Wharton India Economic Forum
| Wharton India Economic Forum | |
|---|---|
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| Abbreviation | WIEF |
| Formation | 1996 |
| Type | Business Conference |
| Purpose/focus | To raise the profile of the economic potential of India |
| Location | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Chairpersons | Shuchi Pandya · Parth Shah · Shamik Shah · Tahem Veer Verma |
| Website | WhartonIndia.com |
The Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF), established in 1996 at The Wharton School, is a student-run business forum in the United States focused on India. WIEF is one of the largest and most prestigious India-based economic and business conferences in the world. It is attended by over 800 people annually and receives extensive media coverage in India and the wider business by leading publications, such as The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The New York Times, The Economic Times and The Times of India.
WIEF's mission is to engage the world's attention on India's enormous potential and the limitless possibilities the country offers. India's evolution as both an emerging economic power and as an increasingly important contributor to the global community has helped the conference broaden its perspectives.
Since the first forum, WIEF has stimulated energetic dialogue between current and future leaders from various walks of economic, social and political life. The forum has successfully served as a platform for not only promoting dialogue between industry leaders and policy makers, but has also served as a conduit for businesses to leverage the connections with industry professionals
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[edit] The 16th Wharton India Economic Forum (January 9, 2012 | Mumbai, India)
The 16th annual Wharton India Economic Forum will be held on January 9, 2012 in Mumbai, India. To celebrate 20 years of liberalization of the Indian economy and underline Wharton's commitment to the Indian business community, WIEF will be held in India for the first time. WIEF will bring together leaders from around the world to highlight India's key strengths - from arts and culture to innovation and business, while opening up for debate the issues India must overcome to continue its upward trajectory and remain competitive in today's global market. Please check the website for updates.
A Glimpse of the Speakers
- K.V. Kamath, Chairman, Infosys Limited
- Ajay Piramal, Chairman, Piramal Enterprises Limited
- Keki Mistry, Vice Chairman and CEO, HDFC Limited
- Niranjan Hiranandani, Co-Founder and MD, Hiranandani Group
- Manish Kejriwal, ex-India Head, Temasek Holdings
[edit] Distinguished Speakers at Past Conferences
Government & Policy
- Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam, 11th President of India
- P. Chidambaram, Home Affairs Minister and former Finance Minister of India
- Henry Paulson, 74th United States Treasury Secretary and former CEO and Chairman of Goldman Sachs
- Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Government of India
- Shashi Tharoor, Member of Indian Parliament and former Under Secretary General of the United Nations
- Praful Patel, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Government of India
- Sachin Pilot, Minister of State, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India
- Naveen Jindal, Member of Indian Parliament
- Kalpana Kochhar, Country Head India, International Monetary Fund
Industry
- Anil Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group
- Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and MD, Reliance Industries
- Sunil Mittal, Founder, Chairman and Group CEO, Bharti Enterprises
- N. R. Narayana Murthy, Non-Executive Chairman and Chief Mentor, Infosys
- Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India and former CEO, Infosys
- Rahul Bajaj, Chairman, Bajaj Group
- Adi Godrej, Chairman, Godrej Group
- Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairman & Managing Director, Biocon Limited
Finance
- Jim Rogers, Financial Investor and Author
- Chanda Kochhar, CEO & MD, ICICI Bank Limited
- Goerge Soros, Chairman, Soros Fund Management and the Open Society Institute
- Vikram Akula, CEO and Founder, SKS Microfinance
Media & Entertainment
- Abhishek Bachchan, Actor, Bollywood
- Anil Kapoor, Actor, Bollywood
- Vidya Balan, Actress, Bollywood
- Karan Johar, Indian Film Director, Producer, and TV celebrity
- Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Indian Filmmaker and Screenwriter
- Rohan Sippy, Indian Film Director
- Shankar Mahadevan, Indian Music Composer and Singer
- Subhash Chandra, Chairman, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL)
Sports
- Sunil Gavaskar, former Indian Cricketer
- Vijay Amritraj, former Indian Tennis Player and Sports Commentator
- Geet Sethi, Professional Billiards Player
Other
- Dominic Barton, Global Managing Director, McKinsey & Company
[edit] Testimonials
"The event featured an un-paralleled galaxy of Indian business luminaries and policy makers who joined faculty, students and staff from Wharton and other leading US business schools in examining issues central to its theme of realizing the Indian Dream."[1]
"India's central bank has "more room" to cut interest rates further to combat economic slowdown and a global recession, according to Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the nation's Planning Commission. "Fortunately, we have more room for further relaxation unlike some of the industrialized countries where the scope for monetary easing has been pretty much exhausted," Ahluwalia said yesterday via video link from New Delhi to a conference in Philadelphia sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton business School."[2]
"Chiefs spruik India's home turf: The conference, staged by University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, is the biggest of its type in the US and drew an elite group of Indian business speakers..."[3]
"The forum is expected to serve as the platform for Indian leaders to envisage the next phase of India's journey to success while being mindful of potential roadblocks."
"India Shining at the Wharton Campus: India is getting unprecedented attention, albeit mixed with a healthy dose of apprehension about the risks and appreciation of the magnitude of the opportunities, from the world as it gets increasingly recognized as a global economic power..."
CNBC Online
"India is definitely the flavor of the season among students at Wharton. Uppermost on everyone's minds was Warburg Pincus which turned a USD300 Million investment in Bharati Televentures into a USD 1.5 Billion return."
[edit] Present and Past WIEF Chairs
- 2012 : Shuchi Pandya · Parth Shah · Shamik Shah · Tahem Veer Verma
- 2011 : Tushar Aggarwal · Rohit Chauhan · Aditya Dada · Saksham Karwal · Derek Kightlinger
- 2010 : Rahul Jetley · Vikramjit Singh · Sathyanarayan Anand · Nina Chandra · Jay Raghavan
- 2009 : Arjun Madan · Anshul Mittal · Arjun Ghose
- 2008 : Abhishek Gupta · Karishma Mehta · Vivek Garg · Akshay Madhavan
- 2006 : Sameera Chilakapati · Piyush Jain · Ashish Khemka · Raj Pandey
- 2005 : Amit Soni · Hari Prakash · Abhishek Chauhan · Kanush Chaudhury
- 2004 : Vijay Shreedhar · Samarth Singh · Kunal Bahl
- 2003 : Nikhil Sawhney · Niraj Shah · Aditya Talwar
- 2002 : Kiran Hebbar · Rushabh Kapashi · Anirudh Patni
- 2001 : Sarin Suvarna · Venkatesh Saha
- 2000 : Ashesh Badani · Saahil Mahajan
- 1999 : Sujith Banerjee · Ankur Daga
- 1998 : Manju Chandrasekhar · Shannon Shah
- 1997 : Khawar Mann · Prashant Mehtah
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ "The 12th Annual Wharton India Economic Forum Concludes Successfully in Philadelphia". BusinessWire. http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20080324005657/en/12th-Annual-Wharton-India-Economic-Forum-Concludes.
- ^ "India’s Ahluwalia Says “More Room” for Interest Rate Cuts". Bloomberg. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&refer=India&sid=aiUS1fP1XdgU.
- ^ "Chiefs spruik India's home turf". The Australian. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/chiefs-spruik-indias-home-turf/story-e6frg8zx-1111112563509.
