Harvard University withdraws RK Pachauri's invitation for India Conference after FIR

NEW DELHI: The India Conference at Harvard has withdrawn its invitation to RK Pachauri, director general of The Energy and Resources Institute. The annual studentrun conference is being held on March 7 and 8.

"As of now, we have politely withdrawn our invite to Mr Pachauri," said Sheta Mittal, one of the co-chairs of the conference. This follows the filing of a first information report against the TERI chief accusing him of sexual harassment.

Speakers at the conference include social activist, former police officer and politician Kiran Bedi, JSW Steel chairman Sajjan Jindal, Blackstone India chairman Akhil Gupta and Quality Council of India chairman and former McKinsey India chief Adil Zainulbhai besides more than 80 other dignitaries across the fields of politics, business, social and the arts.

Now in its 12th year, the conference is regarded as one of the biggest India-focused, student-led conferences held in the US. It brought together more than 100 speakers and 600 students from across the world last year.

The theme of this year’s conference is ‘India’s path to global leadership’.

"The success of India’s national elections, (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi’s visit to the US last year and President Obama’s visit to India earlier this year has raised expectations from India and its rising leadership in the global economy.

The conference aims to capture the sentiment and discuss India’s aspirations and challenges in the path ahead," Mittal said.

One of the keynote speeches at the conference on ‘Manufacturing’ will look into the prime minister’s initiative of “Make in India” and its implications on the manufacturing industry, while other themes include investments and fund raising in India, and 'New politics in the age of new media.'

"Since the last general elections of 2014, much seems to have changed in the way politics is done in India. The focus of the panel is to deliberate on how new media has changed the political discourse and politicians plan to reconcile with the ever growing expectations and impatience of the modern voter," says Mittal.

Kiran Bedi will be one of the panelists for the women focused keynote titled - "Women's Empowerment in Emerging India". The panel will focus on gender based inequality in India.