10th November 2013
Chennai, India
It’s really hard to believe that I’ve been in Chennai for 2 months: it still feels like a dream. Our departure from Cameroon was quick, with a one-week stop in the UK for a brilliant Course on South Asia at Kings. The perfect induction into Asia after 4 brilliant if challenging years in Africa. Working […]
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18th July 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Some UK visitors to India, and British newspaper headlines, seem to consider that business here should be ours by “divine right”, as if it is Britain’s for the taking. We have, the argument goes, a special relationship with India – language, law, cricket, immigrants – which means that we must have an advantage on the commercial playing field. […]
Read more on Farewell to Mumbai (Part 2): Doing better than we think | Reply (4)
12th July 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The strongest impression on most overseas visitors to Mumbai are the contrasts: between the lavish apartment buildings and the slums around the airport, between the exotic stores selling $2000 saris and the street food vendors outside offering 10 rupee snacks, between the packed trains arriving in the mainline stations and the air-conditioned luxury cars cruising the streets. […]
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4th June 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Last Friday 31 May was a momentous date. For on that date, in New York, the 27-strong High Level Panel appointed by the UN Secretary General – and co-chaired by the British Prime Minister, David Cameron; Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf; and Indonesian President Dr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono presented its final report on the post-2015 […]
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23rd May 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Some countries don’t share much of a sense of humour, but for whatever reasons that cannot be said of India and the UK. So when the British High Commissioner, James Bevan, referred to a line from “Yes Minister” in a speech he could be confident that his Indian, as well, as British audience would catch […]
Read more on Breaking into the India market – courageous decisions paying off | Reply (4)
23rd April 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
A number of the Tata Group’s top executives have said that you can’t understand their Group until you have visited Jamshedpur. I confess at first I had little idea where the place was, but after a warm invitation from Messrs Muthuraman and Nerurkar, Vice Chairman and Managing Director respectively of Tata Steel, I soon found out […]
Read more on The heart of India’s largest business – brimming with wide streets and parks | Reply (3)
15th March 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The Prime Minister’s visit to India in February set a number of firsts: the first by a British PM to Mumbai for 20 years, the first by a PM to Amritsar, and the first to India (or anywhere) to be joined by over 120 businesspeople. The size of the business group set us in Mumbai […]
Read more on Gas fields, gels and gin – mixing it with the PM’s visit | Reply
21st February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Visits by the Prime Minister don’t come round too often to most FCO Posts, unless you happen to be in Brussels or Washington. Although I have met some “ex-PMs” in recent postings in Manila and Sydney, it’s more years than I care to remember when I was last involved in a visit by a current […]
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23rd January 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The State of Gujarat, an hour’s flight north of Mumbai, can claim many important contributions to India. It was the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, another key leader of the independence movement and India’s first Home Minister, and Jamsetji Tata, the founder of the massive eponymous conglomerate, hails from Navsari in Gujarat. Gujarat […]
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7th December 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Many people in London, and other parts of the UK, think they know a good deal about the Mayor of the capital, Boris Johnson: judging from the number of British tourists who greeted him in hotels or on the streets of Mumbai he must also be one of our most widely recognised politicians. Less well […]
Read more on The return of Boris to Bollyland: 48 hours of business | Reply (1)
