Table of Contents
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?
The UK government has caused outrage with its decision to exclude Indian students from a new list of countries considered low risk in order to facilitate an easier visa application process to UK
universities.
ISSUE
• In changes to its immigration policy tabled in Parliament yesterday, the UK Home Office announced a relaxation of the Tier 4 visa category for overseas students from around 25
countries.
• On a list already covering countries like the US, Canada and New Zealand, the Home Office has added on the likes of China, Bahrain and Serbia as countries from where students
would face reduced checks on educational, financial and English language skill requirements to study at British universities.
LORD KARAN BILIMORIA
President of the UK Council for International Student Affairs I consider this another kick in the teeth for India… This sends entirely the wrong message to India, to exclude it
from these Tier 4 measures. The government has simply got it wrong
Post-Brexit free trade agreement (FTA) with India.
OTHER ISSUES
This latest insult to India is on top of reduction made a couple of years ago for
Chinese business visitors and tourists, who acquire two-year multiple entry visas at a
reduced price of £85; for Indians, the price is still £388.
FACTS
•India is the third largest foreign investor in the UK
• Bilateral trade and investment is strong, and more than 800 Indian companies in the UK add an estimated £26 billion to UK’s economy and support over 110,000
jobs, according to a Grant Thornton report.
FACTS
A free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the UK will increase bilateral trade by 26
per cent per annum, according to a new Commonwealth report.
DEAL ON RETURN OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ISSUE
• According to the British authorities, who have raised the illegal migrants issue with India for several years, their numbers vary between 75,000 and 100,000, the largest for any single
nationality in the UK.
• Indian agencies, however, challenge this figure, claiming that the number of illegal migrants was no more than 2,000.
INDIA’S CONCERNS
India considered some of the illegal migrants, especially Sikh and Kashmiri extremists and
sympathisers demanding separate homelands in northern Punjab and Kashmir state, to be
‘hazardous’ and a security risk, and were loath to take them back.
INDIAN FUGITIVES IN THE UK
•Apart from Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, who had created quite a stir in India with their money laundering cases, India has eight other extradition request in the UK – Sanjeev Kumar Chawla (2004) for cricket betting, Shaik Sadiq (2004) for conspiracy and theft, Hanif (2004)
for involvement in terrorism, Raj Kumar Patel (2009) for forgery, Rajesh Kapoor (2011) for forgery and fraud,
Atul Singh (2012) for sex crimes, Jatinder Kumar Angurala and Asha Rani Angurala (2014) for bank fraud.
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