British PM Offers Easier Access For Indian Business Travelers, Not Students

New Delhi: Britain should not wait until it leaves the European Union to develop deeper trade ties with India, Prime Minister Theresa May said in New Delhi on Monday, promising to ease access for Indian business travelers. But she made no such promise for Indian students. 

Making her first visit to India since taking office in July, Ms May described the potential of the British-Indian relationship as "limitless" and announced a scheme to make it quicker and easier for Indian business travelers to clear passport control. 

She was attending an India-UK Tech Summit in New Delhi at the start of a two-day trip that will take her on Tuesday to the tech hub of Bengaluru. Prime Minister Narendra too addressed the summit before the leaders headed into bilateral talks over lunch at Delhi's Hyderabad House.

Ms May, who said she wants Britain to be a global leader in free trade, has said she plans to use the visit to try to reduce barriers to trade with India and pave the way for a post-Brexit free-trade deal. 

But with the Indian government keen to secure more access to Britain for students and skilled workers, visa numbers are likely to be a sticking point in any talks.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was vital that India and Britain work together to define the knowledge economy of the 21st century, and invited UK partners to get involved in his signature policy initiatives such as his plan to develop 100 "smart" cities.

He also called for "greater mobility and participation of young people in educational and research opportunities" - an apparent reference to the sharp fall in the number of Indian nationals studying in Britain since 2010.

 During that period, when Ms May was interior minister, the number of Indian students in Britain fell to 11,864 in June 2015 from 68,238 five years earlier.

Some of Ms May's cabinet colleagues and business leaders in both countries have urged her to exclude foreign students from Britain's statistics on net migration, which the British PM has vowed to bring below 100,000 a year, from 336,000 in 2015.

Today, Theresa May said it was "crucial" that those who do need to travel between UK and India for business can do so, but she indicated earlier that she saw no reason to change the UK visa regime.

Responding, Amitabh Kant, the head of the Indian government's policy think tank said that while India was opening up its manufacturing sector to foreign investors, its professionals faced restrictions on working in the UK and other Western countries.

"There is no such thing as selective free trade," Mr Kant told the tech summit when asked about Ms May's emphasis on striking a free trade agreement with India.

En route to India, Theresa May said Britain already issued more work visas to Indian nationals than to those from China, Australia and the United States combined.

"We have a visa system for countries outside the European Union which ensures the brightest and the best are able to come to the United Kingdom," she said. "We have, I believe, a good system. We will be talking about trade here."

Britain will offer new services to improve business travel for Indian visitors, including faster clearance through UK border controls, she said at the tech meet.  An aide to Ms May said this was about speeding up the process rather than boosting numbers.

A select group of high-net-worth Indians, nominated by New Delhi, will also be offered access to a "bespoke" visa and immigration service by Britain, Ms May's office said.