Supported by the Sivaleen Foundation of Developed India, the Europe India Centre for Business & Industry (EICBI) launched its 2020 Class of EuropeIndia40 leaders through a virtual ceremony involving leaders from the British Parliament, the European Parliament and the Indian Parliament who shared their input with the young leaders. #EuropeIndia40, an EICBI initiative to discover the Top 40 under 40 Europe India Leaders in its 2nd year, covers the storeys of young leaders and their contributions to fostering the partnership between EU India and UK India.

The 14 women and 26 men who made to the EuropeIndia40 list come from all walks of life and represent 19 different nationalities - Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The 7 young leaders from India who made to the list are Mr Ajay Singh from Nimray, Mr Dan Ram from The Igniter Pad Ltd, Ms Judith Weinberger-Singh from European Business and Technology Centre, Mr Piyush Jha from CARE India, Ms Shairee Malhotra from European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS), Mr Vidyadhar Prabhudesai from LeadCap Ventures and Mr Sumeet Kabra from RR Global.

During the virtual ceremony, from the Indian Parliament, Mr Alphons Kannanthanam - Member of Parliament - India/ Former Union Minister/ Member - Standing Committee for External Affairs, Indian Parliament shared his views on India's relations with the EU and the UK. He mentioned that "These young leaders are poised to lead us out of the current uncertainties.''

Niccolo Rinaldi - Directorate-General for External Policies of the European Union - European Parliament, Brussels, from the European Parliament, expressed his views on the relationship between the EU and India. Rinaldi expressed the view that three-dimensional collaboration between the EU, the UK and India is important. Hon Virendra Sharma MP - Member of Parliament - Ealing Southall and Chairman - Indo-British All-Party Parliamentary Group spoke from the UK Parliament on the relationship between the United Kingdom of India and how young leaders would further help develop ties between the two nations.

Lord Waverley - Member of Parliament - House of Lords, United Kingdom shared his thoughts on Collaboration between EU/ UK and Indian stakeholders to promote trade and relations. He expressed his excitement on seeing all the young leaders together on one stage and mentioned that more of these kinds of interactions among young leaders are essential.

Sujit S Nair, Chairman of Europe India Centre for Business & Industry (EICBI) said, "EuropeIndia40 list is an initiative by Europe India Centre for Business & Industry (EICBI) to discover the next generation of leaders in the EU - India corridor and the UK - India corridor who we believe are going to influence policy decisions in these regions. From our experience of playing a key role in promoting EU - India/ UK - India trade relations over the last decade whereby we hosted 22 Major summits at British Parliament in London and 2 Major summits at European Parliament in Brussels engaging various stakeholders including political leaders, business executives, civil society leaders, bureaucrats amongst others, we can proudly say that future of the EU - India/ UK - India relations looks very exciting as a new brand of young leaders is emerging from these regions."

India and the EU marked 55 years of diplomatic relations in the year 2017. With Brexit opening new opportunities to further the relationship between Europe and India, India should look at a revived collection of multilateral discussions with the EU and bilateral discussions with the United Kingdom. In the EU India Trade Corridor / UK India Trade Corridor, this has led to several debates that Brexit would make trade agreements between the EU and India / India and the UK a little simpler.