FTA pact with UK critical for India's ambition to become mfg powerhouse

As India and the UK inch closer to sealing a free trade agreement, a forthcoming book says the pact is critical for India's ambition to become a manufacturing powerhouse while the UK seeks to clinch new deals to highlight the benefits of Brexit.

In his forthcoming book "The Reverse Swing-Colonialism to Cooperation", veteran journalist Ashok Tandon noted that the Free Trade Agreement(FTA), if clinched, will come at a time when many western economies are pinning their hopes on India to become a bulwark against China's growing economic and military clout.

The book by Tandon, a former PTI bureau chief in London, called the FTA a "most ambitious, fair and balanced" pact which would help the two countries to further enhance bilateral commerce and investments.

The book is scheduled to be released here on October 18.

Officials of India and the UK are holding hectic parleys to conclude the negotiations for the FTA. The talks were launched in January 2022. There are expectations that the pact could be signed by the end of this month.

India and the UK are looking at a possible visit to New Delhi by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak soon but it may finally depend on whether the two sides could resolve the remaining differences to firm up the muchawaited FTA. Tandon, who was in-charge of media relations in the PMO during the tenure of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee(1998-2004), noted that

India and Britain are concluding a ‘fair and balanced’ pact based on “equality, mutual respect and commonalty of interests”.