Arti Poddar: India and Scotland, old trading partners with new future

The links between the two countries are already long and wide; it was a Scotsman, Charles Bruce, who unleashed the potential of India's tea industry when he first realised the opportunities to farm Indian tea commercially.

Tea is of course, today, one of India's greatest exports

And the links are not simply historical: already also there is a major initiative in this year's Scottish Government India Plan to foster and develop economic, cultural, scientific and investment links between the two countries.

Indian companies, employing some 2,500 people, already trade successfully in Scotland. These include: United Breweries Group, which acquired whisky maker White & Mackay; Wipro, a major IT business; and Scottish Stampings, an Indian-owned manufacturer of car components.

And, with the rise of India to world economic power status, that link between the two countries is more important than ever.

As a young Scottish Indian woman, born and educated in this country and brought up by Indian parents, I find it very exciting to stand at the crossroads of this cross-cultural fertilisation, which has the potential to bring great prosperity to both nations.

Our family's business, the Poddar Group, has been established in Glasgow for more than 25 years and employs some 1,000 people throughout Scotland. My parents, Sam and Sunita Poddar, built up and continue to operate a very successful chain of care homes in Glasgow.

Last year they purchased the island of Little Cumbrae in the Firth of Clyde, which they immediately donated to the Patanjali Yog Peeth (UK) Trust.

They are now in process of investing a great deal of time and money to develop it as a global centre, here in Scotland, dedicated to the encouragement of health and well-being through the practice of yog and an adoption of an ayurvedic approach to life.

Strong links lead to greater prosperity and it concerns me that the proposed caps on non-EU immigration could hamper these as a result of being all-encompassing and insufficiently sensitive to economic demand.

In particular there is a growing requirement here in the UK for more skilled ayurvedic doctors, who train for six years before qualifying, as well as other health care workers from India, but an accompanying fear that they may not be allowed into the UK to practice.

My own personal appreciation of the two contrasting - but also complementary - cultures has been put into practice with the founding three years ago of my business, Nature & Herbs, which imports health foods and a range of other products from India for resale in the UK. So far, we have been very successful and have doubled our turnover each year since starting-up.For the future, I see a key role for Scottish businesses wanting to trade with India and, although English is regarded as one of India's many native languages, there is always benefit to be drawn from the ability to converse in Hindi, perhaps to reassure customers and to create firmer business relationships.

Currently, I am exploring ways in which our experience can help Scottish businesses forge these links. One small example might be the export of herbs to India and I am even looking at the possibility of developing a herb farm on Little Cumbrae.

There seems little doubt that, as one leading British politician said recently, in the future "we are going to need India more than India needs us". All the more reason then to devote our energies to developing further the already strong trading relationship between Scotland and India.

Scotland has always been a trading nation and, with the rise of a class of successful Scottish Indian business people, there is already a network of individuals based here who can assist and oversee the growth of yet greater trading links to the benefit of as many people as possible in both countries.

• Arti Poddar was recently nominated as emerging Entrepreneur of the Year 2010 in the annual Entrepreneurial Exchange Awards.