On Monday 20th June 2005, UK Parliamentary Group - Labour Friends of India, hosted a meeting in the House of Commons to hear from India's corporate leaders. The delegates were part of the annual CII visit to London and included Narayana Murthy of Infosys, Yogi Deveshwar of ITC Group, Jamshed Irani of Tata Sons, Vinay Deshpande of Encore Software, Rakesh Mittal of Bharti Telecom, Harpal Singh of Fortis Healthcare and also Malvinder Singh of Ranbaxy.

Stephen Pound MP, Chairman of Labour Friends of India, welcomed the delegates to the House of Commons and said,"'in previous years, we've been fortunate to meet and hear from our Indian friends of the CII of the remarkable progress in India. Last year, we asked them to present their views on the future of economic reforms in India as they had a new Government. Today, we ask them of their perspective on India in the global economy. This alone indicates that we, as Parliamentarians, are no longer concerned of the ruling coalition's business credentials but are convinced that under Manmohan Singh's leadership India must surely stand a good chance of influencing the global economy."

Asked about his vision, Mr Pound stated, "A year ago, we faced an enormous danger in that the British public were being told that Indian call centre workers were robbing them of their livelihood, luckily it didn't snowball into a mass movement as we lead a strong campaign to influence parliamentary debate on this issue. We live in a world of interdependence and the unions, media and general public must recognise that we need to work with India, China and other countries to best advantage. If we were to create a bogeyman out of India and other countries, the British public stand to lose out."

Mr K. B. Shankar, Head of HSBC's South Asian Banking Unit and Event Sponsor, said, "As a global bank, HSBC has supported this initiative for some years now because we believe interaction and continuous dialogue are vital in managing new opportunities and minimising risks in an inter-dependent world. For many decades, HSBC have been in the forefront when it comes to international trade, which essentially dealt with the movement of goods. Naturally, in the new global economy, where people, intellectual power, information and capital are also on the move, HSBC is excited at the prospect of collaboration with all the players present today."

The CII delegation comprised:

1. Mr Y C Deveshwar, President, CII & Chairman, ITC Ltd
2. Mr N R Narayana Murthy, Co Chairman, IBP & Chairman, Infosys Technologies Ltd
3. Mr N Srinivasan, Director General, CII
4. Dr Anand C Burman, Vice Chairman, Dabur India Ltd
5. Mr Vinay L Deshpande, Chairman & CEO, Encore Software
6. Dr Jamshed Irani, Director, Tata Sons Ltd
7. Mr Prashant Jhawar, Vice Chairman, Usha Martin Ltd
8. Mr Vikram S Mehta, Chairman, Shell Group of Companies in India
9. Mr Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Vice Chairman & MD, Bharti Teletech Ltd
10. Mr Deepak Puri, Chairman & MD, Mosaer Baer India Ltd
11. Mr Ajay Shriram, Chairman & Senior MD, DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd
12. Mr Harpal Singh, Chairman & MD, Fortis Healthcare Ltd
13. Mr Malvinder Mohan Singh, President Pharmaceuticals, Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd
14. Mr Phiroz Vandrevala, Executive Vice President, TCS
15. Mr Mohit Sarobar, Resident Director, CII
16. Ms Supriya Banerji, Head, International,CII
17. Mr Madhav Sharma, Mission Manager, CII