NEW DELHI : India and the UK are back to discussing a social security agreement aimed at allowing Indian IT firms to avoid paying mandatory national insurance for their overseas Indian staff. This comes as the two nations are keen to bolster their post-Brexit engagement.
The two sides agreed, at the 14th Joint Economic and Trade Committee meeting between the two countries last month, to establish an “enhanced trade partnership". This is the first step in a roadmap to a UK-India free trade agreement.
The partnership has two broad strategies, said Jayant Krishna, who earlier this month took charge as the chief executive officer of the UK-India Business Council. One involves addressing and removing non-trade barriers such as for high skilled professionals in the UK and the other envisages identifying tariff barriers and getting into a dialogue, he said.