Spotlight

On Her Majesty’s service CII’s Supriya Banerji gets the Officer of the Order of the British Empire title Neha Sharma   Ask Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) senior director Supriya Banerji how tough it is for Indians to make the United Kingdom their home and she replies without blinking her eyes: “It is the easiest country for an Indian to live in.” Supriya should know. After all, the British monarchy recently awarded her with the title of the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her contribution in furthering Indo-British ties as the head of CII’s UK office for almost eight years. Supriya continues: “The language is easy and you even get things like hing and other spices in the Super Market here. It has given me loads of friends and professional success. It’s like a second home to me.” Talking about the relationship between the two countries over the years, Supriya insists that India is no more looked down upon as a third world country. She explains, “The realisation came towards the early 90s and after that there was no looking back. There is a huge potential for both the countries. More than a market, we look at UK as a learning platform. Apart from manufacturing sector, we can cash in on the expertise of UK in the fields of logistics, retail and especially service sector. They are waiting for us to open the gates for retail.” Supriya insists that the award means a lot to her personally. “It gives me immense encouragement and joy to see how things have shaped up in the last couple of years. The bilateral trade between the two countries today stands at £5 billion from a mere £ 2.5 billion in 1993 and the number of Indian companies doing business with UK has grown to around 400 from a mere cluster of 30 companies,” she informs. As head of the UK Office of CII, and later as head of CII’s International Work, Supriya led multiple initiatives, which helped improve Indo-British business linkages. Of particular importance were her role in putting together the institutional structure to the Indo-British Partner-ship, institutionalising formal collaborative ventures such as the Warwick Manufacturing Group, (Warwick University) and Indian Industry, the Commonwealth Business Council and the Asia House amongst others.

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