Boris Johnson Woos Delhi

European Pressphoto AgencyLondon Mayor Boris Johnson playing cricket with schoolchildren in New Delhi, on Nov. 26, 2012.

You know Mayor Boris Johnson of London really wants to win over the crowds here when he compliments India on its air quality.

“It's much better,” said Mr. Johnson, who first visited India in 1996.

That's not a popular view. But it wasn't just praise that scored Mr. Johnson points on his visit to India this week. Sense of humor intact, Mr. Johnson was the beaming cherubic face of Britain as it tries to increase trade and investment between the two countries.

Britain's recent decision to stop giving $450 million a year in development aid to India by 2015 signaled a meteoric shift in the former colonial power's relationship with New Delhi. Instead of aid, trade is the new mantra, and with Mr. Johnson's visit, Britain appears to be losing no time.

“I believe the scope for partnership is limitless,” he declared at a news conference Tuesday morning.

Mr. Johnson is the latest foreign dignitary, among many high-profile representatives, to woo India. The news conference Tuesday came on the heels of India and China signing seven economic cooperation agreements worth $5.2 billion. And the U.S. Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, visited India just last month.

Mr. Johnson acknowledged that Britain needed to edge out the United States, which has a firmer grip on the Indian market, in a piece he wrote for The Telegraph:

“We need to act fast, because we have ground to make up, and we cannot take anyt hing for granted. Young Indians these days are like any other global population that finds itself in the throes of embourgeoisement: they are gripped and excited by America and American brands â€" Google, Coke, Nike, Starbucks, you name it. The biggest foreign food supplier in India is Domino's Pizza, an American firm.”

Business leaders at the news conference told India Ink that India is closer to Britain because of history and colonial legacy but that the United States has been, at least until now, a preferred business destination.

Krishnan Chatterjee, vice president of HCL Technologies, said at the news conference that his company did 57 percent of its business in the United States, and a mere 20 percent in Britain.

“But our company's heart is in the U.K.,” he said.

Later, Mr. Chatterjee told India Ink that the United States remained popular because of strong demand from single clients in cities for their services, and solid support from local governments there. As a result, he said, his company expected to add 10,000 jobs by 2015, mostly in the United States.

Ankur Bhatia, executive director of Bird Group, a company whose business interests include travel technology, aviation services and hospitality, said the size of the countries was responsible for their trade difference with India.

But he argued that India was still closer to Britain than the United States because of traditional cultural ties and the relatively shorter distance and closer time zones.

“This is the city at the center of the world,” Mr. Bhatia said of London.

Mr. Johnson acknowledged that a few decades ago young Indians would scout for a university education in Britain, while today the country faces stiff competition from the United States. Still, he touted the benefits of the former colonial power.

“You're far more likely to get a visa in the U.K. than the U.S.,” he said at the news conference, noting that his country would welcome talented people who want to contribute to its economy.

He also argued that London had more to offer than New York, saying it has twice as many bookshops as New York (with the correct spellings, he added cheekily) and a quarter of its murder rate.

“We've exported Piers Morgan to America,” he chortled.

Mr. Johnson said there were 73 Indian companies on the London stock exchange, adding “it's the innovation capital of the world.” He even claimed that Britain exports rice to India, but dubbed that “one of the facts too good to check.”

Mr. Johnson also spoke of the sculpture in London's Olympic Park as emblematic of Indian and British partnership. The steel structure, called the ArcelorMittal Orbit, was designed by the Mumbai-born sculptor Anish Kapoor and £19.6 million, or $31 million, of the £22.7 million cost was funded by the steel magnate Lakshmi Niwas Mittal. The rest was paid for by the administrati ve body run by Mr. Johnson.

Like many others, Mr. Johnson seemed a bit confounded when trying to describe the sculpture, calling it a “curly-wurly pretzel-like object.”

Indeed.

Perhaps the relationship between India and Britain can best be compared to the Kapoor/ArcelorMittal contraption. We're not really sure what it is, but it's got everyone talking.