Indian pharmaceutical and IT majors, including Biocon, Bharat Biotech and Dr Reddy’s, are likely to invest and do research and development (R&D) activities in Scotland in the coming years, according to a top official from Scotland.
“We are now under discussion with almost all pharma companies, besides stem cell research companies including Reliance Life Science and Stempeutic, to set up their research centres, and for collaborative research activities with Scotland,” Mark Dolan, country manager, Scottish Development International (SDI), told Business Standard.
SDI, an investment arm of the Scotland government to promote overseas business opportunities, entered India in 2000 to promote investment opportunities. It is now eyeing big for Indo-Scottish partnerships across verticals including oil and gas, water drilling, off-shore wind technology, IT, pharma, renewable energy, healthcare and education from India.
Indian companies including Piramal, Hero BPO, Reid & Taylor, Infosys, Wipro and TCS, employing more than 5,000 people, have already done business in Scotland. And, around 15-16 companies from Scotland, including Standard Life Insurance, IES, Pixel and AGGreKo, have invested in India. The number of companies, which have shown interest in investing in India, increased to 84 this year from 34 in 2010, he said.
India now ranks among top 10 countries that have invested in Scotland along with US, Germany, France and Spain. “Seeing the current interest and the number of projects we have in the pipeline, we are bullish that India may become one of our top-5 investors,” he said.
“Scotland is on the high-investment radar for Indian companies across verticals like Essar, Reliance, Tata, Suzlon and Bharat Forge, besides pharma and IT majors,” Dolan said.
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Outlining the advantages of investing in Scotland, he said Scotland worked out about 30 per cent cheaper than London. The Scotland government gives 35 per cent regional grant, 35 per cent R&D grant. Also, the government has reduced the corporate tax burden to 10 per cent from the earlier 24 per cent.
He said that contrary to the gloomy news coming about the Euro Zone crisis, there was brisk business happening on the ground, especially in sectors like financial services, utilities and life sciences. Dolan was here to promote Indo-Scottish business opportunities and encourage business partnerships.
Scotland, with key strengths in knowledge, quality manpower, innovative technology, has recently doubled its presence in India. It is also scouting for a new office location in Hyderabad or Bangalore.