Factbox — UK's David Cameron pushes deeper economic ties with India

British prime minister David Cameron leads Britain's biggest trade delegation in modern times to India to court Indian business and tap new sources of economic growth.

India, a former British colony, belongs to the "BRIC" group of rapidly growing emerging economies along with China, Brazil and Russia, the likes of which Britain is hoping to tap as it seeks to offset drastic public spending cuts at home.

Following are some key elements in Britain's economic ties to India.

* Britain is the largest European foreign direct investor into India and the fourth largest overall, behind Mauritius, Singapore, and the United States.

It poured a total of $5.9 billion into India between 2000-10, compared to $8.4 billion from the United States. Total FDI into India stood at $25.6 billion in the fiscal year 2009-10.

* Britain ranked as the 18th biggest exporter to India in 2008-09, behind countries such as Hong Kong, Indonesia and Singapore. It slipped from being the fifth largest in 2002-03.

* Britain was India's 12th biggest trade partner in 2008-09, lower than China, the United States and Germany. Bilateral trade stood at $12.5 billion.

* British defence firms want a slice of India's huge defence market, worth around $100 billion over the next decade, which is currently dominated by Russian, US and Israeli companies. This week a deal worth $1.09 billion was announced for BAE Systems, Europe's biggest defence contractor, and Rolls-Royce to supply India with 57 Hawk military training jets.

* Britain also has an eye on energy-hungry India's civilian nuclear market, which is worth a potential $150 billion in the coming years. Following in Washington's footsteps, Britain will start granting licences to its nuclear firms to export to India. This marks a policy shift from the days of India's nuclear isolation because of its refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

* Britain is the most popular business destination in Europe for Indian companies. Some 700 out of the 1,200 Indian firms in the European Union operate from the UK. The Tata Group is the single biggest manufacturing employer in the UK, employing some 47,000 people. Tata owns luxury car brands Jaguar and Land Rover.

* Britain would like to see India free up its financial services sector and strengthen the presence of the likes of Standard Chartered and HSBC.

It wants India to implement a long-pending policy to lift FDI cap in the insurance sector to 49% from 26%. A bill to lift the insurance cap has stalled in the Indian parliament.

* Foreign retail giants including the UK's Tesco are waiting in the wings for India to open up its multi-brand retail sector to FDI. India currently has a cap of 51% in single-brand retail, while retailers that carry multiple brands are restricted to cash-and-carry or wholesale outlets. The government recently floated a discussion paper to test India's appetite for a more open retail sector amid fears over the future of small, family-run outlets. Tesco has a joint venture with Tata's Trent in India.

* The British government hopes to forge what it calls a "special relationship" with India. English-speaking India has cultural and educational ties with Britain dating back to colonial times as well as the world's second largest population -- a potential 1.2 billion customers for British goods and services. Vodafone , the world's largest mobile operator by sales, has more than 100 million customers in India.

Indians are the single biggest ethnic minority group in Britain, with 1.2 million people. They are also one of the most affluent communities with large numbers of business and professional people.

* Britain has called for a prompt signing of a free trade agreement between India and the European Union. Talks for a deal began in 2007 but differences remain over issues such as market access and the European Union's efforts to link the agreement to issues such as child labour and India's environmental performance.

* The Indian government expects its economy to grow at around 8.5% in the fiscal year ending March 2011. The British economy is expected to growth at 1.2% this year, while a Chinese government think-tank sees its economy growing 9.5%.