 "Photo: Reuters")
India has expressed concern over the massive drop in Indian students coming to study in the UK and called for sorting out of visa issues.
Indian High Commissioner to the UK Y K Sinha, who took charge of his post in London last month, highlighted the sharp contrast between rising Indian student numbers in countries like the US and Australia and even across Europe.
"In the field of education we have a bit of a problem because the number of Indian students (in the UK) that was 40,000 or so in 2010 has dropped to 19,000. Compared to figures for the US, which had 104,000 Indian students in 2010 and today they have 166,000," Sinha said in his address at a media gathering at India House in London last evening.
"Australia had 19,000 in 2010 and has 40,000 today. Obviously, there is something going wrong here because the UK has always been the first preference for Indian students," he said.
"We need to see how we can ensure that the UK attracts good students from India because Indian students are doing extremely well everywhere they go," Sinha asserted.
Even countries like Germany have over 10,000 Indian students and France has 5,000. They are actively going into campuses in India to attract students, he said.
"I think the UK universities are doing a great job but I think we need to sort out the issues regarding visas. It is an area where both governments are talking to each other," Sinha said.
He also flagged the issue of movement of professionals as another area of concern because the UK remains the "first port of call in Europe" for Indians due to a shared history and other commonalities.
"In the field of IT, our professionals are renowned the world over. It is very important that our IT professionals can come and work and go back. They will contribute immensely not only to the local economy but also the global economy, which is what they are doing in Silicon Valley and the rest of the world," the Indian High Commissioner said.
Stressing on the need for both countries to continue to engage in a manner that will be a "win-win situation" for India and the UK, he highlighted the visit of British Prime Minister Theresa May to India last November as "particularly significant" in having further enhanced the "very substantial economic engagement".
"We have a very good economic engagement with the UK, with trade in goods about 14 billion dollars and another 5 billion dollars in services. But besides that, the UK is a very important in terms of investment scope, being the largest G20 investor into India and 800 Indian companies operate here, bringing about a billion plus in taxes to the Exchequer and employing over a 100,000 people," Sinha said.
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Both governments have set very ambitious targets in trying to see how we can further enhance this.
Sinha described his own mission as the new High Commissioner to the UK against the backdrop of Brexit as a "challenge" but also "an opportunity".
"It has been a pretty steep learning curve but I am very happy to be here because I think it is exciting times for India, the UK and India-UK relations. We have a very long shared history, common past, common commitment to democracy and other values. Most importantly, we have a very vibrant and robust expat community here in the UK," he said.
On a personal note, he recalled his first-ever visit to the UK shores, when he docked on a boat at Liverpool, 54 years ago.
"It is wonderful being back here. I had never imagined I would be coming back as High Commissioner," he said, calling on the UK-based media to work towards highlighting more positive stories coming out of India.
"Sometimes I feel there are far too many negative stories about India. There are lots of positive stories that need to be highlighted; after all we are the fastest growing large economy in the world," Sinha said.
"There is so much happening -- between 2014 and 2016, India attracted over a 120 billion dollars worth of foreign direct investment (FDI). Surely, that is a story worth reporting," he said.
"It is important that these positive stories are highlighted and that will help further in ensuring that the business communities in both countries take advantage of the situation that exists. There is a good story to tell, which will be India and the UK in future, across the board," he added.
In reference to the "slightly harsh" media coverage of the British Premier's India visit with a focus only on visas and immigration, Sinha stressed that there were far more issues across the vast expanse of the relationship that merit attention.
"One of them is the UK-India Year of Culture which also coincides with 70 years of India's independence, which both countries are planning to celebrate jointly with events planned in the UK and in India. We are very keen to do something on cricket in the UK this year," he said.
The 58-year-oldseasoned diplomat with a career spanning over 35 yearsholds the rank of Secretary to the Government of India and was India's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka before taking charge at the UK mission.
