A high level delegation from U.K. today called upon the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Dr. Charanjit Singh Atwal here today. The delegation consisted of David Henson (Labour Party), Bob Blackman (Conservative Party), Baroness Barker from House of Lords, Robert Harper CPA Delegation Secretary, British Deputy High Commissioner David Lilliet and Political & Media Advisor of British High Commissioner—Alam Bains. During the meeting, the talks between the two sides centered on Indian Parliament and State Assemblies, functioning of British parliament and performance besides special focus on Education, Food Processing and other sectors having potential for commercial collaboration. Terming such exchanges as extremely beneficial in sharing information about procedures of assemblies and parliament of both sides, Dr. Atwal said that it is a matter of happiness that India has a high commission at London and 2 consulates at Birmingham and Edinburgh.
Similarly, U.K. has a high commissione at New Delhi apart from Deputy High Commissions at Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata. Dwelling on the role of Indian multinationals in the strengthening of economy of U.K., Dr. Atwal said that Indian multionational companies have provided jobs to 1 lakh people in U.K. out of which 55000 have been given by TATA group alone.On the occasion, Food & Civil Supplies Minister, Punjab, Adesh Pratap Singh Kairon said that Indian students always prefer U.K. for pursuing higher education and till 2009 India was among the top 10 countries from where most students went to U.K. for pursuing higher education. He also said that the words of ex-U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron wherein he said that joint efforts of India and U.K. in the academic field would be beneficial, still hold significance. The Labour Party leader David Henson expressed strong hope that this visit would prove extremely fruitful for both the sides and he would submit a special report to the British government regarding the visit. Among those present on the occasion were Finance Minister, Punjab, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Industries and Commerce Minister, Punjab, Madan Mohan Mittal, MLAs Sunil Jakhar, Justice (Retd.) Nirmal Singh, Bibi Jagir Singh, Karan Kaur Brar, Gurpratap Singh Wadala, Deep Malhotra and N.K. Sharma.