On her maiden visit to the city on Tuesday, British Prime Minister Theresa May has a packed schedule ranging from meeting with the Chief Minister and visiting an industrial facility to interacting with children of a government school and a stopover at the famed Someshwara temple of Bengaluru.
Minister for Large and Medium Scale Industries R.V. Deshpande described the British PM’s visit as “a message which proves the importance of Karnataka”. Expressing confidence that Ms. May’s visit would help boost trade between Karnataka and U.K., he said: We welcome U.K. engineers to work in Bengaluru. We want U.K. students to intern with our technological companies.”
Demand on visa
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who will meet the British Premier in the morning, is expected to request her to make U.K. visas less expensive. Mr. Deshpande said Karnataka had been affected by the new visa rules, considering that a large number of techies from Bengaluru take up short-term visits to the U.K. as part of work, besides many tourists and students. “Restrictions like this hinder the entry of great talents and inhibit the competitiveness of the U.K. industry,” he observed. A similar demand on relaxation of the new visa rules have been made by Indian IT companies and industry association Nasscom.
Interestingly, during her visit to the IT City, Ms. May is not visiting any leading IT companies in the State. In the recent past, this is the first time a British PM is not visiting the offices of any IT majors in the city. British PMs like Tony Blair, David Cameron and Gordon Brown had visited Infosys or Wipro on their visits.
However, Ms. May is visiting the facility of aerospace parts manufacture Dynamatics at Peenya industrial area. The company, which supplies parts to aircraft majors like Boeing and Airbus. has factories in the U.K.
She is also expected to meet a delegation from the small and medium enterprises in the city.
On the agenda
Meeting with the CM
Visit to Stonehill Government Higher Primary School, Dynamatics Technologies Ltd. at Peenya, and Sree Someshwara Temple at Ulsoor
Interaction with SME business delegation
