India Global Forum’s annual UK-India Week is a highly anticipated fixture in the bilateral calendar of our two great nations. It is a catalyst for forging new trade ties, lasting collaborations, and a better future for our peoples. I'm confident this partnership will be a defining one for our times
Rishi Sunak
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
It's vibrant, as always. It's full of very excited people, it's full of lots of energy and lots of ambition for the future for both of our countries to work together. And as we are very good natural partners, I really look forward to continuing that journey.
Gillian Keegan
Secretary of State for Education, Conservative Party
The UK has long been a hub for science and technology, and Indians have consistently demonstrated an ability to innovate and to create new entrepreneurial activity on the basis of the thinnest of opportunities. So there is a logical partnership between us and innovation and entrepreneurship. I'd say, in making a change for the world in terms of getting the Net-Zero ambition right, the UK can actually be an enabler of India's aspirations to bring finance, patient finance for India's green transitions.
Vikram Doraiswami
Indian High Commissioner to UK
Because it brings together the key policymakers in the UK with key policymakers and business voices in India, and this is a cross-party event. You've got significant senior-level government representatives, including the Prime Minister, but you've also got senior Shadow government representatives there, with Keir Starmer, who we hope, well, I would hope becomes our Prime Minister. It's important because it's not a partisan event, and those discussions are taking place with all the key policymakers on both sides. So, that's why it's one of the most important parts, one of the most exciting parts of the calendar
Jonathan Ashworth
Shadow Secretary of State for Work & Pensions, Labour Party
It's the content, the connections, and the creativity. Those are the three magical ingredients which others have tried but not fully captured, and that is what really makes India Global Forum and UK India Week so special.
Jitesh Gadhia
Parliamentarian, House of Lords
India Global Forum combines a sort of razzmatazz with high-level access. Excitement with fun. And it brings together people from business, economics, and politics, and focuses the mind across a range of events over a very full week. So it can excite this relationship and remind all of us of how important the relationship is, whether we are entrepreneurs, corporates, politicians, or academics.
Tim Jones
Executive Director, Tata Limited
What I like about IGF is that they are pivoting every year to relevant topics and just creating a better environment. There’s a lot of thought leadership coming out of this. That makes a big difference. It is not just a conference for the sake of it, but also a pretty thought-leadership kind of discussion going on. Manoj and the team have done a good job. I think he has really brought India to the world, not just the UK. So I think he has believed in his dream and he is executing it relentlessly.
Sanjay Nayar
Founder, Sorin Investments
There's a sense of it being a very vital dynamic living platform. It's not something that exists in a sterile political environment. It's not constrained in that way; it's something that bridges the bilateral relationship at the governmental level, with this vibrancy of the people-to-people and commercial exchange. And it does all of that in a package. So, I think that's a valuable contribution.
Patrick Horgan OBE
Director Global Network, Rolls-Royce
If you look at the Free Trade Agreement deals that are being talked about between two countries, I think the India Global Forum brings about all the key aspects of something like that. Which is collaboration, partnering, cooperation, working on services, technology, and other areas. So, I think this forum allows me and maybe a lot of people to interact, to maybe somewhere influence, and to have conversations on important aspects of the need of the hour today. It brings thought leaders, industry leaders, it brings academia, it brings the political class to all sit together and see how we can make changes to what's not working today.
Dr Sharvil Patel
Managing Director, Zydus Lifesciences Ltd
This is definitely a unique platform. It's my first time here and just already I'm amazed by the variety of panels there are, by the variety of speakers, just by the kind of openness and positivity of exchange that can happen here and also, I love the fact that there are results from the talks that happen here. We, none of us, want the world to be full of talking shops; we want them to be an exchange of ideas that then goes on to change action and mindset, so I get the feeling that's what's going to happen here.
Bettany Hughes
Award Winning Historian & Broadcaster, Creative Director of SSG at UK-India Week 2023
It's a really important platform to bring together leaders from across sectors and disciplines and to make sure that we're working together to make our voices heard so that we can really make a difference. I think the Creative Industries and Cultural Economy is an area that, perhaps sometimes, is a little bit in the shadows and we really need to make sure it comes to the fore because it's so critical for our future.
Alison Barrett
Country Director, India, British Council
I think the India Global Forum is amazing. I've heard about it so much in the past, and I'm here today speaking. But, it's an amazing melting point of so many amazing leaders—global leaders, of course, from the UK and India, but other parts of the world as well. I've met so many amazing people, and it allows all of us to exchange insights and knowledge, and best practices, and be able to collaborate. I think the key about success in business is being able to meet the right people, the right time, network, and collaborate. I think that's what the India Global Forum does, and it allows amazing emerging minds to come and talk, and established leaders to come and talk, and all come together to really go out there and make a huge impact.
Ankita Vashishta
Founder & General Partner, StrongHer Ventures
Look, we've been associated with the IGF for close to five years now. Being a company that's of Indian origin, our roots are clearly out of India. Working with Professor Manoj Ladwa and his team has not only given us the foundation for the UK-India piece but also some of the events that we've associated with them out of New Delhi, out of the UAE, and hopefully in November this year at the COP 28. We look forward to continuing our partnership with IGF.
Jiten Vyas
Chief Commercial Officer, VFS Global
You know it's very unique because it's a forum where we talk about ties - India and UK, India-UAE, India and the globe. It's a relationship of equals - India and the world, and this forum respects that relationship of equals. It's very interesting for me personally, to network with a very diverse set of people, whether its young start-ups to established founders to global companies. This time, I got ten of my team members here and the feedback is fantastic. They said we've never really learned so much. This whole week has been a big learning experience for me and the company
Abhimanyu Munjal
CEO, Hero Fincorp
For people living in India and entrepreneurs like me, this is an opportunity to travel across and start learning about what's happening in different parts of the world. Like what's happening in the world right now is very different from what was happening last year and you get to meet people of influence and relevance in different parts of the world with this new context. So that I think that's great; we spoke about how connections have accelerated progress, I think these kind of connections are actually do a lot.
Aprameya Radhakrishna
Co-Founder & CEO, KOO
Given that we're in this fourth Industrial Revolution, to have an organisation that's really building that corridor between India and the UK is actually so powerful, because you meet minds, you meet people from different backgrounds. You have really curious conversations. Yesterday, there was a discussion about culture and AI, and I'm not seeing those things pop up before. So, it really makes you think. And it's really where we need to bring different skill sets, different backgrounds, different cultures together. And India Global Forum allows us to do that.
Sachin Dev Duggal
Chief Wizard & Co-Founder, Builder.ai
This is the only platform that I've heard is doing really something very unique towards building the real relationships between India and UK, things which people talk about but never really do anything about. I remember having a chat with with Manoj, where we talked about, we have to get more female entrepreneurs into the world and highlight them and talk about them, and this year we have done it. We have a fantastic turnout of female entrepreneurs at the India Global Week and I truly think that this event is going to go from strength to strength and in the next couple of years, we will really see people clamouring to be a part of this, more female entrepreneurs being inspired because of this event.
Ridhima Gupta
Global Head of Marketing, Builder.ai
I think for me the biggest thing about India Global Forum is the people and the quality of the people. They're all go-getters, they're not like strict straight-laced government types and they really want to see business move forward and I think that's really important. There’s too many talking shops that kind of just talk around it. You guys actually get into the action.
Vandana Saxena Poria OBE
Advisor - India, ICAEW
