Euromedica chairman and British trade mission leader John F Fulford told reporters that the company will establish offices in Mumbai and Bangalore. Euromedica's offers specialised executive search services to the pharmaceutical, bioscience and healthcare industries.

The consultancy major will initially begin operations with approximately four consultants and hopes to rope in a host of local firms like the Apollo Hospitals group, Nicholas Piramal and Dr Reddy's Lab as potential clients. Euromedica has a host of alliances in Asia, Africa, Australasia and North America.

Significantly, Nicholas Piramal chief executive officer Francis Pinto, is also non-executive director of Euromedica.

Another firm, Shantimex (UK) is also learnt to be exploring sourcingoptions from India though details on products and quantity were unavailable.

Earlier, senior executive to the department of trade and industry Richard Blythe said Britian had identified India as a major healthcare partner and was looking at doing more business with the country. Trade between India and the UK is evenly balanced and has risen from --2.2 billion per annum in 1993 when the IBP was launched to --3.3 billion in 1997.

In fact, a record $1.2 billion worth of new British investment was approved by the foreign investment promotion board (FIPB) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 1997, twice the approvals between 1992 and 1994 and second only to the US.

The 25 member delegation from the British healthcare is at present visiting India as part of an ongoing programme of Indo-British Partnership. Led by John F Fulford, the team comprises representatives of 23 British healthcare companies, the department of trade and industry (DTI) and the Association of British Healthcare Industry (ABHI). Thehealthcare companies essentially deal with emergency medical services, medical education and training, medical equipment and device manufacturers.