Defence deals: Why Nick Clegg's visit to India is a big opportunity for BAE Systems

London: British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s trade delegation to India is being seen as a major opportunity for UK aerospace giant BAE Systems to win some defence deals.

BAE officials will accompany Clegg on the three-day trade mission, along with engineers such as Cobham and Renishaw. Anglo-Indian defence relations have been strained since Delhi handed France a 7.5 billion pound fighter jet order rather than sign up with the British-built Eurofighter Typhoon programme.

That deal for 126 Dassault Rafale fighters has still to be closed, but reports suggest that the contract, the largest fighter jet order for two decades, will be finalised by the end of the year.

It is expected that a number of contracts in the aerospace, retail and education sectors will be signed over the course of the three-day trip.

Fever Tree, which plans to sell Indian tonic water back to India, and Panesar Foods are among the other companies also accompanying the deputy prime minister.

Four contracts with a value of 2 million pounds have already been agreed, with funding supplied by the Technology Strategy Board in Swindon and the Indian Department of Science and Technology.

These include a project between the University of Dundee and the Indian National Centre for Biological Research in Bangalore to tackle the issue of antibiotic resistance.

PTI