David Cameron delivers address at Infosys Bangalore: Full Text
Bangalore: British prime minister David Cameron arrived amid tight security in Bangalore on Tuesday night to kick-start his three-day India visit.
Cameron, after meeting Karnataka governor HR Bhardwaj on Wednesday morning, headed to Infosys' Electronic City campus where he delivered an address and met Indian industry captains and Infoscians.
Here is the full text of the British Prime Minister's speech.
It is a great honour to be invited here today.
If Bangalore is the city that symbolises India's reawakening, Infosys has good claim to be the company. There's an energy and passion about this place that I have to say is awe-inspiring.
This is my third visit to your country. I came once before I was a politician. I came once when I was Leader of the Opposition. I now return as Prime Minister of Britain.
And it is a great privilege to extend to you - and through you to the people of India - the hand of friendship from all the British people.
NEW RELATIONSHIP
I'm a new Prime Minister. I lead a new coalition government. And we're making a new start for Britain and its relationships around the world.
There are partnerships we want to create, friendships we want to elevate, dialogues we want to extend.
So I come here with a very clear purpose: to show what this new start means for our two countries.
I want to take the relationship between India and Britain to the next level. I want to make it stronger, wider and deeper.
To show how serious I am, I have brought with me the biggest visiting delegation of any British Prime Minister in recent memory.
Members of my Cabinet. Our most dynamic business leaders. Leaders of industry. Social entrepreneurs. Civic leaders. Figures from our most forward-looking arts institutions. Pioneers of community activism.
And today, I want to make the case for this relationship. I want to explain why India is so important to Britain's future. I want to tell Indians watching what Britain has to offer them. And I want to set out the common challenges we must meet together in the years ahead.
I do all this knowing this country has the whole world beating a path to its door. I understand that Britain cannot rely on sentiment and shared history for a place in India's future.
And I hope that today, and throughout this visit, you will see the strength of my commitment and the scale of my ambition for this new relationship.
WHY INDIA?
So why is your country important for Britain's future? The most obvious reason is economic.
There is still a development road to travel but thanks to the reform process begun by Manmohan Singh in the 1990s, the Indian tiger has been uncaged and its power can be felt around the world.
You feel it in the fantastic new airports in Bangalore and Hyderabad, in Mumbai's Bandra-Worla Sea Link, in the Delhi metro and in Delhi's stunning new airport terminal.
And we can feel that power back home too.
The Tata Group is now the largest manufacturing employer in Britain. And more than 180 Indian companies have invested in our IT sector.
At the same time, India represents an enormous opportunity for British companies. Already our trade relationship is worth £11.5 billion a year. But I want us to go further.
India plans to invest over $500bn in infrastructure in the coming years. That is of course good for Indian business, but it is also a chance for British companies to generate growth. Your retail market is growing by 25 per cent annually, and there is no reason why British companies should not be a part of that too.
India is adding 15 million new mobile phone users every month. British companies can play an even greater role in that, providing services to the Indian consumer and creating jobs in India and back in the UK.
So I want this to be a relationship which drives economic growth upwards, and drives our unemployment figures downwards.
This is a trade mission, yes, but I prefer to see it as my jobs mission.
Indian companies employ 90,000 people in the UK. Many more jobs in Britain exist thanks to the activities of British companies in India. Now I want to see thousands more jobs created in Britain, and of course in India through trade in the months and years ahead. That is the core purpose of my visit."
David Cameron delivers address at Infosys Bangalore: Full Text