UK, India sign deals worth over Rs. 90k cr

Telecom giant Vodafone's pledge of investing £1.3 billion (Rs 13,078 crore; at £1= Rs 100.6) in its India services was one of the big-bang investment proposals announced by British and Indian companies during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the UK. On Friday, Britain and India welcomed £9 billion (Rs 90,540 crore) in more than 20 deals and collaborations.

A statement from British Prime Minister David Cameron said: 'During this visit, British and Indian companies are announcing new collaborations, together worth more than £9 billion.'

India and Britain had shown political will to push their bilateral relations and it was now for the business communities of the two sides to take them forward, Modi said in an address to the UK-India CEO forum on Friday. 'India and the UK are economically made for each other. This relationship has to be driven by private sector CEOs,' Modi said.

Cameron also articulated a similar position. 'We both have the political will to take our economic relationship forward,' he said at the forum meet.

Later, speaking at the Wembley Stadium, Modi promised a new chapter for India in the world and held up all the economic liberalisation measures his government had introduced to eliminate poverty forever.

Vodafone's move to deepen investments in India shows the company has put the bitterness generated by back tax and revenue demands behind it. Vodafone plans to spend Rs 8,000 crore to upgrade its network, Rs 3,000 crore to increase capacity and improve technology and customer experience centres in Pune and Ahmedabad, and Rs 1,000 crore on a data centre. It will also spend Rs 1,000 crore for its payments bank, Vodafone M-Pesa.

Since starting operations in India in 2007, Vodafone has invested Rs 1,11,000 crore and has brought in the largest foreign direct investment into the country.

Companies in other industries also responded enthusiastically to Modi's visit. Lightsource, the largest solar photovoltaic generator in Europe, announced a £2 billion (Rs 20,120 crore) investment to design, install and manage three gigawatts of solar power infrastructure in India over the next five years.

UK-listed OPG Power Ventures will add £2.9 billion (Rs 29,174 crore) to its current investment in India, taking it to a total of £3.4 billion (Rs 34,204 crore). The investment will create 4,200 Mw of power capacity, of which 1,000 Mw will be solar power and 3,200 Mw will be thermal and renewable power in Tamil Nadu.

BS