Select Committee on Business and Enterprise Written Evidence


APPENDIX

DIRECTOR'S REPORT

INTRODUCTION

  2006-07 has been a very significant year for the IBPN.

  In June 2006 the House of Commons Trade and Industry Committee report on India confirmed the Government's recognition of the IBPN as the UK's lead body in promoting and developing Indo-British trade relations and recommended that IBPN should be, "the de facto Indo-British Chamber of Commerce".

  In October 2006, Lord Bilimoria, Chairman IBPN, chaired the UK-India Prime Ministerial summit that for the first time brought together top tiers of Government, business and partner organisations to develop further the countries' two-way investment relationship.

  In November 2006 the Board met for its first ever "away day" to discuss a strategy to take the IBPN forward. A business plan was produced as a result of this meeting and a funding application was made to increase the funding that IBPN receives.

  In January 2007 we were delighted when the former Chancellor, Gordon Brown, announced that the Government intended to boost its annual funding of the IBPN to £1 million, a significant increase on its previous level of £75,000. It is intended that government funding will be matched by private sector sponsorship, membership fees and the provision of charged services.

  Another key achievement this year has been that FICCI and CII have come together on the IBP board in India allowing us to engage with a cross section of industry in India.

BUSINESS REVIEW AND PRINCIPAL ACTIVITIES

Board

  The IBPN board is made up of 21 members and has been formed comprising of representatives from leading UK companies from the fields of finance, healthcare, accountancy, business and legal services, tourism, the creative industries, education and other affiliated organisations including the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), International Business Link and the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC).

  Representatives of UK Trade & Investment, the Indian High Commission, the Confederation of Indian Industries, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, British Chambers of Commerce, Lord Mayors's Office and the Mayor's Office also attend selected board meetings as observers.

Secretariat

  Asia House have continued to manage the Secretariat of the IBPN. The Chief Executive, Stefan Kosciuszko (supported by Programme Manager Abha Thorat and Programme Assistant Saeqah Kabir) manage the secretariat including the organisation of events, contribution to policy papers, management of the website and membership activities. The Secretariat works in close cooperation with the South Asia Unit at UKTI.

Membership

  IBPN membership is thoroughly inclusive and currently offered for free regardless of size and industry, all British based and Indian companies, entrepreneurs and individuals who are interested in trade, business and investment between the UK and India are eligible for membership.

  In its second year of operation the IBPN has over 700 members via the efforts of the secretariat, the Board and the portal. Membership interest now comes from varied sources including creative industries, banks, law firms, SMEs and Indian companies visiting to do business in the UK.

Events and Activities

  The IBPN secretariat organizes a board meeting bi-monthly with visiting expert speakers. These meetings have been held at Asia House, the London Stock Exchange, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, BNP Paribas, Olswang, Mansion House and the DTI/UKTI offices. This year we have had presentations and briefings from

    —  The Lord Mayor, Sir David Brewer and his accompanying business delegation on their official visit to India (April 2006)

    —  Mr Marios Maratheftis, Economist from Standard Chartered Bank on the overall economic trends in the world and their effect on India in particular. (June 2006)

    —  Mr John Dunsmure, Managing Director, British Chambers of Commerce Enterprises Ltd on BCC's plans for India. (August 2006)

    —  Mr Sonjoy Chatterjee, MD& CEO ICICI Bank London on the growth of ICICI Bank in the UK and his role as Chairman of the "India Group" a private sector alliance of India's largest corporates in UK and Europe. (October 2006)

    —  Rt Hon Richard Caborn, MP, Minister for Sport on his trip to India (December 2006)

    —  Mr Jitesh Gadhia, Managing Director, ABN Amro Bank on the Tata Corus Transaction (Feb 2007)

    —  Sir Brian Bender, Permanent Secretary at the Department of Trade & Industry on DTI and their support for the IBPN (March 2007)

    —  Ms Kirsten Bound of the think-tank DEMOS on the "Atlas of Ideas" -an 18-month study of science and innovation in China, India and South Korea, with a focus on new opportunities for collaboration with the UK and Europe. (April 2007)

    —  Mr Ian McCartney, MP Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs on his trip to India and UKTI's support for the IBPN (April 2007)

    —  Mr Philip Bouverat, Director, JCB on their India operations (June 2007)

  The secretariat has also organised a number of high profile events in the last year, including:

    —  IBPN and ASSOCHAM round table meeting at Asia House, 19 May 2006.

    —  Luncheon with the Indian Minister for Communications & Information Technology, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, 14 July 2006. This event was sponsored by Bharti Group.

    —  IBP/IBPN Round Table Meeting at Lancaster House, 27 June 2006.

    —  UK-Gujarat Round Table with a visiting delegation of business leaders from Gujarat in association with FICCI, 6 October 2006. This event was sponsored by BG Group.

    —  Lord Bilimoria, Chairman IBPN chaired the India—UK Investment Summit, 10 October 2006 in which Prime Minister Tony Blair and Dr. Manmohan Singh participated.

    —  Round Table with the Chief Minister of Haryana Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda and meetings with CII business delegation, 16 October 2006. This event was sponsored by JCB.

    —  Luncheon with Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, 31 October 2006. This event was sponsored by UBS Investment Bank.

    —  CEOs luncheon with Indian Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, 29 January 2007. This event was sponsored by Goldman Sachs.

    —  Networking session for Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII)'s Information Technology/ Information Technology Enabled Services (BPO) SME delegation in association with TiE UK, 16 March 2007.

    —  Luncheon meeting with Indian Minister for Commerce and Industry, Mr. Kamal Nath, 4 May 2007.

    —  Business Forum with Mr Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Honourable Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, 11 May 2007.

    —  Luncheon with an Indian Business Leader (Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways) and focus on Aviation, 16 May 2007.

    —  IIFA FICCI Global Business Forum and dinner, 7 June 2007 held during the IIFA Weekend in Leeds.

    —  FICCI IBPN Networking Breakfast, 8 June 2007.

    —  Briefing for IBPN Members on the latest BRICs report by Goldman Sachs Managing Director and Head of Global Economic Research, Jim O Neill and Chief India Economist, Tushar Poddar, 15 June 2007.

  IBPN has also supported a number of other events including "India Calling" in association with the Indian Merchants Chamber (October 2006), and "Doing Business with India" seminar organised by Economist Conferences (Feb 2007).

  IBPN continues to work in partnership with government and industry, including the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), Commonwealth Business Council (CBC), Lord Mayor's Office and the Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC), to deliver the agenda of increasing trade, business and investment between Britain and India both ways.

  The IBPN works closely and interacts on a regular basis with the Indian High Commission in the UK and the British High Commission in India. The IBPN also continues to support senior visitors to India, the Lord Mayor Alderman John Stuttard, South East England Development Authority (SEEDA) and Baroness Ashton, Minister, Department for Constitutional Affairs. The IBPN was also represented by a Board Director (Graham Ward) accompanying the Lord Mayor as part of his official business delegation.

  The IBPN was very proud in June 2006 when its chairman, Karan Bilimoria, was appointed to the House of Lords as one of seven figures recommended to be non-party political peers. Lord Bilimoria continues to be a member the UK-India Round Table and Chancellor Gordon Brown's Asia Task Force.

JETCO

  The JETCO process given its business focus remains integral to the IBPN agenda. Working Groups have been established under JETCO that are business driven and perform an important function under the overall JETCO process, namely that of identifying opportunities for enhanced cooperation in the key areas of agri-business, healthcare, high-technology, infrastructure, legal services, accountancy, financial services and intellectual property rights. Following Board members are members/chairs of these working groups:

    —  Graham Ward: Chair, Accountancy Task Force and Member of the Financial Services Group

    —  Ken Hunt: Member of the Agribusiness Group

    —  Chris Francis: Member of the Healthcare Group

    —  Julian Stretch: Chair of the Hi-tech Group

    —  Martin Harman: Member of the Infrastructure Group

  IBPN's Chairman led the largest ever 150 strong senior UK business delegation drawn from a number of industry sectors to accompany Alistair Darling, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, to India in January 2007 to attend JETCO, Ministerial and business meetings in Delhi and Mumbai and the CII Summit in Bangalore. In April 2007 the IBPN Secretariat brought together, for the first time, all UK chairs/co-ordinators of JETCO working groups to share best practice and common issues between groups and look for synergies and linkages into the IBPN. The IBPN continues to work with the JETCO Groups and UKT&I to meet their objectives and pursue common goals.

Website

  The website portal continues to be a primary source of new membership and information dissemination. New features were added in the course of the year to make it an effective PR tool for the growth of the IBPN and its membership, be the one stop shop for companies wishing to engage with India, provide news/event listings and more comprehensive information and serve as an enhanced networking tool for members. In the last twelve months (April 2006-March 2007) 700,000 hits were made to the website and this level of interest has continued.

FUTURE PROSPECTS

  The IBPN is currently in the process of re-branding. It has also hired its first Chief Executive and will be restructuring its board and moving to its own offices that have already been obtained.

  The IBPN will provide business advisory services for all British companies wishing to trade with India and for Indian companies wishing to invest in the UK. It will continue to contribute to policy formation at the highest level and to the Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) process.

  The IBPN will also continue to operate as a membership organisation for companies, organisations and individuals interested in working with India, by organising events and delegations to take the Indo-British relationship forward. It will raise private sector funding from sponsorships, membership fees and provision of services.

  Its regional representatives will work alongside UKT&I officials in the regions and in India alongside officials of the UK High Commission there.

IBPN BOARD

CHAIRMAN

  Lord Bilimoria CBE, DL, Chairman of Cobra Beer

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

    —  The Hon Apurv Bagri, Managing Director, Metdist

    —  Mrs Sandra Brusby OBE, Chief Executive Officer, Link International Business Solutions

    —  Mr Gautam Dalal, Partner, KPMG

    —  Mr Chris Francis, CEO, Cardionetics

    —  Mr Anthony Good, Chariman, Cox & Kings

    —  Mr Martin Graham, Director of Markets, London Stock Exchange

    —  Mr Toby Greenbury, Partner, Mishcon de Reya

    —  Mr Martin Harman, Chariman, Pinsent Masons

    —  Mr Barry Humphreys, Director of External Affairs & Route Developmen, Virgin Atlantic

    —  Ken Hunt OBE, Business Advisor, IBPN

    —  Dr Mohan Kaul, Chief Executive, Commonwealth Business Council

    —  Mr Richard Meddings, Group Finance Director, Standard Chartered plc

    —  Mr Alpesh Patel, Managing Director, Agile Partners Asset Management Limited

    —  Mr Andy Scott, Director, International and UK Operations, Confederation of British Industry

    —  Mr Julian P Stretch OBE, Business Advisor, IBPN

    —  Ms Judith Unwin OBE, Head UK and Nordic Export Finance, BNP Paribas

    —  Ms Parminder Vir OBE, Business Development Director, Ingenious Media Investments Ltd

    —  Dr Shai Vyakarnam, Director, Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, University of Cambridge

    —  Mr Graham Ward CBE, Senior Partner, Global Energy & Utilities, PriceWaterhouseCoopers

    —  Mr Richard Wolff, Director—International and UK Outlet, Marks & Spencer





 
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Prepared 21 April 2008