Writing for the British Chamber of Commerce (Global Trader 2011), Alex Hickman, Chartwell’s Managing Partner and a former advisor to David Cameron, weighs the PM’s chances of building a strategic relationship with India.

“David Cameron is right to want to deepen the UK-India relationship; finding ways to achieve this won’t be easy. Everyone now wants to be India’s best friend”. The key is matching UK skills with areas where India needs help such as education and defence procurement (starting with the competition to provide India’s Ministry of Defence with fast combat jets, where Typhoon is a strong contender). Cameron needs to persuade Delhi to let the UK’s professional service firms compete in India. And he has to find a way to demonstrate that the UK can be an indispensable friend to India as it establishes itself as a world power.

Which is exactly what France, Germany, and – most effectively – the US are also trying to to do …