Education and research, the retail sector, and aerospace will be the major focus areas of a large trade delegation led by British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg that will visit India for three days from August 25, 2014.

A partnership between the University of Dundee and the National Centre for Biological Sciences will be signed during his visit to Bangalore. The collaboration will concern itself with the field of antibiotics, and the global problem of the growing resistance to antibiotics amongst populations suffering from malaria and tuberculosis.

A collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and the Christian Medical College in Vellore, and the Indian Christian Medical and Dental Association, for a new distance learning Master’s degree in Family Medicine will be announced during the visit. This will help general practitioners working in Asia and Africa to better serve poor and rural communities.

In addition, Aberdeen University will announce that it is investing £500,000 in PhD studentships for Indians, with a focus on the life sciences, health and energy research.

It is Mr. Clegg’s first official visit to India, and the first major trade mission since the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in.

The Deputy Prime Minister will announce four projects that will get over £2 million in funding — shared between the U.K.’s Technology Strategy Board as well as the Indian Department of Science and Technology — to “create new commercial technology in the health and energy sectors”.

Referring to his forthcoming visit as a “turning point” in the relationship between the two countries, Mr. Clegg said that the partnerships to be established in the health and pharma sector “present clear opportunities to work together to tackle global challenges and boost jobs and growth”. He said that the collaborative ventures could see “thousands of lives saved”.

“The impact on the world in the fields of climate research, drug resistance and elsewhere could be absolutely historic,” he added.

Mr. Clegg and his delegation will visit Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.