Tuesday, 18 November

India Economic Summit closes with warning of falling growth, “but no crisis”
India’s economic growth for 2008-2009 will moderate from 9% to between 7% and 7.5% due to the global financial crisis, Montek S. Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of India’s Planning Commission, told participants at the closing plenary of the World Economic Forum’s 24th India Economic Summit. “Even if you take growth at 7%, it is 2% less than what we have had but still higher than what we had four years ago,” he said. “This is not an Indian crisis. We are being impacted by a global crisis.”
Photos I Press release I Session summary

 
The Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 in India is Arbind Singh
Arbind Singh, Executive Director, Nidan, has been announced as the winner of the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2008 in India. Montek S. Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, India, conferred the award on Arbind Singh at the World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit. In India, the Social Entrepreneur Year of the Award is an initiative of The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation and The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in collaboration with the UNDP.
Press release I Session summary

Young parliamentarians call for change in India invoking Obama
While the youth vote in the United States carried Barack Obama to victory in this month’s presidential elections, young Indian parliamentarians speaking at the World Economic Forum’s 24th India Economic Summit, held in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), called on their countrymen to pursue the same spirit of change. “From our young sportsmen, our young businessmen, our young politicians,” said Rahul Bajaj, Chairman, Bajaj Auto; Member of Parliament, India, hopefully we are going to have more than one Barack Obama!”
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G20 replaces G7 as the most important global forum on economic issues
The Group of 20 developed and developing nations, or G20, which recently held a summit on the global financial crisis in Washington DC, is now the key forum for tackling international economic challenges, the Indian Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram told participants at the World Economic Forum’s 24th Indian Economic Summit, which ends today. “The G7 has recognized belatedly that they alone don’t have the solutions to all the problems,” said the Minister, who attended the Washington meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “The G20 has come to stay as the single most important forum to address the financial and economic issues of the world. The G20 is a much better forum than the G7.” The Washington Summit was “a good beginning,” Chidambaram reckoned. “The emerging economies are happy.”
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Monday, 17 November

Critical reforms for India's financial system
Critical reforms of India's financial system are needed if the country is to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the global crisis for India to become an international financial centre, finance experts agreed. Transaction costs should be reduced, efforts should be made to attract capital from the Middle East and product innovation encouraged, said Jignesh Shah, Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer, Financial Technologies (FTIL), India.

As the global financial crisis unfolds and financial institutions in the West have collapsed or weakened, "what is happening in the world is that there is a lot of global space being vacated that India ought to fill," argued Percy Mistry, Chairman, Oxford International Finance, India, who has called for India to undertake the reforms necessary to position Mumbai as an international financial hub. "If we blow it, an opportunity like this will not come again for a very long time." A key obstacle to such ambitions is that "the state owns too much of the financial system," Mistry reckoned. Today, "India has a particular opportunity to create an international financial centre," Stuart Popham, Senior Partner, Clifford Chance, United Kingdom, agreed. "But that opportunity will only be achieved if there is a suitable degree of liberalization and it is suitably regulated. There needs to be free and fair competition."
Photos I Session summary

Government, business leaders agree on need for rural skills development and improved education
Millions have been left out of recent progress in India despite the country enjoying an annual GDP growth in excess of 9%, said Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce and Industry of India, at the World Economic Forum’s 24th India Economic Summit, held in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). “We have to look at how the growth process affects every section of society,” said Nath, adding: “the real India is also 300 million people [living on] less than one dollar a day.” Sustained growth depends on including those that live in poverty: “We’ve tapped one India; we now need to tap the other India.”
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India needs greater efficiency and renewables to meet energy demands
India must improve energy efficiency and develop significant electricity-generating capacity through renewable sources and nuclear power if it is to meet its growing energy demand over the next 10-15 years. It also needs to reduce carbon emissions to address climate change, business leaders at the World Economic Forum’s 24th India Economic Summit said. “If India sustains a growth rate of 7-8%, there will be a huge energy shortage,” Adil Zainulbhai, Managing Director, India, for the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, told participants at a plenary session on the second day of the Summit. Efforts to meet the shortfall will likely entail the use of low-cost, “dirty” coal and diesel fuel, he warned.
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Sunday, 16 November

India Economic Summit Opens: Call to Resist Protectionism and Conclude Doha Round
Business leaders at the World Economic Forum’s 24th India Economic Summit called for countries to reject protectionism and work towards the conclusion of the Doha Round of global trade negotiations under the World Trade Organization. Their call to support the multilateral trading system echoed a similar statement by the G20 nations in the final communiqué released yesterday at the global summit on the financial crisis in Washington DC. Nearly 700 business, government and civil society leaders from over 35 countries are participating in the India Economic Summit, which is being held in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) under the theme Securing India’s Future Growth.
Press release I Photos I Session summary

Friday, 14 November

International and Indian leaders from over 35 countries gather at the 24th India Economic Summit
The World Economic Forum’s 24th India Economic Summit, held in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), will take place in New Delhi next week from 16 to 18 November. Nearly 700 participants from over 35 countries will work under the theme Securing India's Future Growth. "This year's Summit is very timely with respect to understanding the evolution of the global economic crisis and its future impact on India's economic and political landscape," said Lee Howell, Senior Director, Head of Programming and Senior Adviser on Asia at the World Economic Forum.
Press release I Photos

World Economic Forum Report highlights risks facing India despite continuing economic growth
The World Economic Forum has released its latest Region @ Risk Report, India @ Risk 2008. Prepared by the Global Risk Network and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) ahead of the India Economic Summit in New Delhi on 16-18 November 2008, the report presents the latest insights into trends, potential consequences and mitigation strategies relevant to key risk areas facing India, including Economic Security, Energy Security, Agriculture and Food Security, and National Security.
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Co-chairs

Jeffrey Joerres, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Manpower Inc., USA
James H. Quigley, Global Chief Executive Officer, Deloitte, USA
B. Ramalinga Raju, Founder and Chairman, Satyam Computer Services, India
Henri A. Termeer, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Genzyme Corporation, USA

Quotes

"This is one of the first [Forum] Summits since the global financial crisis took hold and I am pleased to see from the sessions, and our business meetings, there is still optimism and a strong willingness to collaborate, at both the government and private sector levels, and to avoid protectionism despite the difficult situation."
Allen Ma, President, BT Asia Pacific, BT, Hong Kong SAR

“The prime minister has said that instead of 9% growth, we will have 7-7.5% growth. It’s still a much better growth rate than four years ago, but we’ve never said we won’t be affected.”
Montek S. Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, India

"What the country needs today is a focused, single-minded policy on agriculture, not a fragmented policy. We need to have a cohesive policy and commitment by policy-makers that doesn't change whenever a new government is elected."
Rajshree Pathy, Chairman and Managing Director, Rajshree Sugars & Chemicals, India

“The G7 has recognized belatedly that they alone don’t have the solutions to all the problems,” said the Minister, who attended the Washington meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “The G20 has come to stay as the single most important forum to address the financial and economic issues of the world. The G20 is a much better forum than the G7.”
Palaniappan Chidambaram, Minister of Finance of India

“India has set off on a good course. This is going to be a path full of pressures and opportunities. This is the only possible route. The high-carbon picture will kill itself off. The marketplace will push it and people will push it. It is the way to overcome poverty.”
Nicholas Stern, IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, India Observatory, London School of Economics, United Kingdom

"There is a lot of discussion in the media and among the public that this crisis shows the weakness or even the end of the capitalist system. We should not forget that the system of free markets and liberalization enabled billions of people to move out of poverty. We should look at entrepreneurship. The future will be the age of entrepreneurship. And one of the places where you find this spirit most is among the Indian business community."
Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum

“There should be a secondary education system where we have academic and skills development – that’s the real key.”
R. Seshasayee, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland, India

“Seven to eight per cent GDP growth is still a wonderful place to invest capital – people would be crazy to walk by this.”
Stephen J. Rohleder, Chief Operating Officer, Accenture, USA

"India has two basic problems: one is energy deficiency and the other one is energy inefficiency."
Nand Khemka, Chairman, Sun Group, India

“This economy needs India at the table – it’s about the G20, not about the G7 or G8.”
James H. Quigley, Global Chief Executive Officer, Deloitte, USA 

“I believe it would be an outstanding appointment ... [endorsing US Senator Hilary Clinton] If it is true, it shows a number of things, including great courage on the part of the President-Elect. To appoint a very strong personality into a prominent cabinet position requires a great deal of courage.”
Henry A. Kissinger, Chairman, Kissinger Associates, USA

“Competitiveness will be the key driver; protectionism will be dangerous if it comes in the way of entrepreneurship.”
B. Ramalinga Raju, Founder and Chairman, Satyam Computer Services, India

“Technology is only technology for those who were born before the Internet. ‘Cyber’ and ‘culture’ are one and the same thing for young people. Young people are driving the changes.”
Soumitra Dutta, Dean, External Relations, and Roland Berger Chaired Professor in Business and Technology, INSEAD, France

 “We need to focus on nuts and bolts reforms … like reforms in education, health and infrastructure.”
Nandan M. Nilekani, Executive Co-Chairman, Infosys Technologies, India; Member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum

Contact
For more information about the India Economic Summit, please contact:
india@weforum.org