Cameron bats for British trade with India David Cameron arrived in India on Monday at the head of Britain's biggest-ever trade delegation, and almost immediately embarked on a cricket-playing, curry-eating charm offensive designed to turn a "special relationship" into commercial contracts. Speaking at the start of a three-day visit - his second as prime minister - Mr Cameron declared Britain could forge one of "the great partnerships of the 21st century" with India. He wants to double UK trade with India by 2015 - compared with 2010 levels. For now, Belgium and Germany do more business with the emerging economic power while the UK, for its part, has a stronger trading relationship with Sweden. However, the prime minister sees vast export potential for some of the UK's strongest sectors - including energy, education, healthcare and financial services - though relations between India and the former colonial power are at times strained. India has been concerned by anti-immigration rhetoric from Mr Cameron and others in Britain. It is also threatening to cancel an order for UK-built AgustaWestland helicopters over bribery allegations. Meanwhile British retailers, banks and insurers complain they are excluded from Indian markets and an EU-India trade deal remains stalled. Mr Cameron brushed these problems aside with a flurry of activity in the Indian financial capital of Mumbai, which started with a homage to India's economic potential - and an avowal of love for Keralan fish curry - at a Hindustan Unilever complex. After several business events, he secured the ultimate cricketing photo-opportunity when he performed a passable cover drive at the Oval Maidan ground, before he was bowled out by a Mumbai teenager called Sachin. Mr Cameron's second trip to India began with a call for the country to dismantle trade barriers in financial services, in exchange for Britain making it easier for business leaders and students to come to the UK. The prime minister announced plans for a one-day visa service for Indian business people who needed to come at short notice and said there would be "no limit" on students from his host nation, provided they spoke English and had a college place. Mr Cameron hopes the initiative will reassure investors that the UK is not becoming more hostile to Indian migrants, in spite of the prime minister's much tougher recent rhetoric on immigration. He is also making attempts to keep alive the Eurofighter consortium's efforts to sell 126 Typhoon jets worth $11bn to India, saying the aircraft could be delivered within months and that the final price could come down. India decided last year to award "preferred bidder status" to Rafale jets from French company Dassault, but a final deal has not been signed, in spite of renewed talks on the contract last week with François Hollande, the French president. The British premier will make a last pitch for the contract on Tuesday when he meets his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh in New Delhi. He will insist the Typhoon is "a superior aircraft." Mr Cameron said on Monday that many other countries had put their faith in the Eurofighter jet, a joint collaboration between manufacturers in the UK, Germany, Spain and Italy. He added that the Indian government was being offered changes to the original offer, in terms of "industrial participation and technology transfer," suggesting India would gain more commercial spin-offs from the project. In New Delhi he will also have to switch into damage limitation mode, when he faces questions about alleged bribery surrounding the supply of 12 British-built high-tech helicopters to the Indian air force. The Indian government has threatened to cancel the AgustaWestland contract, worth $560m, and is preparing to return three of the aircraft already supplied. Nonetheless, these background worries aside, among the business leaders enjoying a lunchtime curry on the terrace of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, it was hard to find anyone prepared to do down the UK prime minister's relentless optimism. David Cameron arrived in Mumbai saying he was leading the biggest trade delegation ever assembled by a British prime minister, writes George Parker. More than 100 figures from business, education and the arts followed Mr Cameron down the steps of a Virgin charter aeroplane. The delegation included leaders of blue-chip companies and universities intent on exploiting growing Indian markets in defence, energy, financial services, legal services, healthcare, education, retail and infrastructure. They included the likes of BAE Systems, BP, DLA Piper, KPMG, Balfour Beatty, Monsoon, Debenhams, Cambridge university, the Open University, Standard Life and Rolls-Royce. But while many of Britain's boardroom celebrities filled the premium seats at the front of the aircraft, a number of smaller companies were represented in economy class, taking advantage of a £2,500 ticket to join the delegation. For the education sector, heavily represented on the trip, it was a chance to lobby Mr Cameron to ensure that the UK Border Agency's checks on students did not deter Indians from coming to Britain. Frank Hester, founder and chief executive of TPP - a Leeds-based company that creates electronic patient records - said he was hoping to crack the rapidly expanding Indian health market. "This trip is worth a lot of money to us - it's invaluable," he said. Being with the PM and UK Trade and Investment means we [see] the right people. If it had just been us, it would have taken years to meet the right people. A couple of rows ahead was Alice Powell, a racing driver from Mr Cameron's backyard in Chipping Norton, hoping to raise money to fund her bid to break into Formula 1 and promote her sponsor Silverstone Hotels. "I'm here to meet businesses and do promotion work," she said. For £2,500 it's well worth the money.