India Economic Summit kicks off in Delhi next week

NEW DELHI : This year’s edition of the India Economic Summit (IES), will play host to over 600 business, political and civil society leaders from 32 countries. The annual summit organised jointly by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and industry body the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to be held next week in Delhi, is centred around the theme ‘India: Meeting new expectations’.

Speakers at the summit include Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, finance minister P Chidambaram, commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath and petroleum and natural gas minister Murli Deora. A select group of IES participants will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as well.

During the summit, the organisers will release a joint report — ‘India@Risk’. The report examines six global risks including the backlash against globalisation, shortage of ground water, uncertainty over oil prices and analysing their impact on the future of India.

“The tremendous response received from the global business participants — more than 200 overseas companies with over 350 CEO and board-level participants from 32 countries — is a clear reflection of the global business community’s increasing interest and growing confidence in India as an investment destination,” said CII president R Seshasayee.

Added Lee Howell, director for Asia at WEF, “The number and the diversity of participants at IES continues to grow. There is a lot of interest about India among the international business community. This year, many Chinese and Japanese companies are participating, while participants from Vietnam will also be present.”