AHMEDABAD, April 21: The prime minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson arrived in Ahmedabad on Thursday to begin his two-day visit to India and met the top Gujarat-based industrialist Gautam Adani to discuss business and investment opportunities.
Johnson was the first British prime minister to visit Gujarat. During his trip, the British Premier is likely to announce major investments and trade in key industries in the country.
Johnson was received at the airport by Governor Acharya Dev Vrat, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and other top officials. He was accorded a regal welcome with dancers and musicians playing along the four-km route from the airport to a hotel in the city. In Ahmedabad, he began his brief stay by visiting Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram where he spent nearly 30 minutes. Later, he went to Halol to inaugurate a new factory set up by a leading U.K.-based group to manufacture JCB machines and then visited Akshardham temple and the Biotechnology University in Gandhinagar. He would leave for Delhi late in the evening where he will have a meeting with prime minster narendra Modi on Friday.
“Honoured to host @BorisJohnson, the first UK PM to visit Gujarat, at Adani HQ. Delighted to support climate & sustainability agenda with a focus on renewables, green H2 & new energy. Will also work with UK companies to co-create defence & aerospace technologies,” Adani tweeted.
According to sources close to Adani, the two discussed, among other things, key sectors such as energy transition, climate action, aerospace and defence collaboration. With India set to invest $300 billion by 2030 to modernize its armed forces, sources said collaboration in the defence sector was one of the key focus areas of the meeting between Adani and Johnson.
Discussions revolved around how Adani Group and British companies can collaborate to co-design and develop aerospace and defence technologies as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. Adani also announced an academic facilitation program for young Indians through Chevening Scholarship, one of the most prestigious international scholarships offered by the UK government. He also invited the British Prime Minister to the India-UK Climate Science and Technology Summit, to be held in London on June 28. The Adani Group Chairman had met Johnson in October last year at the Global Investment Summit in London where the two had reiterated their commitment to ongoing transition to clean energy.
Speaking at the Halol function, Johnson said he hoped the UK would complete another free trade agreement with India by the end of the year. The UK and Indian businesses are set to announce investments and export deals worth over one billion pounds in areas from software engineering to health.
Science and tech collaborations, including a digital health partnership and a joint investment fund for Indian deep-tech and AI start-ups, supported by both the governments; new AI scholarships for Indian students jointly funded by the UK government’s Chevening programme and India’s Adani Group; and a £6 million investment by AI healthcare specialists Qure.ai to open a centre of excellence in the UK are set to be announced.
Johnson said his country has already raised the Ukraine war issue with Modi at a diplomatic level, and added that everybody understands that India and Russia shared “very different relationships historically.”
At the Sabarmati Ashram, the visiting British Prime Minister termed Mahatma Gandhi an “extraordinary man” who mobilized the principles of truth and non-violence to change the world for better. Johnson became the first prime minister of the UK to visit the Sabarmati Ashram here, the place from where Gandhi led India’s struggle for freedom from the British colonial rule for more than a decade.
“It is an immense privilege to come to the ashram of this extraordinary man, and to understand how he mobilized such simple principles of truth and non-violence to change the world for better,” Johnson wrote in the visitors’ book at the Gandhi ashram. The Ashram trust gifted him two books, one of them an unpublished guide for the benefit of those seeking to live in London, penned by Mahatma Gandhi himself.
Soon after arriving in India for a two-day visit, Johnson tweeted: “It’s fantastic to be in India, the world’s largest democracy. I see vast possibilities for what our great nations can achieve together. Our powerhouse partnership is delivering jobs, growth and opportunity. I look forward to strengthening this partnership in the coming days.”
(Manas Dasgupta)