British Prime Minister David Cameron once again stressed on the openness of economy to help investment to flow into India.
On a whirlwind trip of Kolkata, Cameron who met the students of Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta in an interactive session said as partners with long historical ties both the countries would stand to benefit from what he called openness of economy.
“I think we benefit from openness. It is in our (mutual) interest,” he said insisting it would be easier to invest in areas like infrastructure, universities, city planning if the Indian economy opened up more. There would be “free flow of capital if you open up,” he said.
Britain was “investing massively in India and Indian businessmen are investing hugely in Britain”, he
reminded adding it was in the interest of both the nations to open up further to become successful in the global economic race.
Allaying fears of the students aspiring to get higher education in his country, Cameron said his Government had not fixed any cap on the number of students who can get admission in British universities.
“There is no cap on the number of students,” he said adding the only the students would have to be proficient in English. “Proficiency in English and a place in a genuine university” were the prerequisites for an admission he maintained reiterating as well it was the students who would have to fund their education.
As education in his country was expensive “there are two ways to fund it — either asking the taxpayers or the students to pay”, he said preferring the second option. This was because “once the students become graduate their earnings increases a lot” which they could utilise to pay off their loans.
The UK Prime Minister who was in Kolkata for a few hours and savoured its colonial landmarks strolling past the Howrah Bridge for a while said that he was at the “right place, at right time and with the right people.
Hailing Kolkata for its glorious past and for producing some of the greats in history like Tagore, Satyandranath Bose of the Higgs-Boson fame and Amartya Sen he said the two countries could act together in shaping the future history.