“The banks are still not lending money – and people are afraid to borrow money because they don't know if all of a sudden the banks will say, ‘We want the money back'. This is why ‘we don't borrow more than what is absolutely necessary'.”
He feels Britain had created an unnecessarily negative climate with talk of cutting down on immigration and visas.
“There is a perception in India that Indians are not welcome as students or for work and people in India are fairly sensitive people,” Lord Paul said. As far the atmosphere which has been created around immigration, “the sound of the bite is worse than the bite itself”.
Nevertheless, as chancellor of the universities of both Wolvehampton and Westminster, he was concerned that “there has been a drop in the number of students coming from India.”
The upshot is that “Britain is losing out because Indian students are going to the US, to Australia and Singapore.”
On doing business with India, Lord Paul said, “It is very difficult for small and medium businesses to work with India because the regulations are horrendous. It is very difficult for small and medium businesses to set up plants in India because there are far more obstructions than in most countries in the world.”
