Dan Aldridge

I absolutely agree. One of the things I took back to my constituency was about how I engage with schoolchildren and college students, but that point is much wider; we should be really ambitious in that cross-cultural dialogue. There is nothing but gains to be had, so far as I can see. It came out loud and clear from our counterparts in India that cross-party political support for the UK and India’s partnership on AI and technology was critical in reassuring Indian officials and politicians that the UK was a safe and reliable partner. Politicians and officials in India were really impressed that the main two UK political parties could share a stage in India, and saw that as a real positive—a really good thing on the global stage. On semiconductors, under the TSI the UK and India are pursuing a broad and ambitious partnership focused on research and development in chip design, compound semiconductors and advanced packaging. Both Governments have committed to sharing best practice on supply chain challenges and to facilitating trade and investment flows between semiconductor companies in both countries. Then there is quantum: quantum computing, quantum sensing, quantum communications. For most people, those technologies remain firmly in the realm of science fiction, but not for long. The countries that invest in quantum research and development now will have decisive advantages in cryptography, defence and pharmaceuticals, and in areas that we cannot yet fully predict. It is important that elected Members champion these frontier technologies and make them real for people in our constituencies, because if we do not do it, who will? It will probably be a drama or a TikTok, and those are not necessarily the best places for them to get their information. The TSI explicitly includes quantum as a priority area for collaboration. I find the idea of building partnerships between UK and Indian research centres and developing the next generation of technologies together really exciting. The UK has world-leading quantum research capabilities. India has the engineering talent and institutional ambition to match them, and it is a brilliant match. These are the technologies of tomorrow, and our collaboration on these sectors provides huge opportunities for the UK, particularly the small and medium-sized enterprises in our constituencies. The Indian Government and Indian businesses are actively looking for British partners, particularly SMEs, and the TSI is not just a framework for multinational corporations or Government-to-Government exchanges; it is designed to create partnerships at every level of the economy, including start-ups, research institutions, academic collaborators and supply chain partners. I am excited that next month I will be welcoming some start-up innovators from India to Parliament. Our partnerships with small and medium-sized enterprises are the exception, not the rule, but it is our responsibility as local representatives to help change that—to open doors and to make the benefits of the UK-India partnership seen in our constituencies up and down the country. The only way we can make the most of the relationship is through sustained engagement, which relates to the point made by the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) about youth and student engagement. The only limit is our creativity. A lot of this is not about huge investment, but about creativity of thought.