India is no more an 'outsourcing destination' for advanced countries, believes Lord Karan Bilimoria, the founding Chairman of the UK-India Business. Also, with the India-UK Free Trade Agreement being signed, Bilimoria asserted that India and UK will soon be supporting each other to further develop digital infrastructure.
"India can benefit from partnering with the UK especially in the defence sector. And you see the big mindset change that is taking place now is India is no longer looked upon as an outsourcing destination," said Bilimoria during an exclusive interaction with the New Indian Express during the Kautilya Economic Conclave 2025 in New Delhi. According to him, the India-UK FTA will help both countries work on several sectors and strengthen them. But two sectors that will surely stand out are defense and academic sectors. He confirmed that British universities, colleges and schools are willing to set up their campuses in India.
“There are immense opportunities for countries in terms of collaborating on digital trade,” he said "We can partner with India, which is also very advanced, and work together. And now the UK, for example, has announced that we want to have digital IDs. India's got the Aadhar. India's got the payment system digitalised. India has offered to partner with the UK, saying, here's our digital stack, you're welcome to work with us. So that partnership will benefit both countries, and India's actually ahead of the game." While talking on the implications of the US tariff on the global economy and trade, he said that the current approach of the US government will not only disrupt global trade, it will also impact the US economy soon and the US consumers will be the worst affected.
“I don't believe that anyone is going to benefit from these high tariffs, including America, because in the long run, you're making products more expensive for your own consumers. It's the American consumer that will hurt the most from this,” added Bilimoria. The US has increased the tariff on the UK exports from 2% to 10%, while the tariffs on several Indian products have been increased to 50%. However, he said that the US makes up for only 13% of world trade and the rest is made up by others, including India and the UK.