India, UK launch infra finance bridge

India and the UK have launched an infrastructure financing bridge to plan and implement major infrastructure projects, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday. Sitharaman said India and the UK want to conclude the FTA talks “as soon as possible.” The infrastructure financing bridge, a collaboration between the Niti Aayog and City of London Corporation, aims to harness their expertise to implement major infrastructure projects. “We are highly encouraged by the intensified collaboration between India and the UK in the area of financial services.” UK’s Hunt said that he viewed India as Asia’s Silicon Valley, and the UK as Europe’s Silicon Valley, and there’s “a huge amount of work we can do together.” Sitharaman said there are ample opportunities for India and the UK to collaborate on frameworks for secure and inclusive financial intermediation especially in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning that are redefining financial services apart from India’s new Digital Personal Data Protection Act. A joint statement which has later released said: “The primary objective of this collaboration is aimed at unlocking infrastructure investment and leveraging the City of London’s expertise in structuring and phasing major infrastructure projects.”