India & UK
India & UK · FTA · diaspora · post-Brexit
12 min read · Updated 2026-05-25
What are India-UK relations?
India-UK relations are a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership agreed on 4 May 2021 alongside the 2030 Roadmap, whose five pillars are people, trade, defence, climate and health. The free trade agreement CETA was launched on 13 January 2022 and concluded on 6 May 2025 after fourteen rounds, cutting whisky duty from 150 to 75 percent; bilateral trade is roughly 58 billion dollars.
The story
It is 6 May 2025. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announce, via a joint statement after a virtual call, that after 14 rounds of negotiations spread over three years and three UK Prime Ministers (Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer), the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is concluded. Tariff cuts cover ~99% of Indian exports to the UK and ~90% of UK exports to India. Scotch whisky tariff drops from 150% to 75% immediately + 40% in 10 years; auto tariffs progressively eased; UK gives India a "concessional national insurance arrangement" for short-term service workers — the breakthrough on Mode-4.
Twenty-five years earlier, in January 2002, Atal Bihari Vajpayee stood beside Tony Blair at a launch event in London calling for an "India-UK Strategic Partnership". The world's oldest constitutional democracy and the world's largest were finally talking strategy after decades of post-imperial coolness.
In between lies the entire arc of post-colonial reconciliation: 1.8 million-strong Indian diaspora in Britain (~2.7% of UK population); 300+ companies of Indian origin including Tata (JLR + Tata Steel UK), Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel; King Charles III's India link via Princess Anne's 2024 visit; the Kohinoor controversy that resurfaced at Charles's coronation in May 2023; Rishi Sunak, the first British Indian PM (Oct 2022 - July 2024); and India's first F-35-class collaboration offer in 2025.
Why this matters for UPSC
India-UK is asked once every cycle as a stand-alone Mains question — usually on FTA, diaspora, Indo-Pacific, or post-Brexit recalibration. Prelims has tested CETA chronology, JLR-Tata, 2030 Roadmap. Interview boards love this file for the colonial- to-equal-partner narrative arc.