New Delhi: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has expressed his support for more skilled visas for Indians as part of the efforts to expedite the ambitious free trade agreement (FTA) being negotiated between the two countries.
Speaking to reporters from the UK on the prime ministerial flight to Ahmedabad on Wednesday night, Johnson acknowledged a massive shortage of experts in IT and programming sectors and said Britain needed "hundreds of thousands" of workers with in-demand skills.
Here are the live updates of Boris Johnson's India visit:
Apr 21, 2022 10:05 (IST)
In favour of talented people coming to UK: Boris Johnson on visas
Speaking on the plane on his way to India, Boris Johnson signalled he was ready to be more accommodating on an issue that could have stalled the talks. "I have always been in favour of talented people coming to this country," Mr Johnson told reporters. "We are short to the tune of hundreds of thousands of people in our economy and we need to have a progressive approach and we will."
Apr 21, 2022 10:04 (IST)
More UK visas for Indians?
Boris Johnson indicated he was ready to offer more visas to India in return for this year clinching a free-trade deal that could boost annual bilateral trade by billions of pounds, news agency Reuters reported.
Apr 21, 2022 10:02 (IST)
Boris Johnson's Gujarat schedule
Boris Johnson will visit Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad later. He is also likely to meet with businessman Gautam Adani. Then the British Prime Minister will fly to Vadodara, where he will visit a plant of the heavy machine firm JCB. From there, he will go to Gandhinagar's Gujarat International Finance Tec-City or GIFT City. He will go to Delhi in the evening.
Apr 21, 2022 08:46 (IST)
India-UK defence ties
The UK is ready to help in realising PM Modi's vision of making India a hub for defence manufacturing and that the country was ready for the transfer of technologies for joint production of military hardware, news agency PTI reported.
Apr 21, 2022 08:45 (IST)
Boris Johnson meeting with PM tomorrow
Boris Johnson will meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow. A major focus of Mr Johnson's talks with PM Modi will be on the situation in the Indo-Pacific as the UK is strongly opposed to any kind of coercion in the region.
