Three mayors from Yorkshire sat across the table from a state chief minister at the MCR HRD Bodi Pavilion — and the conversation was about chips, not cricket. Chief Minister Revanth Anumula Reddy met a high-level delegation of Greater North mayors and business representatives from Britain on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, offering full investment security guarantees and promising stable government policy to draw British capital into Telangana's manufacturing sector.

Yorkshire's mayors arrive with 1.5 lakh businesses and a mandate to invest

The delegation was led by three elected mayors: Oliver Coppard, Mayor of South Yorkshire; David Skaith, Mayor of York and North Yorkshire; and Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire. Coppard pointed out that Yorkshire alone houses around 1.5 lakh businesses across multiple sectors — and called out Telangana specifically as a partner whose digital economy, skilled workforce, and expansion opportunities were 'immensely attractive.' Brabin went further, telling the gathering that Yorkshire and Telangana shared deep structural similarities and could work together as 'sister regions.' The chemistry in that room was clearly more than diplomatic courtesy.

CETA backdrop: a national deal opens a state-level door

The meeting unfolded in the shadow of the recently concluded India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), a bilateral framework designed to accelerate commerce, investment, and people-to-people ties between both nations. For Telangana, this national-level pact creates a ready architecture: state governments can now pursue direct regional partnerships that are legally backstopped by a sovereign trade deal. The CM used that framing deliberately — positioning Telangana not as a recipient of British charity investment but as a global peer. 'Telangana is now competing not just with other Indian states, but with advanced economies across the world,' he told the delegation. The sectors on the table were sharply defined: advanced manufacturing, medical and health technology, digital technology, defence, aerospace, technical textiles, skill development, and research. The British side expressed concrete interest in all of them and indicated a follow-up visit to Telangana is being planned to convert these conversations into direct trade agreements, investments, and inter-institutional partnerships.

Telangana Rising-2047 and the Tony Blair Institute connection

Revanth Reddy walked the Yorkshire mayors through 'Telangana Rising–2047,' the state's long-term development blueprint unveiled in December 2025. The vision document was shaped with inputs from international leaders, economists, technologists, and industrialists — and, notably, the Tony Blair Institute served as its knowledge partner. That association carries credibility in British policy circles, making the reference more than a name-drop. It signals institutional alignment between Telangana's technocratic ambitions and a worldview familiar to the UK delegation. On skills, the CM flagged the Young India Skills University, set up in direct collaboration with major industry players to prepare young workers for AI-era manufacturing. He also previewed the master plan for Bharat Future City, a 30,000-acre greenfield urban and industrial development whose blueprint is set for imminent release. Plans to develop a riverfront economy and night economy along the Musi River in Hyderabad were also shared as proof of the state's urban ambition.

Invest Telangana Global Summit 2026: the ask

The CM extended a direct invitation: British industrialists and investors should travel to Hyderabad for the Invest Telangana Global Summit 2026, scheduled from December 7 to 9 at Bharat Future City. The ask was framed against a backdrop of the 72nd Miss World competition held successfully in Hyderabad in May 2025 — the CM's way of demonstrating that the city can execute marquee global events even in geopolitically tense times. IT and Industries Minister Duddilla Sridhar Babu welcomed the delegation and invited them to tour Hyderabad's Genome Valley and innovation ecosystem. The meeting also saw the launch of a report titled 'UK–India CETA and Regional Synergies', prepared by the UK-India Business Council (UKIBC). Among those present were UKIBC CEO Kishore Jayaraman, representatives of the British Deputy High Commission in Hyderabad, CM Adviser K. Ramakrishna Rao, and Chief Secretary Sanjay Jaju. The December summit is now the next hard deadline. How many of those 1.5 lakh Yorkshire businesses show up in Hyderabad will tell the real story of what was built in that pavilion today.