Thirty hours in Delhi. This lovely garden city of politics and administration, was chilly. Everyone wearing scarves and woolly hats and even blankets. But the warmth and soul of India was everywhere.
I think that the best moment was sitting at the wheel of a bright pink Nano, the Tata mini, mini car. I guess boy’s toys still charm boys. I saw also that the Indians had adopted the western habit of having a scantily clad model standing with a fixed smile on her face by each vehicle. At least they were normal sized Indian women. One was a European, she looked anorexic she was so thin. I hope they do not adopt all our habits.
I had a tour of the three quarters built Terminal 3 at Delhi airport, hosted by a remarkable Briton called Andrew Harrison. He has built airports all over the world and is now repeating the trick in Delhi. Built in a socially responsible way, the 36,000 workers are treated far better than in traditional construction sites, provided with a bed, 3 meals a day and healthcare.
It being Delhi, most of my interactions were with Government. I admired hugely the residence of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi. Full of beautiful artefacts and attentive servants, calm and peaceful amidst gardens. The Chinese Mandarins of old had the same. Whitehall feels a bit different!
The main themes of my talks in Delhi were low carbon technologies, education and skills, visas and entrepreneurship and market access. I felt the last was less attuned to UK interests than the first.
Now off to Pakistan. Yet another overnight flight but this time no chance to sleep since we have to fly to Dubai, change planes in the middle of the night and fly back to Karachi. An eight hour journey for a 2 hour distance from Delhi to Karachi! Such is geo-politics. The result is trying to do a 16 hour programme on no sleep. My next blog may not be so good tempered! But I am very much looking forward to visiting Pakistan, a country I have never been to and which has many business opportunities.