NEW DELHI, 23 June 2018 - FICCI's Forum of Parliamentarians is organising a delegation visit of Indian MPs to the United Kingdom. The delegation will visit London from 24-28 June 2018 for a series of high level political call-ons, interaction with Indian and British industry leaders, diaspora and media. 

The delegation led by Dr Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Member of Parliament and Chair, FICCI's India-UK Forum of Parliamentarians will be joined by Mr Deepender Singh Hooda, MP (INC), Mr Raghav Lakhanpal, MP (BJP) and Mr Mir Mohammad Fayaz, MP (J&K, PDP). 

Mr Harshavardhan Neotia, Past President, FICCI and Chair of the Forum of Parliamentarians Council and Dr Jyotsna Suri, Past President, FICCI and Co-Chair of the Council and other senior industry representatives will also join the delegation.

The delegation will have intensive interactions with the British policy makers, industrialists and academia, building a valuable track 2.0 dialogue on a range of issues.

Dr Jyotsna Suri, Co-Chair of FICCI Forum of Parliamentarians Council said, "This visit provides an excellent platform to strengthen the India-UK relations and leverage the multifaceted cooperation between the two countries. The programme of the visit has been tailored to focus on the priority areas between India and the UK."

The agenda includes meetings with the British policy-makers, leading industrialists and UKIBC, visit to Nehru Centre for a sampling of Indo-UK cultural connect and visit to the Transport for London amongst many others. The visit aims to understand the evolving India-UK relations in the post-BREXIT scenario with focus on three main pillars of economic, culture and technology.  

Highlighting the importance of this visit, Dr Sahasrabuddhe, Member of Parliament and Chair of the Forum stated, "The mission of the delegation would be to supplement the buoyant economic and strategic relations between the two countries. He pointed out that it has been heartening to note that the India-UK relationship has had bipartisan support in the UK." He mentioned that the delegation would focus on the priority sectors of interest with special interest on culture and heritage.

FICCI's India-UK Forum of Parliamentarians was launched in April 2003 by then External Affairs Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha with the objective to strengthen Parliamentary diplomacy that binds India and the UK.  The founding Chairperson and the Co-chairperson of the Forum were Mr Praful Patel and Ms Renuka Chowdhury respectively. They were succeeded by Mr Arun Jaitley and Mr Jyotiraditya Scindia respectively as Chair and Co-Chair.