Lord Karan Bilimoria, CBE DL, Founder and Chief Executive of Cobra Beer, today made his maiden speech in the House of Lords. The first ever Zoroastrian Parsi to sit in the House of Lords addressed his peers with a powerful and passionate speech about the importance of strengthening trade relations between India and Britain.

Lord Bilimoria was appointed as a crossbench peer in July and as well as becoming the first ever Parsi, he also became one of the House’s youngest peers. In his maiden speech to the House, he spoke of his pride at being the first Parsi to become a peer and went on to say: “Today the Parsis number fewer than 100,000 people in India… and I am so proud of what our tiny community has achieved, not only in India but also by producing the first three Asian MPs in Britain.”

Lord Bilimoria also spoke about the importance of higher education and promoting an enterprising, entrepreneurial culture in Britain before turning his attentions to India and trade and investment saying: “India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, growing at 8% a year. There is a thirst for liberalisation and reform and a newfound confidence in India, it is well on its way to becoming a global economic superpower. And yet India accounts for only 1% of Britain’s total trade and less than 1% of Britain’s investment abroad meaning it presents a tremendous opportunity for British business.”

THE ZOROASTRIAN PARSI COMMUNITY

The Zoroastrian Parsi community numbers only around 100,000 worldwide, with approximately 6,000 Parsis in the UK, but Lord Bilimoria follows in a time-honoured path to Parliament. The first three Asian MPs in the UK - Dadabhai Naoroji, Sir Mancherjee Bhownagree and Shapurji Saklatvala – were all Zoroastrians, although Lord Bilimoria is the first Parsi in history to enter the House of Lords.

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