Results 1-20 of 175 for speaker:Lord Bilimoria

India: Aid — Question (15 May 2013)

Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, to build on what the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries, has just said, we own the only factory and brewery in Bihar. I work closely with the government there, and they appreciate so much the work that DfID does on the ground, helping the state to be more efficient, such as the Right to Public Service Act and the BLISS programme to help teachers learn and teach English....

Queen's Speech — Debate (3rd Day) (13 May 2013)

Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, the gracious Speech said a lot of really good things: build a stronger economy so that the United Kingdom could compete and succeed in the world; strengthen Britain's economic competitiveness; ensure that interest rates are kept low and that people who work hard are properly rewarded; invest in infrastructure-I could go on. It is terrific. However, when I was making my maiden...

Queen's Speech — Debate (3rd Day) (13 May 2013)

Lord Bilimoria: The noble Lord, Lord Pannick, did an excellent job, and the noble Lord is absolutely right. Will the Government accept, learn and consult business more in future? The spending review is about to come along. Are the Government on target, given that, as the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, said, our borrowings are increasing and will double to £1.5 trillion? We have to bring government...

Growth and Infrastructure Bill — Commons Amendments (24 April 2013)

Lord Bilimoria: I appreciate that the Government have made several concessions in trying their best, as has been explained, to make sure that this is not compulsory and has not been forced on people. It is another option to add to the several share option schemes that already exist. The huge issue, as the noble Baroness has just said, is why it has to be linked to giving up any employment rights. That is the...

Growth and Infrastructure Bill — Commons Reasons (22 April 2013)

Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, when I first heard about this scheme, my initial reaction was to give the Government the benefit of the doubt because it encourages share ownership and enterprise-all good intentions. However, I have listened to the arguments of the noble Lords, Lord Pannick and Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, and to the noble Lord, Lord Deben, who has great relations with his coalition partners, summing...

UK Industry: Competitiveness — Question (22 April 2013)

Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, would the Minister agree that we are all very proud that a British university, Cambridge, has won more Nobel prizes than any other university in the world? However, would he also agree that that is in spite of this country underfunding research and development expenditure as a proportion of GDP? We spend less than both the EU and OECD averages. We spend half of what a country like...

Budget Statement — Motion to Take Note (21 March 2013)

Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, last year we had the omnishambles Budget, with measures such as a "pasty tax". Last year we had the Government making U-turn after U-turn, and the criticism that the Treasury had not thought things through or listened. This time, the Budget has so much in it that shows that the Government are genuinely trying to listen. For a long time, many of us have been saying that employers'...

First World War: Centenary — Question for Short Debate (4 March 2013)

Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, I was with my 98 year-old grandmother, Ratti Bilimoria, in Mumbai last month. She calls herself a war baby because she was born in 1914, soon after the start of the First World War. I am a former chairman and current member of the Memorial Gates Commemoration Committee. Every year at the Memorial Gates on Constitution Hill here in London-erected primarily due to the efforts of the...

Education: Academies and Free Schools — Question for Short Debate (4 February 2013)

Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, today is serendipitous. I am proud to be a liveryman of the Drapers' Company, and today I was privileged to visit the Drapers' Academy, in Harold Hill in the London Borough of Havering. The academy is sponsored by the Drapers' Company and Queen Mary, University of London, itself an institution founded by the Drapers. The academy was formally opened by Her Majesty the Queen, who...

Visas: Student Visa Policy — Motion to Take Note (31 January 2013)

Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, during my childhood in India there was never any doubt that I would study here in Britain. My family has been educated here for three generations and I was brought up to believe that British education, along with that in the United States, is the best in the world. The point that has not yet been made is that foreign students enrich British universities and the experience of...

EU: Prime Minister's Speech — Motion to Take Note (31 January 2013)

Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, the Prime Minister was spot on when he summarised in his excellent speech that the key priorities of the European Union are peace and prosperity. We have had nearly 70 years of peace and we have had free movement of people and Europe is our biggest trading partner. So we should never take any of this for granted and I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, for initiating this...

Economy: Growth — Motion to Take Note (29 January 2013)

Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, I remember coming to this country as a boy in the 1970s, when my father was posted here as the Indian Army liaison officer with the British Army, and seeing a country on its knees. Just a quarter of a century before that, this country had the largest empire that the planet has ever known but, at that time, the world had written off Britain as a has- been. When I came back to England...

UK Trade — Question (23 January 2013)

Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, I welcome the noble Lord to the Front Benches. I have seen, as the founding chairman of the UK India Business Council, the help that the UK Government give through UK Trade & Investment to businesses to export. However, can the noble Lord tell us what more the Government are doing to help exporting, particularly to BRIC countries, and explain why UK Export Finance levels of...

Bank of England — Question (22 January 2013)

Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, the Government should be congratulated on appointing Mark Carney and for the first time bringing in somebody from outside the United Kingdom to serve as Governor of the Bank of England. It shows not only what an open country and economy we are but that we can get a fresh input of ideas-such as the suggestion that we should look at GDP as a target as well as interest rates. I think...

United States Budget: Economic Impact — Question (10 December 2012)

Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, it is estimated that if the US falls off its fiscal cliff, its GDP will fall significantly. Will the Minister admit that, following the Chancellor saying in the Autumn Statement that deficit reduction will now take three years longer, we in this country have already fallen off our own fiscal cliff?

Economy: Growth — Question for Short Debate (6 December 2012)

Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, has always been known as a man of action. From the day of his long-awaited maiden speech-after more than 10 years' patience on behalf of your Lordships, to be precise, and when I had the privilege of paying the tributes to him-he has hit the ground running. Within barely seven months, he has produced his No Stone Unturned-In Pursuit of Growth report....

Ugandan Asians — Motion to Take Note (6 December 2012)

Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, over the over the centuries communities have had to flee persecution, drop everything they owned and the connections they had built up, and flee. Over 1,000 years ago my own community, the Zoroastrian Parsees, had to flee their homeland of ancient Persia and settle in India. Fast forward to today and I would say that the Parsee community, in terms of per capita achievement, was one...

Foreign Affairs: Global Role, Emerging Powers and New Markets — Motion to Take Note (6 December 2012)

Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, at the outset, I apologise to the noble Lord, Lord Howell, as I was not in the Chamber when he started this debate. It is such a pity that he is no longer a Minister because he did such a brilliant job at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and it is the Government's loss and ours that he is no longer there. Just over six decades ago Britain had the largest empire the world has ever...

Religion in the United Kingdom — Question for Short Debate (22 November 2012)

Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, yesterday I was proud to speak at the School of Oriental and African Studies to inaugurate an exhibition called "Sugar and Milk". It was about 10 Zoroastrian Parsee families who settled in south-east England and the stories of what happened to them after they settled in this country. What came across strongly was their identity and their religion as part of integrating into British...

EU Report: Women on Boards — Question for Short Debate (13 November 2012)

Lord Bilimoria: My Lords, in 2003 I was a member of the Tyson Task Force on the Recruitment and Development of Non-Executive Directors, where we examined, "how a range of different backgrounds and experiences among board members can enhance board effectiveness and by exploring how a broader range of non-executive directors can be ... recruited". I thank the noble Baroness, Lady O'Cathain, for initiating this...