Rishi Sunak is preparing for his first visit to India as British Prime Minister.
London:
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak may face some transparency questions over wife Akshata Murthy’s Infosys stake worth an estimated £500 million in the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India. It is said in a news. Newspaper The Observer claims that the opposition Labor Party and business experts are questioning the full financial implications as Infosys, a Bengaluru-based software services company co-founded by Akshata’s father Narayana Murthy, would benefit from any such trade deal.
Also read this
India and Britain are negotiating an FTA and talks in this regard are in the 12th round. Sunak is preparing for his first visit to India as British Prime Minister for the G-20 leaders’ summit next month. Darren Jones, Labor MP and Chair of the House of Commons Business and Trade Select Committee, said: “As the Prime Minister has recently learned, it is important that she makes a proper declaration of any interests. I hope he will do the same with regard to the India trade deal.
This committee is reviewing the FTA negotiations. Earlier this week, Britain’s parliamentary watchdog released a report of its investigation, which said Sunak had inadvertently failed to properly disclose his wife’s shares in the Koru Kids company, which conflicted with the government’s budget policy. There was going to be an advantage. British Indian leader Sunke (43) apologized for the inadvertent violation “due to confusion” and the matter was closed.
Infosys wants to improve access to the UK for thousands of its contract workers by changing the visa system, The Observer has reported. Allowing more visas for its employees in fields such as information technology (IT) and artificial intelligence (AI) is claimed to be a “key Indian demand in the negotiations”. Infosys has contracts with the British government as well as many UK companies.
The paper claims that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has warned the Business and Trade Select Committee against planning a visit to India in the coming months to look into issues related to the potential deal. Committee chairman Jones told the newspaper: “The government advised the committee that it would be better to visit India next year rather than hold sensitive trade talks.”