Image Courtesy : www.facebook.com/narendramodi

Downing Street announced that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would declare a new partnership with India on Wednesday at the G20 summit in Bali. The U.K. will propose 3,000 degree-holding Indians in the 18 to 30-year age group place annually to work in the U.K. for up to two years under the U.K.-India Young Professionals Scheme. The new to-be-launched scheme will commence in early 2023 and be on a reciprocal basis.

U.K. Prime Minister, Mr. Rishi Sunak, said I know first-hand the incredible value of deep cultural and historical ties with India. He stated I am pleased that even more of India’s most brilliant young people will now have the golden opportunity to experience all that life in the U.K. has to deliver, and vice-versa creating our economies and societies richer.

During his campaign to be Prime Minister, Mr. Rishi Sunak had spoken in the summer about maintaining a reciprocal exchange with India.

A press note from Downing Street stated that the U.K. has more connections with India than almost any country in the Indo-Pacific region. Indians constitute a quarter of all international students in the U.K., and Indian investment in the U.K. supports 95,000 employment opportunities in the country. The U.K. government called the program launch a significant moment for the U.K.-India connection and the U.K.’s links to the Indo-Pacific. Mr. Sunak said the Indo-Pacific was overflowing with dynamic and growing economies.

Talks on finalising a trade deal between the countries are still underway and the possibility of them concluding before a Deepavali deadline was diminished in part due to statements by British Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who said Indians were the biggest group of visa over-stayers in Britain.

In resemblance to the mobility partnership with India, we are also strengthening our ability to vacate immigration offenders, the Downing Street statement said, noting the May 2021 MoU (memorandum of understanding) on the mobility & migration partnership which trades with returning visa overstayers to their residence countries.

News Source: The Hindu