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News: Indians in London, India in London |
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[Mon, 21 May 2007] |
India continues to fascinate the West with its colourful heritage and popular culture. Beginning July 17, the richness and influence of Indian culture will be showcased across London during a three-month-long festival, India Now, dedicated to Indian art, film, food, theatre, music and fashion.
“India is not only one of the world’s most important and rapidly growing economies, but it’s also one of the world’s most important cultures,” says Ken Livingstone, mayor of London. The idea behind the event, he adds is to strengthen his city’s relations with India.
“With the arrival of more Indian companies, India’s cultural impact on London is going to increase further. India Now will be an opportunity to experience the richness of Indian culture and will underline the relationship London has with India,” says Livingstone, who also has plans to visit India in November in a bid to enhance trade and cultural relations with the country.
India Now will have several attractions including a three-week Indian-themed festival at Trafalgar Square in August. In September, Regent Street, one of London’s busy shopping streets, will be transformed into an Indian streetscape complete with music, sculptures, food and artisans. Indian designers will also hold fashion shows at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Other highlights include Indian-themed club nights, stage performances at the National Theatre and an art exhibition at the Museum of London.
And when we talk about India, can Bollywood be far behind? The grand premiere of a Hindi blockbuster at Somerset House is also on the cards. Sources in Bollywood say that Shah Rukh Khan’s Chak De India and the John Abraham-Bipasha Basu starrer Goal are strong contenders for the honour. The premiere will surely be the biggest and will have several Bollywood stars in attendance, says Mark Prescott, who heads the Cultural Campaigns department at the Mayor of London’s office.
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[Wed, 9 May 2007] |
Out of India, a new display at the Museum of London, highlights the impact of the culture of the Indian subcontinent on London, and the contributions made by people of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi descent, who settled in the capital.
It marks the 60th anniversary of Indian Independence, and the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan.
From food to fashion, politics to sport, spirituality to cinema, Out of India unravels the subcontinent's ever developing relationship with London, bringing together photographs, textiles, objects and oral histories to celebrate an extraordinary and ongoing tale of cultural influence on life in the capital.
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[Mon, 7 May 2007] |
Indian visitors to London spent more money there than their Japanese counterparts last year, according to figures provided by Visit London, the foremost agency engaged in promoting tourism of the British capital.
Until recently, the Japanese were considered the richest and most liberal of spenders, after the Americans. Yet in 2006, although the number of Indian tourists in London was, at 212,000, marginally less than the number of Japanese at 230,000, the former spent a good deal more. Indians spent £139 million (Rs 1,180 crore) and the Japanese £123 million (Rs 1,040 crore).
For the first time, Indian tourists were also noted as “good spenders”, underlining the scale of the emerging Indian middle class, the strength of the country’s booming economy and the fact that India overtook Japan last year to become the second largest investor in Britain, after the US.
“The booming economy and growing bilateral trade have given a boost to Indians coming here,” said a spokesman for the British Tourism Authority.
Excessive security at US airports has contributed too. Indians rarely have problems at the immigration counters at London’s Heathrow Airport. “We generally find Indians polite and in possession of proper papers,” an airport security officer told HT. “We know that Indians can hardly be linked to terror groups here.”
A record 15 million tourists flocked to Britain in 2006 — representing a 9.5 per cent increase over 2005 — and spent £7.5 billion, another record. |
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[Fri, 27 April 2007] |
India has become the second-biggest source of new foreign investment into London, behind only the United States, a report released on Friday said.
According to the Financial Times, a new report from Think London, the capital's foreign direct investment (FDI) agency, says that India has accounted for 16 per cent of all new foreign investment into London between 2003 and 2007.
That has helped investment into London jump to 52 billion pounds (76.1 billion euros, 103.4 billion dollars), from 38 billion pounds two years ago. The United States topped the list, with 31 per cent of new investment, while France was third with seven percent. China, Japan and Canada with six percent each followed.
"London does not have the same resonance in China, Russia or Brazil as it does in India," Think London's chief executive Michael Charlton noted. The United States still dominates total foreign investment into the capital, though, accounting for about half of it, followed by France with 12 per cent.
Charlton warned against complacency, however, noting that "FDI companies are continually re-evaluating their presence here ... More than half review their global strategy every three to five years, and thirteen percent do so every year."
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[Tue, 10 April 2007] |
The number of prosperous Indians seeking to buy high-end property in London and elsewhere in Britain is growing exponentially and most are willing to pay well over 1 million pounds for a place under the British sun.
Thanks to a growing economy and globalisation of enterprise, more and more Indian companies are opening offices in London to leverage its geographical, historical and financial advantages. This has resulted in swathes of prime property being bought by Indian entrepreneurs either for themselves or their companies.
Indian businessmen now rival Chinese and Russian plutocrats in chasing prime property in London, according to leading estate agents.
Joining the chase is Shilpa Shetty, winner of reality show "Celebrity Big Brother", who is reported to be buying a home in the trendy Hoxton area of north London.
The record for buying the most expensive property in London so far stands in the name of Lakshmi Mittal, who bought numbers 18-19, Kensington Palace Gardens, for 57.1 million pounds in 2004.
The Indian buyers do not only come from India but also include the British Indians who have settled here for several years. And having done well, they are keen to move upwards on the property ladder.
Estate agents say that such is the interest from Indian buyers that many agents have now set up a separate desk to deal with Indian buyers. These include Savills, a top-end estate agency, Hamptons and Knight Frank.
London has a unique place in the Indian imagination. The capital is seen as a safe investment destination that includes all cultural and other accoutrements attractive to the globalised Indian entrepreneur. Owning property in London or having a London address is seen as a key statement for this growing class.
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[Sun, 20 May 2007 18:21:06 GMT] |
The British capital counts more people born in India than any other country among its foreign-born residents, official figures for this thriving metropolis of 7.3 million people reveal.
Indian-born Londoners numbered 206,000 in the three months ending June this year, said the Office of National Statistics (ONS), which is responsible for producing economic and social statistics, registering "life events" and holding the decennial population census.
It said this represented a great leap forward in the number of 'Indian' Londoners from 1997, when 144,000 Indian-born residents imparted a coffee-stain to London's overwhelmingly multi-cultural mix.
But in 1997, said the ONS, Indian-born Londoners were not the dominant 'foreign' presence because that distinction was still reserved for the Irish.
Fast forward nearly a decade and London's colour graph has changed with the population kaleidoscope both shaken and stirred to give Indian-born residents pole position in numerical terms, as well as arguably economic and entrepreneurial showing.
In 2006, the Irish are trailing both Indian and Bangladeshi-born Londoners in the population league tables.
The new data also contains other fascinating bits of data on London's brisk march towards becoming the planet's foremost "world city".
The ONS data says that one-in-three Londoners were born overseas and the city's population is a rich multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural cocktail of Brazilians, Russians, Poles, Zimbabweans, South Africans, Australians, Americans, Japanese and Germans, apart from the three biggest foreign-born groups – Indian, Bangladeshi and Irish. The population picture drives home London's status as Britain's most ethnically diverse region.
The data is thought to underline and give ballast to the boast of London's mayor Ken Livingstone soon after the multiple London bombings in July 2005. Livingstone had said London was "the world in one city" and the suicide bomb attacks on the British capital wrung a tear from every eye all over the world because London was home to people from all parts of the planet.
The new data also revealed that London has 658,000 more non-British-born residents today than in 1997, a spike that is thought to mark the ceaseless influx of New Age Dick Whittingtons, seeking a city whose streets have long been said to be paved with gold. |
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Disclaimer:
Please bear in mind that owners, managers and governments can change their arrangements at any time. Before you go out, we strongly advise you to phone and check opening times, dates of events and all other particulars. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this guide, the publishers at bolobolo cannot accept responsibility for any errors it may contain. |
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