Behind the Deputy Chief Minister’s landmark London visit was a coordinated effort involving government offices, institutional networks and a dedicated team working across India and the United Kingdom.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Shri Eknath Shinde was honoured with the Statesmanship Award for Transformative Leadership at the House of Commons in London. The felicitation was the high point of a two-day Maharashtra–UK engagement that brought together political leaders, parliamentarians, business leaders, investors, professional networks and the Maharashtra diaspora.
The award was the visible centrepiece. Behind it were weeks of coordination across two countries, involving the Deputy Chief Minister’s Office, Members of Parliament, ministers, government representatives, institutions and UK-based stakeholder networks.
Two days, three platforms
Programme 1: Commonwealth Public Leadership Recognition
Presented jointly by the UK Asian Business Council (UKABC) and the Canvas for Care Creative Art Campus inside the historic House of Lords at the UK Parliament. It honoured his transparent and citizen-centric governance approaches.
Programme 2: Invest in Maharashtra – Strengthening India–UK Partnerships
Held on September 9 at The Landmark London, the session focused on the state’s investment and economic opportunities and on strengthening business ties with the UK. The engagement brought together business leaders and investors and highlighted investment opportunities exceeding £300 million.
Programme 3: International Conclave 2026 – Maharashtra, India–UK Dialogue
On September 10, the setting shifted to the House of Commons. The conclave was jointly organised by World Leadership Forum, Bharat in UK Limited and the Ram Sita Trust. It widened the conversation to political representatives, business leaders, international leadership networks and the Indian diaspora, and it was here that Shri Shinde received the Statesmanship Award.
The Deputy Chief Minister’s message
Addressing the UK stakeholder community, Shri Shinde presented Maharashtra as a destination for international business and investment. He spoke about the state’s development trajectory, infrastructure growth and economic opportunities, and pointed to emerging openings in technology, infrastructure, green energy, fintech and skills.
The Parliamentary setting added weight. It placed Maharashtra’s leadership in direct conversation with UK parliamentarians and the wider India–UK ecosystem, and it gave the state’s growth narrative an international audience.
The institutional spine
A visit of this scale involves far more than the events the public sees. The process required reviews and coordination with MPs, ministers, government offices and institutions in Maharashtra. After that came engagement with stakeholders in the UK, mobilisation of participants, international travel and immigration facilitation, logistics and event execution.
On the government side, Dr Amol Shinde, Private Secretary to the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, coordinated the London engagement from the DCM’s Office and maintained the institutional interface the visit required. Shri Vinayak Patrudkar, Officer on Special Duty to the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, handled coordination and related legal and institutional requirements, including the communication and media interface.
Complementing this institutional machinery was a three-member team: Danish Raza, Sushob K. P. Venugopalan and Abhishek Prasad. Each worked on a different but interconnected part of the engagement. Together they carried the visit from concept to delivery.
The three-member team: three roles, one chain
Danish Raza: the strategic architecture
Danish Raza’s work began where any complex engagement must: with structure. He supported the strategic architecture of the visit and handled coordination and legal requirements for the Deputy Chief Minister.
A programme like this has many strands. There were institutional commitments in Maharashtra, stakeholder expectations in the UK, the Deputy Chief Minister’s own objectives and the formal requirements of an international visit. Raza’s role was to hold those strands together. He connected the institutional, stakeholder and programme components. He also made sure that discussions and proposed engagements stayed aligned with the broader aims of the Deputy Chief Minister’s London outreach.
His contribution is the kind that rarely appears on a stage or in a photograph. When a visit stays focused and coherent, it is usually because someone did this work early and kept doing it.
Sushob K. P. Venugopalan: the ground in London
If Raza shaped the design, Sushob K. P. Venugopalan made it real on the ground. As the visit moved from planning to execution, he took a central role in London, driving ground coordination and stakeholder mobilisation.
Working directly within the UK ecosystem through Ram Sita Trust, Bharat in UK Limited and Abhiksha Limited, Venugopalan connected the programme with business, professional, institutional and community networks and facilitated participation across the different engagements. His mobilisation brought organisations and networks such as UKABC, World Leadership Forum and Maharashtra Mandal into the platform surrounding the Deputy Chief Minister’s visit.
That work shaped the visit’s character. An event can be well designed and still fall flat if the right people are not in the room. Venugopalan’s task was to make sure investors, institutions, professionals and the diaspora were present across both days.
Abhishek Prasad: making participation possible
Every international engagement depends on people being able to travel. Abhishek Prasad managed the critical international participation, visa and immigration coordination for the visit.
It is a demanding brief. It meant working through documentation and procedural requirements to facilitate participation, and ensuring that travel and participation-related dependencies were addressed alongside the substantive programme planning. Delay or error in this area can quietly undermine an otherwise well-planned visit, and it tends to be noticed only when something goes wrong.
Prasad’s role ran in parallel with the strategic and stakeholder work. It supplied the practical groundwork that allowed delegates and participants to reach the engagement at all.
The bridge
Taken together, the three roles formed a bridge between institutional planning in Maharashtra and execution on the ground in London. Raza aligned the objectives and the structure. Venugopalan brought the right networks and communities to the table in London. Prasad ensured the people who needed to be there could be there. None of these functions was visible in the final photographs, but the visit could not have worked without all three.
The wider delivery team
The visit also relied on a wider group working largely out of public view. Agam Asad handled accommodation and logistics, coordinating the practical requirements around the visit. Simant Dubey, Varun Rishi and Ankit Bohare supported event management and execution, helping deliver the programme across multiple engagements and venues.
Each contribution formed part of a longer execution chain, from institutional coordination, legal and administrative facilitation and strategic planning to stakeholder mobilisation, international participation, accommodation, logistics and event management. The success of the visit rested on these layers working together rather than on any single event or function.
Beyond the felicitation
The significance of the visit extends past the award ceremony. The two days gave Maharashtra’s leadership a platform to speak directly with UK stakeholders on investment, business, institutional cooperation, leadership and community relationships. For Maharashtra, it was a chance to communicate its development and investment priorities to an international audience. For UK-based stakeholders, it opened a route to closer engagement with the state’s political leadership and to exploring cooperation and investment.
The Statesmanship Award for Transformative Leadership will remain the image most associated with the visit. The weeks of coordination with MPs, ministers and institutions, the London mobilisation, the immigration groundwork and the operational detail behind it show how institutional leadership, strategic coordination and ground-level execution can come together to build an international platform.
For Maharashtra, the London engagement has strengthened a channel of Maharashtra–UK dialogue that now links leadership, business, investment, institutions and the diaspora around the state’s future growth and global engagement.
Acknowledgements
- Sushob K. P. Venugopalan – Ram Sita Trust, Bharat in UK Limited and Abhiksha Limited
- Danish Raza – Abhiksha Limited and Bharat in UK Limited
- Abhishek Prasad – Abhiksha Limited and Bharat in UK Limited
- Dr. Amol Shinde – Private Secretary to the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra
- Vinayak Patrudkar – Officer on Special Duty to the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra
- Agam Asad – Urban Host Co.
- Simant Dubey – Bharat in UK Limited and Ram Sita Trust
- Varun Rishi – JMD Group, Bharat in UK Limited and Ram Sita Trust
- Ankit Bohare – Bharat in UK Limited and Ram Sita Trust
Special appreciation is extended to all of the above for their valuable contributions, coordination and support in bringing the programme to fruition.
