A senior Cambridge academic has been appointed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to the UK-India Round Table.

Dame Sandra Dawson, DBE, Director of the Judge Business School and Master of Sidney Sussex College, will attend the group’s ninth annual meeting in Goa next March.

The UK-India Round Table was established by Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh in April 2000. They were looking for ways to regenerate and strengthen the bilateral relationship.

The Round Table consists of about 30 people drawn equally from India and the UK. They come from many different backgrounds and include academics, officials, businessmen and journalists. All the UK members are invited personally by the Foreign Secretary and include the Rt Hon Lord Patten of Barnes as Chair, Sir Brian Donnelly KCMG, Richard Lambert from the Bank of England, Sir Tim Lankester, KCM, President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford and Jon Snow, Head of Channel 4 News. The two High Commissioners take part ex officio as ordinary members of the group.

The primary purpose of the Round Table is to discuss issues that may affect the bilateral relationship and to reflect on ways in which it can be strengthened. After each meeting the co-Chairmen submit to their respective Governments at the highest level recommendations to that end. The aim of the Round Table is not to duplicate inter-governmental discussions but rather to put forward ideas from different perspectives. Outside experts are sometimes brought in to introduce the discussions on specific subjects.

The discussions of the Round Table have ranged very widely, reflecting exceptionally broad ties between the two countries. Many ideas have been submitted to respective governments on how closer cooperation might be achieved in the field of trade and investment, notably in the field of high technology.

The Round Table has debated the importance of IT and bio-technology and put forward proposals for collaboration in research in these areas. Culture, tourism, air services, biodiversity, cultural and educational exchanges and legal services are among the many other issues that have been discussed.

The efforts of the Round Table were acknowledged in the New Delhi Declaration of 6 January 2002, signed by the two Prime Ministers.


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