Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress her Department has made on establishing formal structures to implement the proposed UK-India infrastructure finance collaboration platform.

India is an important emerging market, and we maintain several collaboration vehicles for discussing regulatory and market access barriers in financial services. Most recently there was a UK-India Financial Markets Dialogue held in GIFT City in December 2024 and we are looking forward to the upcoming UK-India Economic and Financial Dialogue in April 2025 which is jointly chaired by the Chancellor and the Indian Finance Minister. Both dialogues are an opportunity for both the UK and India’s finance ministries and regulators to table important FS issues for collaborative working.

Boosting trade abroad is essential to delivering growth at home. That is why the UK is committed to negotiating a trade deal with India – one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Officials are continuing to negotiate the UK-India FTA, which includes FS provisions that will not undermine our future relationship and support our continued cooperation. A trade deal could unlock new opportunities for businesses and consumers in all regions and nations of the UK.

Fintech is an important sector for both the UK and India, we engage closely with the Indian Finance Ministry through an annual Joint Fintech Working Group. We also welcome advice from industry through the India-UK Financial Partnership (IUKFP), including through their recent 2023 report ‘Harnessing the power of FinTech and data’.

We welcome the progress of the UK-India Infrastructure Financing Bridge (UKIIFB) led by the City of London Corporation and the National Institute for the Transformation of India (NITI Aayog) in its first year, and we look forward to supporting the second year of the UKIIFB and any new areas of focus.

The UK supported the establishment and development of the ISSB as a global standard setter for sustainability reporting at COP26. The government have also supported world-leading work on transition plan disclosures by co-chairing the Transition Plan Taskforce. We will be taking a pro-growth, pragmatic approach to sustainable finance, combining support for international and interoperable standards like ISSB with an openness to feedback about what policies we should be pursuing. The upcoming UK-India EFD will present a renewed opportunity to engage with India on our shared areas of interest in sustainable finance.