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India-UK business ties grow beyond London as Indian firms boost regional presence. Thursday, 08 October 2026 - 14:58 The economic relationship between India and Britain is increasingly extending beyond London, with Indian companies expanding their presence in the Midlands and the North, and becoming significant employers in regional economies. The latest India Meets Britain Tracker, compiled by Grant Thornton UK, a professional-services firm specialising in audit, tax and business advisory services, in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry and India Global Forum, records 1,912 Indian-owned companies operating in Britain, employing 2,03,549 people and generating combined turnover of £105.77 billion. The Tracker, now in its 13th edition, has been examining the growing presence of Indian-owned companies in Britain since 2014. Its latest findings provide a revealing picture not simply of the scale of Indian business in Britain, but of its changing geography. London still accounts for the largest share - with 38 per cent of Indian-owned companies. But that is a marked decline from the more than 50 per cent recorded between 2018 and 2021. The South accounts for 27 per cent, the Midlands 12 per cent and the North 11 per cent. The figures suggest that the India-UK economic relationship is becoming less concentrated in London and increasingly embedded in Britain's wider industrial and technological economy. That is particularly evident in the West Midlands, where Indian investment has become closely associated with advanced manufacturing, automotive technology and increasingly with digital industries. The West Midlands Growth Company says the region has attracted more than £3.5 billion in Indian foreign direct investment over the past decade, covering 76 recorded investments and employing more than 13,000 people. Tata Group, TVS Motor, Infosys and Mahindra are among the Indian companies with significant operations in the region. Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands, said the region was already the UK's leading destination for Indian investment outside London. "With more than £3.5 billion invested in the region over the past decade, the West Midlands is already the UK's leading destination for Indian investment outside London." He pointed to the region's strengths in advanced manufacturing and automotive industries as well as digital technology, clean energy and life sciences, areas that increasingly overlap with India's own expanding capabilities. Technology is adding a new dimension to the relationship. Indian technology company, Hexaware, has committed £25 million to expanding its British operations, including an enlarged delivery centre in Birmingham and research and development centres in Manchester and Leeds. The investment is expected to create around 1,200 jobs in over three to five years, with work focused on artificial intelligence, digital services and quantum technologies. Such investments go beyond the number of jobs created. They point to a relationship increasingly based on skills, research and innovation rather than simply capital moving between two countries. Leeds provides another example. Mastek, the Indian digital engineering and cloud transformation company, has expanded its Leeds operation as part of a wider investment in Britain. The company had earlier announced a £2 million investment in its Leeds office, with the creation of 200 jobs. Its expanded facility is intended to support work in artificial intelligence, cloud and digital transformation, while strengthening links with regional universities and other institutions. The growing technological relationship is also beginning to connect Indian companies directly with British universities. In September, the Indian Consulate in Birmingham organised an India-UK Industry-Academia Technology Dialogue, bringing together companies, including Tata Technologies, Infosys, Hexaware, Tech Mahindra, Wipro and Mastek with universities across the Midlands. The discussions covered artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, mobility, cloud technology, healthcare, Industry 4.0 and future skills, with particular emphasis on collaborative research, specialised training, internships and industry-linked education. The established industrial presence of Indian companies should not, however, be overlooked. Tata Motors' Jaguar Land Rover remains the largest Indian corporate employer in Britain, with more than 44,000 employees, while Tata Steel employs almost 20,000. What is changing is the breadth of the Indian corporate presence. Twenty-six per cent of the companies in this year's Tracker are new entrants, suggesting that the expansion is not simply being driven by the traditional Indian corporate giants already established in Britain. India's newly arrived High Commissioner to Britain, Periasamy Kumaran, said the relationship was no longer defined by its historical connections at the launch of the Tracker in London earlier this year. "The India-UK relationship today is no longer defined by nostalgia; it is defined by opportunity." Kumaran said India brought "scale, growth, talent, and ambition", while Britain offered "innovation, expertise, finance, and global leadership across advanced sectors." His formulation captures the changing character of the relationship. India's companies are looking to Britain not simply as a market, but as a base from which they can access skills, research, technology and global markets. Britain's regions, meanwhile, are looking to India for investment, employment and connections to one of the world's largest and fastest-growing major economies. The timing is significant. The UK-India Free Trade Agreement entered into force on July 15, providing a new framework for trade, investment and services between the two countries. But the regional investment story suggests that the economic relationship was already moving beyond the traditional London-centred model. For Britain's regions, Indian investment offers capital, employment and access to India's rapidly expanding economy. For Indian companies, the regions offer universities, skilled workers, industrial expertise and established research and technology capabilities. The result is a relationship that is becoming less concentrated in London and increasingly embedded in Britain's wider economy. The end result is not just a story of trade between two countries, but of Indian companies becoming part of Britain's regional economic landscape. -The Tribune

Medical Device makers shift focus to full product lifecycle, report finds. New ISG research says US medtech companies are integrating engineering, quality, and compliance functions to support software-defined devices that evolve after launch. US medical technology companies are moving away from conventional product development and toward software-defined ecosystems that continue to evolve after launch, according to a new report from Information Services Group (ISG), a global AI-centered technology research and advisory firm. The 2026 ISG Provider Lens Medical Device Digital Services report for the US finds that digital investment is increasingly focused on complete product lifecycles rather than isolated technology programs. As connected devices proliferate, engineering, regulatory affairs, quality management, cybersecurity, and post-market operations are becoming interdependent functions that require an integrated digital foundation, according to the report. ISG notes that a single software update can simultaneously affect validation evidence, cybersecurity posture, regulatory documentation, and field performance. "Medical device transformation is now a lifecycle challenge, not a series of projects," says Jenn Stein, partner and industry leader, ISG Manufacturing and Health Sciences, in a release. "Companies need data and workflows to be shared across critical disciplines to sustain improvement after launch." AI adoption advances with caution. Manufacturers are applying AI and automation across engineering, software development, testing, verification, validation, and technical documentation, the report says. As AI adoption moves beyond proofs of concept, companies are evaluating whether AI-enabled workflows are reliable enough for regulated environments. Explainability, data governance, human oversight, and change control are increasingly influencing purchasing decisions. ISG says manufacturers are also exploring agentic AI but remain selective about allowing autonomous execution in highly regulated and safety-critical processes. Embedding quality and cybersecurity into development. Organizations are modernizing quality management systems and strengthening software bill of materials management to harmonize processes, the report finds. Companies are embedding regulatory, risk, and cybersecurity controls directly into development workflows to improve traceability, which supports the federal Quality Management System Regulation and strengthens vulnerability management for software-based devices. Manufacturers expect quality transformation to enable faster engineering rather than function as a downstream control, according to ISG. Real-World data driving post-market decisions. Manufacturers are implementing remote patient monitoring, predictive maintenance, and complaint intelligence across deployed devices, the report says. The goal is for operational and patient data to generate earlier safety signals that guide engineering decisions and product improvements. ISG says success is measured through shorter complaint cycles, lower validation effort, fewer quality issues, and greater device uptime. "Shared data becomes more valuable when it connects field experience with product decisions," says Rohan Sinha, ISG principal analyst and lead author of the report, in a release. "Service providers can help manufacturers coordinate these functions while maintaining accountability throughout the lifecycle." Provider rankings. The report evaluates 25 providers across three quadrants: digital engineering and product development; regulatory compliance, strategy and quality assurance; and AI and innovation driving post-market enablement. Accenture, Capgemini, Cognizant, HCLTech, Infosys, LTTS, TCS, and Wipro are named Leaders in all three quadrants. Deloitte is named a Leader in one quadrant. Apexon, Hexaware, and Tech Mahindra are recognized as Rising Stars in one quadrant each. In the area of customer experience, Persistent Systems is named the global ISG CX Star Performer for 2026 among medical device digital service providers, earning the highest customer satisfaction scores in ISG's Voice of the Customer survey.

Hexaware positioned as a Visionary in the 2026 Gartner(R) Magic Quadrant(TM) for Custom Software Development Services. Hexaware Technologies (NSE: HEXT), a global provider of IT solutions and services, today announced it has been positioned as a Visionary in the 2026 Gartner(R) Magic Quadrant(TM) for Custom Software Development Services. Hexaware believes this positioning reflects its strategy of delivering custom software development through persistent engineering pods, powered by its proprietary AI platform stack and a talent model built around senior engineering expertise. The company's proprietary platforms, including RapidX(R), Agentverse(TM), and Tensai(R), form the foundation of its AI-native delivery approach, enabling clients to accelerate software builds and modernization programs through pre-built AI agents and automated development lifecycles operating under human-supervised quality gates. Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Custom Software Development Services, By Jaideep Thyagarajan, Ryan McKinney, Nathan Davie, 07 October 2026 "To us, being recognized as a Visionary reflects what our teams have been building toward - an engineering model where AI does the heavy lifting on speed and scale, and our people focus on the decisions that actually matter to clients. That combination is what makes the difference in complex modernization work." Sanjay Salunkhe, President & Global Head - Digital & Software Services, Hexaware Gartner disclaimer Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Custom Software Development Services, By Jaideep Thyagarajan, Ryan McKinney, Nathan Davie, 07 October 2026 Gartner does not endorse any company, vendor, product or service depicted in its publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's business and technology insights organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this publication, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Gartner and Magic Quadrant are trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Hexaware. Safe Harbor Statement Certain statements in this press release concerning its future growth prospects are forward-looking, which involve numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, its ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect its cost advantage, wage increases globally, its ability to attract and retain highly-skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, its ability to manage its international operations, reduced demand for technology in its key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, its ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on its service contracts, the success of the companies in which Hexaware has made strategic investments, withdrawal of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of its intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting its industry. For details, please contact: