Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Haskel for choosing such an important topic for this debate. He is a passionate believer in manufacturing and technology. I declare an interest as chairman of Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick, where we have worked for three decades to deliver growth, both at home and abroad. It is vital to remember the positive difference the...
Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, it is a privilege to speak in a debate led by the noble Lord, Lord Patel. The noble Lord spoke with his customary wisdom. I have learnt a lot discussing medical problems with him. There are many healthcare experts speaking today. I am a little more of an outsider. From my perspective, it seems that we constantly read of reports, inquiries and investigations into the problems of our...
Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lord Soley on securing this debate on economic growth. We all have an interest in this subject, but I should declare my interest as chairman of the Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick. For more than three decades, we have been working very hard, helping companies to grow. A week ago the gracious Speech pledged that the Government...
Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, the tributes paid to Baroness Thatcher demonstrate the huge impact she had on our national life-and rightly so. No matter what our political views today, so many of us are Thatcher's children. I will be very brief and simply share my memories of witnessing first hand Baroness Thatcher's famous drive, conviction and determination as she worked to save and revive Britain's industries....
Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, the Budget Statement was trailed as a Budget for growth. I declare an interest. As chairman of Warwick Manufacturing Group, I work with many international companies on their growth strategies. I have learnt that to achieve sustainable growth, you must think of the long term, not of headlines or short-term profits. The Budget reminded us how difficult things are for the British...
Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, I would like to thank my noble friend, Lord Adonis, for securing this debate, and join others in welcoming the Minister to his new role. I declare my interest as the chairman of Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick. I have argued many times for a greater emphasis on industrial and innovation policy in Britain. However, for 30 years, we did next to nothing. That...
Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, for securing this debate. I declare an interest as chairman of the Warwick Manufacturing Group. In many ways, this debate is the companion to that led by my noble friend Lord Adonis last Thursday. If last week we focused on the human cost of recession, this debate is about building a better future. When discussing the Government's growth...
Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Adonis for securing this debate. As a former apprentice school governor, I declare my interest as chairman of Warwick Manufacturing Group and of being involved in industry all my adult life. This subject is very close to my heart. My noble friend has set out the scale of the crisis. To take just one example, last year saw a 15% increase in long-term...
Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Haskel, who is a great ally of British manufacturers, for securing this debate. I have had many private debates with him. I am sure that he is among the very few people in this House who understand manufacturing. I also wish to declare my interests as set out in the register, and draw special attention to my role as the founding chairman of the Warwick...
Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Sugar for securing this debate. I am pleased to declare my interest as chairman of Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick. The Government are Britain's biggest customer. As we have heard, the Government spent almost £240 billion last year. State procurement decides the fate of many of the private sector firms that Britain urgently...
Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Parekh for securing this debate, and I declare my interest as chairman of Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick. In this debate, it is worth recalling the long history of Indian innovation. Some noble Lords may have visited the Qutb Minar in Delhi and seen the Iron Pillar which stands there unrusted since its forging a millennium and a...
Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, we are all indebted to the noble Baroness, Lady Andrews, for giving the House an opportunity to debate the Government's plans to support social enterprise. Social enterprise is a very broad topic. As time is limited, I will focus on one issue that is essential to achieving the Government's ambition: the need for social innovation to drive the strength of social enterprise. Social...
Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, I join those who have thanked my noble friend Lord Hollick for securing this debate. I also support the remarks about the excellent maiden speeches that we have heard. As the director of Warwick Manufacturing Group, I declare an interest as a professor of engineering and as someone who has worked for 40 years in the field of manufacturing here and abroad. I am also a long-time...
Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Hussein-Ece, on securing this vital debate. I am pleased to declare that WMG at the University of Warwick, of which I am the director, admits many Turkish students on bursaries that we fund ourselves. We have a very close relationship with leading Turkish universities and businesses, such as the private university, Sabanci University in...
Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, I begin by thanking the noble Lord, Lord Young, for securing this debate. In politics, it sometimes seems that the greatest health and safety risk is the act of thinking aloud. However, it is only by risking controversy that we achieve anything. I am glad that the noble Lord speaks his mind, because too often politics is governed by caution, not frankness. I declare an interest as...
Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lady Wall on securing this important debate. It was also a pleasure to hear from my noble friend Lord Sugar. I do not claim to be a celebrity apprentice, but as a former graduate apprentice I am delighted that your Lordships' House is discussing apprenticeships. I have regularly raised this issue in many debates here. I wish that apprenticeships...
Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Haskel for securing this important debate and for his characteristically wise opening remarks. However, I find myself in the unusual role of a warm-up man-or should that be "warm-up Peer"?-to my noble friend Lord Prescott. Given his great work at Kyoto, he could not have chosen a more fitting topic with which to open his account. I am sure that the whole...
Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, I offer my congratulations to the new Government, and to the noble Baroness, Lady Wilcox, on her appointment. I am lucky enough to have known her for some time, and I am sure that she will provide intelligence, experience and vision to her department. Time is limited and the topic is huge, so I shall limit myself to a subject I know about-technology and manufacturing. From the...
Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Sanderson, on securing this timely debate. For 30 years, I have been the director of Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick. We have spent those three decades working on enterprise and innovation with businesses around the world, so I am happy to declare an interest. It took a global economic tsunami for both major parties to see...
Lord Bhattacharyya: My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Sheikh, has done the House a great service in securing this debate in the Commonwealth's 60th anniversary year. I was only nine years old in 1949, but I remember the controversy in India over the founding of the new Commonwealth-a controversy that was due to the policies of South Africa and what was then "white" Australia. However, Prime Minister Pandit Nehru...