The British get a peek into ‘Digital India’

October 13, 2015 12:00 am | Updated December 04, 2021 11:34 pm IST - BENGALURU:

“I thought I’ll see a lot of poverty and no infrastructure. But in three days, this perception was turned on its head. The digital divide between developed and developing countries appears to be reducing, which is a very dangerous thing for the U.K. People like me will now look at India as a base market.”

“My misunderstanding about India was shattered. The number of women in technology in India will put the rest to shame. India is eating into the world and that’s a table that I would love to sit at.”

These were two accounts from a batch of 40 budding entrepreneurs from the United Kingdom, who were part of the British Council’s ‘Digital India’ programme (under the Generation U.K.-India Programme), as their two-week stay in India neared its end.

Set to fly back on Wednesday, they were full of stories from their stay at Mumbai, Mysuru and Bengaluru – not just about the reality check they got upon visiting the country, but also the work environment from their visits to offices of Myntra, Infosys, Microsoft, Twitter, and IBM.

“India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. People in the U.K. need to understand the outside world and what better place than India,” said Mei-Kwei Barker, Director, South India, British Council, adding that the council aims to bring 25,000 people from the U.K. to India over five years. The programme was launched last November.

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