An e-minister abroad (part 4): Bangalore - bumpy buses and cold beer

Day four: Bangalore and Ahmedabad

The penultimate day of the trip and the ride has begun to get a little bumpy in more ways than one. The minister and her team have been downgraded from the luxury of the High Commissioner's Rolls Royce to a tour bus proudly displaying the Union Jack sellotaped to the windscreen.

There seems to be some confusion over the actual objectives of this visit, particularly now the party has left behind the governmental grandeur of New Delhi and turned to the bustling southern half of the country.

The good will aspect of the mission is certainly going well. Hewitt is universally liked wherever she goes and the little touches she adds - including starting her speeches with a Hindu welcome - have won over many doubters.

The local press coverage has also been enthusiastic, with The Times of India carrying no less than three pictures of the minister today - quite possibly a record.

But much of the fourth day's activity focuses on meeting business leaders and entrepreneurs, and there remains a nagging doubt over precisely what these are intended to achieve.

The delegation has made a particular effort to win over Infosys founder and multimillionaire Narayana Murthy. An aborted trip to his software HQ on the outskirts of the city (cancelled yesterday after the extended opening of IT.com) was hastily reorganised for this morning.

Murthy's welcome is warm - almost too much so as Hewitt and her entourage are forced to sprint around the 52 acre campus in the wake of the energetic entrepreneur - but preaching the British message here is an easy task. Murthy is already a committed Brit fan with a well-established office in London.

"London is the clear number one - far ahead of any other city in Europe," he says. "It wins against other extremely attractive options from Ireland, Switzerland and Portugal and it's a big advantage that we speak the same language."

A harder nut to crack is the audience at the Invest.UK seminar where Hewitt, Murthy and CSSA director general John Higgins do their best to sell the UK to the assembled ranks of Indian businessmen and women. "Come on in - the water is lovely," Hewitt tells the audience at the end of her speech. "It's not far to swim across the channel," Higgins adds.

Hewitt has also made an effort to get close to the local population and a visit to the Bangalore Children's Hospital to launch educational software designed by a British company provides a welcome break from the business briefings (and every politicians' dream photo opportunity).

But it's the flight to next destination Ahmedabad that provides Hewitt with her closest encounter yet with everyday India.

Security on a trip like this is tight and the party is waved goodbye from Bangalore Airport by the usual ranks of heavily armed guards, but an unscheduled change of planes during a stopover at Bombay leaves the minister and High Commissioner trekking through the terminal - bags in hand - before being squeezed onto a hot and overcrowded airport bus.

The only light on the horizon is the thought of a cool beer on arrival in Ahmedabad - that is until someone informs us the province has a no-alcohol policy... and even a minister has to abide by that.