UK’s satellite tech firm bid with India’s Bharti under Parliament scrutiny

A UK parliamentary panel has launched an inquiry into the UK government’s successful bid to acquire satellite technology firm OneWeb along with India’s Bharti Enterprises earlier this month.

The winning bid hailed as reflective of the scale of Britain’s ambitions on the global stage by UK Business Secretary Alok Sharma has come under the scanner of the House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee as “troubling and concerning” after it was alerted by a civil servant in the government’s business department over concerns around the investment.

As part of the deal, Sharma had confirmed that the UK will invest $500 million and take a “significant” equity share in London-based OneWeb, which had declared bankruptcy earlier this year.