Indian trade opportunities in focus
THE country’s largest event focused on boosting trade with India will be held in Manchester next month.
More than 500 businesses are expected to attend the UK India Business Council conference at the Bridgewater Hall on March 10.
Richard Heal, chief executive of the UK India Business council is visiting small firms in Manchester today to raise the profile of the event to businesses based at Manchester Science and Innovation Parks.
He believes there are particular opportunities for Manchester firms to invest in India’s
media and life sciences industries.
The UK India Business Council particularly believes that the rise of Manchester’s digital commerce scene can find opportunities in India’s IT industry which is worth over £30bn.
Fuelled by rising income levels among the world’s largest young population, the Indian entertainment and media sector is also expanding rapidly, and will be worth £15bn by 2014.
Mr Heald said: “India has grown hugely on an economic and demographic basis. What we are seeing is that the population is getting younger. They’ve got higher levels of consumer spending. This generation is focusing on media and entertainment.
“Over 500m people have handsets now. Some 150m households have cable TV. That means more than 600m people have access to cable TV out of a population of 1.2bn and growing. That’s a huge potential market.”
The conference, which is being attended by Tata, Reliance, Hero group, BAE, Rolls Royce, A4e, Arup, Balfour Beattie, and the Wellcome Trust will focus on six key sectors: infrastructure, skills & education, retail, logistics & supply chain, technology, life sciences, and advanced engineering and manufacturing.
As well as keynotye addresses it will provide: workshops, networking opportunities with potential Indian business partners and new market intelligence on the best opportunities.
The event, for which 400 tickets have already been sold, follows David Cameron’s visit to India last July, which underlined the importance of the UK-India business relationships.
