4th February 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
We welcomed to Mumbai in January the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Dr Vince Cable. He came with an extensive professional and personal knowledge of India, and indeed affection for the country. He was happily married for thirty five years, until her death, to a lady whose parents were from Goa, and […]
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27th January 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Two senior figures in British politics were in Mumbai in January – Vince Cable and Boris Johnson. Boris Johnson and Peter Beckingham Two senior figures in British politics were in Mumbai in January – Vince Cable, Cabinet Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills, and Boris Johnson, The Mayor of London. They don’t […]
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10th December 2010
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
On Thursday 18 November forty people gathered pre-dawn at one of India’s most historic sites, the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, where Mahatma Gandhi lived for many years. The occasion was the beginning of an India-UK Friendship Walk, which my wife Jill has organised with massive support from members of the Association of British Scholars in […]
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5th October 2010
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
At India’s largest annual banking conference in Mumbai in September, the British Minister for Commercial Services in the Treasury was asked about the development of Islamic banking in England. Lord Sassoon was able to spell out how a number of UK banks had started to offer specific services for Islamic customers. Some overseas visitors to the […]
Read more on Opening banks in London – all in a month’s work for one former distinguished Mumbai family | Reply
12th August 2010
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Seen from Mumbai the visit by the Prime Minister David Cameron, six Ministers and a large delegation received a great deal of attention in the Indian and British press. I don’t want to add to the column inches about the visit – the concluding press statements by the two Prime Ministers give a clear summary […]
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28th June 2010
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The British Business Group in Pune invited me to their AGM (Annual General Meeting) in mid June. Pune is Maharashtra State’s second largest city and I have heard estimates of a population between four to six million. The national census this year should give the figure. Pune is the major centre for the automotive sector […]
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27th May 2010
Islamabad, Pakistan
Whatever else Pakistanis may think about India, the evidence of economic growth there is hard to deny. Last week I visted Gurgaon, the new city outside New Delhi. It is mushrooming. Twelve years ago, when I last took a look, it practically wasn’t there. Now it has all the shopping malls, office blocks and building […]
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