India-born British industrialist Swraj Paul is hopeful that the U.K. government will continue to permit foreign students to work in the country for two years after completing their course.
“The present [David Cameron-led coalition] government wants to be a little strict. I hope not and I hope they see the reason why not,” said Lord Paul, who is the Chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton and the University of Westminster.
In an interview to The Hindu here on Tuesday, he said when the last Labour government tried to introduce certain restrictions for the students “we were able to make the government agree. I think I did play a reasonable role in trying to [make] Tony Blair [government] agree and they allowed children to work for two years after their graduation.”
Lord Paul said he sympathised with the present government. He noted that there was the problem of finding jobs even for British students. “I don't want to say that this government is wrong, but on the other hand that's the time that we are living in. I would like to see a softer blow... some of them are trying to be a little more hard.” There have also been quite a few abuses, he added, in the form of students not going back after two years.
Moreover, “when you come [to power] you have to please your voters, sympathisers and there is already a little tussle between the coalition partners. I hope it settles. But in my view, it will be a disaster if they withdraw [the provision].”
Lord Paul said, “We are trying very hard and I believe that until and unless we internationalise the education, you cannot progress in today's world.”
In the University of Westminster there were students of 150 nationalities and in the University of Wolverhampton there were students from 110 – 120 nations. If students were permitted to stay for two more years, they could go back after making some money and also acquire experience of the British way of working.
In reply to a query on the role of corporates in the uplift of society, Lord Paul, who is the Chairman of the Caparo Group Ltd., said it was necessary to make everybody interested and feel that they were also responsible for the betterment of people. Governments today could not afford to keep spending money. The gap between the richest and the poorest was widening.
The Ambika Paul Foundation, a charitable trust set up in memory of his daughter Ambika, who died of leukaemia in 1968 aged four, promotes the wellbeing of children and young people throughout the world through education, culture and health. It was funded through donations from the Paul family and the family-owned Caparo businesses. “We don't raise money from outside,” he said.
The Foundation supported causes, small or big. It helped the zoo in London survive, when the facility was threatened with closure.
On the Caparo's operations in Tamil Nadu, he said “in Sriperumbudur, we have a series of plants and have already started expanding. We have not started in Oragadam as there are some issues.”
In the country, the group was mainly focussing on automotive and engineering components. “We are where the automobile industry is,” he said.
The operations were based in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Pune. “Our biggest presence in the whole of India will be in Tamil Nadu, if it is not already.”
The Caparo group, Lord Paul said, was setting up a gas-based 26 MW power project in Haryana. The Gas Authority of India Ltd. has agreed to supply gas.
“We have embarked on another 250 MW plant in Haryana with a Finnish company.” If successful, Caparo would like to put up power plants wherever gas was available, he said.
