Aizawl: The British government has simplified the procedure of giving Visas to Indian citizens who want to go to the UK, the country's High Commissioner to India Sir Bob Young said.

Getting Visas from different places in India now usually took less than 24 hours and more than two lakh Indian were given Visas to go to UK last year were around 11,000 Indian students were now studying many of them through scholarships granted by the British government.

He urged more students from Mizoram and other North Eastern states to come forward to avail the scholarships.

Young, however, said the British government no longer funded infrastructure projects in different states but rather gave aids to India's national programme on health, capacity buildings and reform programmes.

On the Kashmir issue he said that it should be settled through bilateral talks between India and Pakistan and the British government was ready to help if the two countries agreed.

When asked about cross border terrorism by Pakistan in the northern state he said Britain condemned terrorism in any form as evident in the serious view it took on the human rights violation in Myanmar by the military junta and subsequent efforts to end it through the European Union and other international fora.

He said UN continued to play a central role in international affairs even after disagreement among the member nations on the war against Iraq by the US and the UK.

PTI