India and Britain on Thursday launched a joint economic trade committee aimed at doubling trade between the two countries and encouraging investment. An agreement to launch the India-UK Joint Economic and Trade Committee was signed in New Delhi by Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath and UK Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Patricia Hewitt. Nath said the committee would provide the institutional mechanism to build on the existing relationship between the two nations and would also play a vital role in doubling trade, which is currently valued at 6 billion U.S. dollars per year. "A trade volume of 6 billion dollars is not exactly what can be called the unleashing of true trading potential of India and the UK. We would like to take it to 10 billion dollars," Nath said. Hewitt saw the trade committee as a "vital link between the British and Indian economies". At an economic summit in eastern Calcutta on Wednesday, Hewitt invited Indian partnership in science and technology. "Today economies are knowledge-driven and we need to invest in skills and innovate," the Telegraph newspaper quoted her as saying. "We need to ensure higher investment in education in our countries. Britain has just one per cent of the world population but produces 12 per cent of globally acknowledged scientists," she said.
