Blair bowled over by City’s biotech sharks

He renews his commitment not to block outsourcing to India as it helps his country’s economy. He talks of fast-paced development in India which produces 220,000 science and IT graduates every year.

BY SHYAM BHATIA, LONDON:

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has praised Bangalore, saying how impressed he was with the dynamism of the biotech entrepreneurs he met in India’s cyber capital. Mr Blair’s reference to Bangalore came in the middle of a keynote speech on the UK economy delivered on Monday to merchant bankers Goldman Sachs.

Outsourcing to countries like India and China will benefit the UK economy by increasing jobs in the long term and improving the country’s competitive advantage, Mr Blair declared. Talking about his impressions after his “reasonably extensive” trips to India and China in the last two years, Mr Blair said, “I remember sitting in a brand new state-of-the-art university complex in Bangalore, talking to leading biotech entrepreneurs, many of them women academics that had branched out into business, confidently predicting they would beat Europe hands-down in the biotech business within a few years.

“And they weren’t alone. India, as a whole now turns out 220,000 science and IT graduates every single year. When I returned home, people asked me about the poverty of the country, how shocking it was and so on. There is indeed still much poverty in a nation of 1 billion. But what had shocked me was how fast it was changing.

“Then last summer I visited China. I had the same experience. But I noticed something else. Whereas 10 years before on a visit, I had also seen new buildings in Shanghai, the same determination to get into the western way of business, but had found it a little like people wanting to learn a new language but not quite sure how to do it; this time, there was an assertiveness, again, as in India, a confidence that showed they were now not just speaking the language but doing so with a fluency and comfort equal to any first world nation. More than that, a readiness to push it further, expand its possibilities, that stood in sharp contrast with what we see in parts of Europe.

“Above all, in both countries I was acutely aware that if I returned this year, I would be surprised at the change from last year. What is happening is very clear. Globalisation is transforming the world economy; not just because of changes in methods of production and technology but because mass popular culture, communication, customer preferences mean a perpetual revolution in new business opportunities and challenges. It is not the scale of change alone that is remarkable, but its pace.”

Although Mr Blair’s speech focused on the UK economy, his references to Bangalore and his renewed commitment not to block outsourcing will gladden Indian hearts.

His commitment not to intervene against outsourcing is especially significant since it does not follow the received wisdom of US politicians, including this year’s Democrat frontrunner in the US presidential primaries, who complain that outsourcing to India is stealing jobs from US workers.

Echoing the mantra of his own pro-India Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Patricia Hewitt, Mr Blair said, “The recent McKinsey’s report on outsourcing showed, contrary to every instinctive reaction, that such methods are not merely necessary for business to survive but can increase the provision of jobs, if the extra competitive advantage is properly used.”

Elsewhere in the UK scientists from Loughborough University have narrated how they have been working with the staff of a Bangalore-based motorcycle manufacturing company in a bid to improve their skills and qualifications.

John Harper, head of Loughborough’s Institute of Polymer Technology and Materials Engineering, who recently visited the TVS Motor Company, said four other colleagues from the same institute had also visited Bangalore to help teach a module. More than 25 employees of TVS participated in the course and more are planned for next year.