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India’s Foremost Trade & Investment Magazine INDIA GL BAL BUSINESS Yearend UK Edition 2019 The year of assertion 12 62 10 THE BIG INTERVIEW EXPERT VIEW DESPATCH BOX Reducing emissions makes Rolling out an innovative The UK’s relationship with India good business sense recycling landscape will continue to flourish Bob Patel, CEO, Neeraj Kanwar, Lord Karan Bilimoria, Vice-President, LyondellBasell MD, Apollo Tyres CBI; Founder & Chairman, Cobra Beer December 2019 www.indiaincgroup.com EDITORIAL The year 2019 marked a decisive shift in the UK’s three-and-a- half-year-long arduous journey to leave the European Union (EU) 2019: The year with a victory for Johnson’s “Get Brexit Done” mantra. As the 31 January 2020 Brexit deadline nears, the prospect of a step-change of assertion in the UK-India relationship to a truly strategic partnership is also taking shape. That the hard he year 2019 was marked Left agenda of Labour’s Jeremy by powerful nations Corbyn was rejected at the ballot asserting their national box would have come as a sigh Tidentities and redefining their of relief in India. nationhood. Untethered from the EU’s In India, following the re- freedom of movement rules, election of Narendra Modi a new Australian-style system as Prime Minister in May, his is being pegged as a fairer government quickly set the alternative for India’s skilled agenda, integrating Jammu & professionals. The ease of Kashmir with the rest of India movement of people will by defanging a “temporary” inevitably be at the heart of any provision of the Indian new trade arrangement and the Constitution that had somehow signs at the close of the year survived for seven decades. look promising. He then amended the law on citizenship to provide fast track With Modi’s invitation for relief to persecuted minorities Johnson to visit India being in neighbouring countries. formally extended during the Asserting India’s economic obligatory congratulatory phone sovereignty, the government then pulled out of the Regional call, the year 2020 could well Comprehensive Economic Partnership as it could have flooded the turn out to be a defining one for the bilateral relationship. Trade Indian market with cheap Chinese goods. And finally, he continued between the two countries stands at just over £20.5 billion per year, with the economic clean-up initiated in his first term in office. which reflects the immense potential that remains untapped. Watch this space! In the UK, Boris Johnson, who replaced Theresa May as Prime Minister in July, felt hamstrung by a party and a Parliament that didn’t seem to have a clear-cut solution to Brexit. Determined to break the status quo, Johnson took a risk by calling a snap election COP25 disappoints – and was rewarded with a thumping majority. It now looks pretty certain that he will lead Britain out of the EU within a few months, like others before it throwing up both challenges and opportunities for Indian business which is heavily invested in the UK. he goal of climate change science is fairly commonly known. Unless we limit and reverse global warming, billions of living Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump continued to assert along coasts and in several islands around the world will see the US’s right to take unilateral action to right several perceived Ttheir worlds washed away by angry tides. Scientists say achieving historical wrongs, even if meant dragging an ill-prepared world into the long-term temperature goal requires global greenhouse gas an all-out trade war and pulling the US out of its self-appointed role emissions to peak by 2020 and subsequently fall to zero before the as the world’s policeman. end of the century. To limit warming to 1.5°C, this reduction to zero must take place around 2050. That is a daunting task and matters And Xi Jinping’s China continued its unilateral strategic and are not helped by the irresponsible actions of climate sceptics such diplomatic expansion in the Asian and African regions. as US President Donald Trump. Even as these and other nations find their places in the world, The recently concluded COP25 conference in Madrid, unfortunately, multilateralism is being tested to the limit. A new consensus failed to deliver on its mandate – to negotiate and finalise rules for must emerge. the carbon market and other forms of international cooperation. But negotiating through thickets of politically contentious issues relating to the carbon market and the emissions cuts proved too much for the delegates. In the end, the objections raised by the US, Russia, A promising New Year China, Brazil, India and Saudi Arabia – not all of them for the same or similar reasons – meant that these decisions have now been for UK-India relations pushed to the next climate conference in Glasgow. s the year of two major elections – one in India in May and a In the absence of any significant breakthrough at COP25, the high snap poll in the UK in December –comes to a close, the vote point of the conference was the passionate speech by teenage is quite definitively in favour of stronger UK-India ties in the climate activist Greta Thunberg. The wide media coverage she ANew Year. received globally had one positive effect – it has made many more people aware of the looming crisis. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was voted into power with a “stonking” mandate, has made repeated references to his Hopefully, the politicians will manage to get their act together commitment to strike a new post-Brexit trade deal with India and by the time they meet again in Glasgow in November next year. partner with the Indian Prime Minister, whom he fondly refers to as Meanwhile, the India-sponsored International Solar Alliance, has Narendrabhai, on his mission to build a new India. thankfully gained traction, with more than 121 member-countries at last count. www.indiaincgroup.com December 2019 3 CONTENTS The Yearend Edition of 'India Global Business' does a deep dive into the highlights, major milestones and biggest newsmakers of 2019, including a Brexit roundup for the year. A range of expert columns and interviews, staying with the broad theme of a look-back at the year that was, make up the rest of the package. Happy reading and a very Happy New Year from the team at India Inc. DESPATCH BOX EDITORIAL 3 2019: The year 10 The UK’s relationship of assertion with India will continue to flourish Lord Karan Bilimoria, Vice- President, Confederation of British Industry (CBI); Founder and Chairman, Cobra Beer THE BIG INTERVIEW 12 Reducing emissions makes good business sense Bob Patel, CEO, LyondellBasell GLOBALLY SPEAKING THE BIG STORY 15 My reflections on 2019: The glass is not always half empty Manoj Ladwa, Founder and CEO, India Inc. TECH SPEAK 18 TechSagar – Showcasing India’s technology and cyber preparedness Rama Vedashree, CEO, Data Security 7 Year of drama and assertion Council of India by India Inc. Staff 4 December 2019 EYE ON BREXIT THE SMALL PRINT 20 The long road to Brexit takes a decisive 64 The year that was – Start-up Report Card 2019 turn in 2019 Dr Param Shah, Director - UK, FICCI by India Inc. Staff BIRD’S EYE VIEW GUEST COLUMN 66 India-UK counter-terrorism 23 Competing with robots: cooperation: Convergences and How online learning can help challenges professionals win in the future Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, Senior Zairus Master, CEO, Shine.com Fellow for South Asia, IISS 69 REGION FOCUS: Sunrise in the East 26 INSIGHT: A year of elections that ended with by India Inc. Staff a vote for stronger India-UK ties by India Inc. Staff SOCIAL IMPACT 29 THE BIG PICTURE 71 Tackling the safe drinking water crisis The South Asia cooperation Poonam Sewak, Vice President, Knowledge and conundrum Partnerships, Safe Water Network India Dr Gareth Price, Senior Research Fellow, Asia Programme, Chatham 73 POLICY FOCUS House The approach to foreign trade policy needs to change by India Inc. Staff COUNTRY FOCUS SPECIAL REPORT 80 A good year for Indian wine by India Inc. Staff 82 LAST WORD: Unfair to criticise Modi govt... Published by Incorporating 32 India is living up to its potential as an emerging superpower by India Inc. Staff ANALYSIS 34 Newsmakers 2019 – Influencers on the world stage by India Inc. Staff www.indiaincgroup.com 39 NEWS IN IMAGES: 2019 – A snapshot © India Inc. Limited, all rights reserved. by India Inc. Staff Reproduction in whole or in part without our written permission is prohibited. Views expressed 46 WHAT'S UP/WHAT'S DOWN by our contributors are their own and do not India and the world in 2019 necessarily represent the views, policies of India by India Inc. Staff Inc. While every effort is made to achieve total 50 REWIND 2019: Highlights from the past year accuracy India Inc. cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions. EXPERT VIEW Editorial [email protected] 62 Rolling out an innovative Advertising & Sponsorship PRICE £4.95 recycling landscape [email protected] PUBLISHED IN LONDON Neeraj Kanwar, MD, Apollo Tyres www.indiaincgroup.com December 2019 5 6 December 2019 THE BIG STORY Year of drama and assertion by Arnab Mitra 2019 was a year of near non-stop drama, fast-moving action and events with far-reaching consequences. It was also a year in which powerful nations and their leaders asserted their right of action in different ways and in doing so, majorly disrupted the ‘business as usual’ status quo that the world has gotten used to. We look at some of the biggest developments of 2019 in this analysis.