The debate over immigrant students is heating up in Britain, following the publication of the latest immigration figures that show a fall in the number of student visas. Overseas students from India, China and other countries from outside the European Union has become a subject of debate because they are included in overall immigration figures. Read more

An interesting sidelight to the Family Planning Summit in London last week was that it was held amidst a double-dip recession. This was symbolic because a recession of course means a slump in demand and consumption. And that neatly links up to a view that I heard from some key delegates – that the rate of population growth in developing countries must be ’stabilised’ because it is adding to carbon emissions and climate change. Read more

The news for Indian and other foreign students wishing to study in Britain’s excellent universities is not getting any better. This, reportedly, is because the government needs to make cuts in the number of foreign students if it is to fulfill its pledge to cut immigration numbers to “tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands.” Read more

British political leaders have been missing just when their people need them most. As the financial crisis in Eurozone and the US wiped billions off the London stock market, Prime Minister David Cameron was holidaying in Italy and finance minister George Osborne was in the US. Read more

Lord Tim McNully, minister of state in the UK’s justice ministry, briefed a power-packed Indian business team at London’s Chatham House last week about the UK’s new anti-bribery law, which has already been dubbed the world’s toughest and “most draconian.” Read more

Barack Obama stamped his authority as the 21st century American leader on his recent trip to Britain. Read more