into a new era, with Britain voting to leave the European Union (EU) in a referendum in June and leading to the resignation of then Prime Minister David Cameron.

 May, 60, as the post-Brexit leader of the country, has often mentioned India among the priority countries for a free trade agreement to boost the UK’s ties outside the EU.
 Therefore, trade is expected to feature high on the agenda during her India visit, when she is expected to hold bilateral talks with Modi and other senior ministers.