India Economic Summit: Mongolia? Huh?
Perhaps it is the Obama effect, with several prominent U.S. CEOs having already traveled to India (and back home) earlier this month with the U.S. President. Perhaps it is conference overload. Perhaps it is a planning thing.
Whatever the reason, there was a sense among several attendees I spoke with today that this India Economic Summit, hosted in Delhi by the World Economic Forum and the Confederation of Indian Industry, isn’t all that it was in the past or hopefully could be in the future.
When asked how they were finding the event, their responses ranged from “I’m a little disappointed” to “below last year” to “Everyone is complaining.”
Part of the issue may be timing. The event last year was shortly after the general elections so the conference pulled Manmohan Singh to speak about his agenda for a new term.
Mr. Singh didn’t attend this year, though there have been a number of faces familiar to the Delhi autumn conference circuit: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Kamal Nath, road transport minister, have popped in so far; Anand Sharma from commerce and Kapil Sibal, from human resource development, are expected on Tuesday.
Multinational CEOs who draw a crowd in India, like Indra Nooyi from PepsiCo, aren’t here, either, having just accompanied Mr. Obama for a summit in Mumbai.
Sushant Palakurthi Rao, director and head of Asia for the World Economic Forum, said the organizers have tried to “align the themes with voices” on the topics concerned, which in this case revolve around the title of “Implementing India.” He noted that the panelists have included Ellen Kullman, CEO of DuPont.
He said people have responded “very positively” to the conference so far. “I think people wanted to get more detail, and into the specifics of implementation,” he said.
Still, some attendees complain of a mismatch of speaker and subject matter and an overall focus on problems already familiar to all rather than on solutions. There appear to be a large number of panelists drawn either from the ranks of co-chairs of the summit, the WEF’s Young Global Leaders program, or quite random foreign officials.
A lunchtime panel on “Emerging Economies, Engines of Global Trade,” which was supposed to look at “south-south” commerce, included the international trade minister from Canada and the finance minister of Panama.
Then there was this afternoon’s panel on “Fostering Public Leadership,” which was supposed to look at ways to encourage young Indians to join public service rather than the private sector.
It included Oyun Sanjaasuren, a Young Global Leader and a Member of Parliament from Mongolia.
“Is there a crisis of public leadership in Mongolia?” the moderator, Young Global Leader Thomas Crampton of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, asked gamely.
It rather summed up the proceedings so far.
Read more on the India Economic Summit.
Whatever the reason, there was a sense among several attendees I spoke with today that this India Economic Summit, hosted in Delhi by the World Economic Forum and the Confederation of Indian Industry, isn’t all that it was in the past or hopefully could be in the future.
When asked how they were finding the event, their responses ranged from “I’m a little disappointed” to “below last year” to “Everyone is complaining.”
Part of the issue may be timing. The event last year was shortly after the general elections so the conference pulled Manmohan Singh to speak about his agenda for a new term.
Mr. Singh didn’t attend this year, though there have been a number of faces familiar to the Delhi autumn conference circuit: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Kamal Nath, road transport minister, have popped in so far; Anand Sharma from commerce and Kapil Sibal, from human resource development, are expected on Tuesday.
Multinational CEOs who draw a crowd in India, like Indra Nooyi from PepsiCo, aren’t here, either, having just accompanied Mr. Obama for a summit in Mumbai.
Sushant Palakurthi Rao, director and head of Asia for the World Economic Forum, said the organizers have tried to “align the themes with voices” on the topics concerned, which in this case revolve around the title of “Implementing India.” He noted that the panelists have included Ellen Kullman, CEO of DuPont.
He said people have responded “very positively” to the conference so far. “I think people wanted to get more detail, and into the specifics of implementation,” he said.
Still, some attendees complain of a mismatch of speaker and subject matter and an overall focus on problems already familiar to all rather than on solutions. There appear to be a large number of panelists drawn either from the ranks of co-chairs of the summit, the WEF’s Young Global Leaders program, or quite random foreign officials.
A lunchtime panel on “Emerging Economies, Engines of Global Trade,” which was supposed to look at “south-south” commerce, included the international trade minister from Canada and the finance minister of Panama.
Then there was this afternoon’s panel on “Fostering Public Leadership,” which was supposed to look at ways to encourage young Indians to join public service rather than the private sector.
It included Oyun Sanjaasuren, a Young Global Leader and a Member of Parliament from Mongolia.
“Is there a crisis of public leadership in Mongolia?” the moderator, Young Global Leader Thomas Crampton of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, asked gamely.
It rather summed up the proceedings so far.
Read more on the India Economic Summit.
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