Protectionism, Brexit and anti-globalisation will not hold back UK-India ties, according to business and political leaders speaking at Imperial today.

The AIMA (All India Management Association) Imperial College conference ‘To Build Walls or Bridges: the Path to a New Economic Nirvana’ took place on the first anniversary of the Brexit vote – a topic that came up throughout the event.

Speakers of the Gandhi Centre for Inclusive Innovation-organised event included the UK’s science and universities minister Jo Johnson, former trade secretary Patricia Hewitt, Indian High Commissioner YK Sinha, Hero Enterprise chair and AIMA president Sunil Munjal, Nicco Group chair Rajive Kaul, Neo Foods chair Sudhir Jalan, London & Partners CEO Laura Citron, and Imperial College Business School economist Tarun Ramadorai, among others.

Professor Alice Gast, President of Imperial College London, who was recently named one of the 100 most influential figures in UK-India relations, opened the event.

She said: “This is such an important topic – building bridges instead of walls.  It is the right time and the right place for this dialogue.

“One year ago today, we woke up to the news that Britain voted to leave the European Union. What I said that morning still rings true: ‘We are determined that political changes will not hold Imperial back from delivering excellence in research and education for the benefit of global society. We will vigorously defend our international values if they are threatened and will continue to think and act internationally’. Our international bridges are more important than ever.”

Globalisation and sovereignty

Rekha Sethi, Director General of AIMA, agreed that this was the right time and place for the debate because “Britain is ground zero between globalisation and economic sovereignty.”

YK Sinha, India’s High Commissioner to the UK, said: “To build walls or bridges is a central issue in today’s world. The contest between internationalism and sovereignty has come to a head and the choice of the nations is no longer an obvious one.

YK Sinha and Jo Johnson

“The outcome of the snap elections in the UK has only confirmed that nations are ambivalent about globalization… India is looking for more trade and investment because it wants to grow even faster. The UK, for its part, has chosen to reconfigure its relationship with the world."

While arguing for more openness in the British visa system, he said that “the UK is the preferred destination for Indian students – and it always has been.”

Patricia Hewitt, Chair of the UK India Business Council (UKIBC), spoke of her “instinctive aversion to protectionism” that goes back to her childhood in Australia. “Protectionism is an inhibitor of economic and intellectual growth.” But she also asked “how do we make globalization work for everybody,” especially those left behind in the current economy. She urged leaders to make a clearer case that “a job created in India in not a loss of a job in Britain” – as India prospers, new opportunities emerge for Britain and the world.

Universities and Science Minister Jo Johnson emphasized the UK’s extraordinary research capacity, producing 16% of the world’s most highly cited papers with just 1% of the world’s population. He also wanted to “send a message to prospective Indian students that they have the warmest welcome here.”

Elephant in the room

AIMA President Sunil Munjal said: “There is huge potential for cooperation between the two countries in higher education, scientific and industrial research, innovation and intellectual property.”

AIMA DG Rekha Sethi

He added: “There is a growing fashion of building walls. After a binge of globalism and international integration, a lot of people want to get out or keep others out. A lot of people blame globalization for the dragging them down and they blame international treaties for preventing them from helping themselves. Bigotry that went down with the Berlin Wall and Apartheid is back in fashion. Somehow, the democracies across the world are showing the same trend.”

He suggested that technological change “is the elephant in the room. The disruptive influence of technological advances has largely gone under the radar. In any case, it is not as exciting a material for politics and media as foreigners.”

“The growth of the high-speed global communication network and the information technologies has changed the way the world works,” making it “easier to seek out distant markets and suppliers... However, the smarter the technology got, the faster the value of old skills and businesses dropped.”

Echoing Professor Gast and other speakers’ defence of international collaboration, Mr Munjal concluded that “The path to a new economic nirvana will be built with new knowledge and skills sourced from all over the world. Hiding behind walls will be suicidal and building bridges for talent and innovation will bring prosperity. Yet, nations are unlikely to give up trying to build walls. But they will also not stop building bridges. I am confident that the concerns about the world going to pieces are grossly exaggerated.”

Professor Kalyan Talluri, Munjal Chair of Global Operations at Imperial College Business School, led a discussion on “life after Brexit: repairing globalisation,” where he speculated on the prospects for a post-Brexit UK-India trade deal in an age disrupted by identity, inequality and automation.

Rajive Kaul, chair of Nicco Group and an Imperial alumnus, said: “the UK must globalise afresh” after Brexit, while Sudhir Jalan, chair of Neo Foods, noted that, as Brexit and Trump have changed the western political landscape, “China is the biggest advocate of globalisation, followed by India.”

Professor David Gann, Imperial’s Vice President (Innovation), defended the movement of students, academics and workers across borders as a driver of innovation: “Without that mix, ideas won’t bump into each other.”

Are some walls good?

Dr Yuri Mishina, Associate Professor (Strategy), wondered if “maybe building walls isn’t always bad” because “independently developed ideas can provide new insights when they are put together”, avoiding homogeneity. “Should we have some walls and some bridges?” he asked. He cited London’s recent craft brewing renaissance as an example of a reaction to homogeneity leading to exciting experimentation.

Professor of Financial Economics Tarun Ramadorai led a panel on “transformation and the art of innovation” focusing on how technology can help those “left behind by globalisation”.

Manvinder ‘Vindi’ Banga of Clayton, Dubilier & Partners spoke of the urgent need for mass job creation in India, and the way in which software and coding skills provide part of the answer: “software technology changes the ability of a person to get into business.”

The incoming Dean of Imperial College Business School Francisco Veloso hailed the benefits of “a much more distributed technological axis” where, for example, it is possible to 3D print artificial limbs at a fraction of the previous cost.

Sankalp Chaturvedi

Laura Citron, CEO of London & Partners, explained how “cities are drivers of innovation and growth”, drawing on her organisation’s experience of “helping innovative companies to grow and to internationalise”.

Closing the conference, Dr Sankalp Chaturvedi, of the Gandhi Centre, who led much of its organisation, said: “There has been more a talk of borders than bridges in several aspects of ‘present’ life. The divide between left and right, old and new generations seems to be growing further apart. In past, it seemed they were more ‘aligned’ together and at least were trying to work towards ‘one goal’ of 'prosperity and unity'.

"To conclude this conference, I would like to quote a philosophy from Vedic scriptures - 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' - which means 'the world is one family'".