Keir Starmer’s India visit comes as balance of power shifts, but both sides need growth

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will be hoping for positive outcomes as he began his trip to India on October 8 with an entourage which includes business folk and university administrators keen to capitalise on the UK-India Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.

The Free Trade Agreement, as it is known in the UK, was signed earlier this year after almost a decade of stop-start negotiations and missed deadlines.

Arriving in Mumbai, the prime ministerial convoy would have sped southwards across the Bandra-Worli Sea Link and onto the coastal road that skirts midtown. To its right the calm waters of the Arabian Sea and to the left, inland, a forest of cranes and half-built skyscrapers piercing the overcast skies still loaded with the remnants of the monsoon rains.

The commercial capital of the world’s fifth largest economy is a massive construction site at present: Nine metro lines are being built, the coastal road is extending like a spiders’ web northwards to connect the sprawling western suburbs, and across the city, new residential tower blocks and commercial buildings rise like needles on an overstuffed pin cushion. Dust and the sounds of piledrivers and angle grinders are ubiquitous though, no doubt, the ministerial cavalcade would be airtight and sound...

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