India and the UK have finalized a landmark Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to lower trade barriers and accelerate cooperation in sectors such as telecom and emerging technologies.
The agreement was signed in the presence of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “In a historic milestone, India and the UK have successfully concluded an ambitious and mutually beneficial Free Trade Agreement, along with a Double Contribution Convention [DCC],” said Modi on X. “These landmark agreements will further deepen our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, and catalyze trade, investment, growth, job creation and innovation in both our economies.”
The bilateral agreement opens new opportunities for the Indian and British telecom industries. “UK telecoms suppliers will have guaranteed access to the facilities and services in India on a transparent and non-discriminatory basis,” said the statement issued by the UK government.
In addition, it will ensure that critical scarce resources, including spectrum and radio frequencies, are allocated openly. It will also make it easier for UK businesses to conduct trade with Indian ones. DCC ensures that employees moving between the UK and India will need to pay social security contributions only in one country, thus reducing administrative burdens and simplifying compliance for the businesses.
“Many of the UK’s services sectors, such as telecoms and construction services, will now benefit as we guarantee access to the growing Indian market,” said the UK government statement. “This will provide UK services companies, who export over £500 billion [US$672 million] worldwide, with the certainty they need to expand into India and take advantage of its rapidly growing economy.”
“The India-UK FTA, along with a Double Contribution Convention, is a bold, future-ready step that will unlock growth, jobs, and innovation –accelerating our journey towards Viksit Bharat 2047,” said Piyush Goyal, India’s minister of commerce and industry, on X. “A true reflection of India’s rising global economic stature,” Viksit Bharat 2047 is the Indian government’s target to become a developed country by 2047, the centenary year of India’s independence in 1947.
India and the UK have deep historical, trade and cultural links. India is the UK’s twelfth-largest trading partner with trade worth £43 billion ($56 billion) in 2024. The bilateral trade is expected to double by 2030, said the Indian government in its statement.
In the telecom space, the UK’s Vodafone, which merged with Idea Cellular in 2018, has been present in India for several decades. In addition, with a 24.5% stake, India’s Bharti Enterprises is the largest shareholder in BT, the UK telecom incumbent. It also owns a 21.2% stake in satellite company Eutelsat OneWeb, formed by the merger of Britain’s OneWeb and French Eutelsat.
Indian businesses have responded positively to news of the trade agreement. “This is the first real pact signed between two large nations where the economies are of a similar size, $3.5 trillion,” said Sunil Bharti Mittal, the founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, and chair of the India-UK CEO Forum, as quoted by the Economic Times. “It is a Western world economy and has a number of technologies which are very useful right out. The Indian market is very important for UK companies and, equally, India needs to step up its game in the UK.”
“This agreement enables us to accelerate international growth, provide competitive technology solutions, and contribute to building next-generation digital infrastructure that will power the AI-driven economies of both nations,” said Mahendra Nahata, the managing director at HFCL, an Indian maker of telecom equipment, in a press note.