Phiroz Vandrevala, executive vice president, TCS, is new India co-chair of IBP for 2007-08
June 19, 2007

Phiroz Vandrevala has taken over as the co-chair of the Indo-British Partnership (IBP), from the Indian side, for the year 2007-08, a press release issued by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said here today.

Vandrevala is the executive vice president of Tata Consultancy Services and a member of the CII National Council. Lord Karan Bilimoria, founder and chief executive, Cobra Beer, is the current co-chair from the UK side.

The Indo-British Partnership Initiative (IBPI) was formed in 1993, by the then British and Indian prime ministers. Its mandate is to increase bilateral trade and investment with particular emphasis on small and medium enterprises and to promote technology and science links between the two countries, the release said. It also serves as a platform for reviewing, at a business level, progress of the bilateral Joint Economic Trade Committee (JETCO).

Backed by the two governments and led by industry, the initiative has become an ongoing partnership and is now called the Indo-British Partnership (IBP). In India, the IBP secretariat is managed by CII and supported by FICCI, in collaboration with the trade and investment department of the British High Commission, and in the UK by the department of trade and industry (DTI), the release added. At the CII Partnership summit in Bangalore in January 2007, Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, chancellor of the exchequer had announced funding of £1 million annually for this initiative.

The bilateral trade between India and the UK has grown 175 per cent since the Indo-British Partnership was formed. Over 2000 joint venture agreements have been signed between Indian and UK companies since 1993. The UK has emerged as the third largest overseas investor after Mauritius and the US in terms of new investments approved. UK is also the largest market for Indian IT services with 12 per cent of IT services exports — nearly $1 billion, the release said.

In the last one year, India has risen to become the second largest investor in Britain, after the US.

Sir Robert Evans (UK) and Dr Jamshed J Irani (India) were the founding co-chairmen of the IBP. Other past co-chairs of IBP include NR Narayana Murthy (India) and David Jeferries (UK).

Rana Kapoor, founder, managing director and chief executive officer of YES Bank and a national executive committee member of FICCI, is the vice-chairman of IBP for the year 2007-08, the release said.