Agenda

India is at the cusp of significant economic changes which have and will continue to present both opportunities and challenges for both domestic and global business enterprises. Ever since the initiation of economic reforms of in 1991, the Indian economy has undergone a paradigm shift. A country that was often ignored by major global powers shifted from being a pre-dominantly agrarian country to one with an extensive manufacturing and services base.

India is now an important economic power, set to become a top-five global economy by 2030. It is a player in global economic decisions as part of the G-20 and the G-8 + 5 (the G-8 plus the five leading emerging economies). Notwithstanding the economic power it has attained, India also has major strategic issues in the region particularly with Pakistan and China.

This lecture will look at the wide gamut of India’s strategic issues and interests in the region and beyond and discuss how well India is prepared to face those challenges keeping up the pace of economic development.

Speakers

Mr Prakash Shah is a retired Indian Foreign Services (IFS) officer is a co- Founder of the Centre for Business and Strategic Affairs (CBSA) and will bring his extensive international experience of having represented India in several countries and international forums. His expertise spans across geo-politics, disarmament, human rights, international business, oil, energy, trade and financial sectors.

Mr Shah served as India’s Ambassador to Japan (1992-1995) during which time he successfully negotiated a bilateral assistance for India of 1.2 billion a year for three years. He served as Ambassador to Venezuela and Consul-General to The Dutch Antilles (1983-1985). He was India’s High Commissioner to Malaysia & Brunei (1980 – 1983) and Counsellor for Petroleum Affairs at the Embassy of India in Tehran, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, U.A.E., Saudi Arabia & Lebanon (1972-1975). He has also been a Member of several groups which include the Oil Diplomacy Advisory Group of the Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas (2004-2007) and Indo-Japan Eminent Persons Group (2000—2002).

Mr Shah, served as India’s Ambassador/Permanent Representative at the United Nations (1995-1997) during which period he was chief negotiator on Security Council Reforms. He was also co-chairman of the UN working group on strengthening the U.N. system and led the Indian delegation to the 50th U.N. General Assembly.

He has also been India’s Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva (1991-1992) representing the country as chief delegate at the Conference on Disarmament and at the Human Rights Commission both at Geneva. He negotiated convention on Chemical Weapons and severed as Alternate Governor in the Governing Council of the Common Fund at The Hague.

Earlier on, Mr Shah served as Joint/Additional Secretary in India’s Ministry of External Affairs (1985-1990) before which he was Director/Joint Secretary to Prime Minister (1977 – 1980) during which term he was advisor on External Affairs to Prime Ministers – Mr Morarji Desai, Mr Charan Singh and Mrs Indira Gandhi.

Mr Shah is a member of various associations and organisations and is regularly invited as a visiting faculty and speaker in several institutions in India and abroad which include the Universidad Santa Maria, Caracas; Foreign Service Institute, New Delhi; National Defence College, New Delhi; Geneva Management Institute; SIMS, Pune; Arab Strategy Summit, Dubai among others. He also has several publications to this credit.

Professor Poonam Kumar; is co-Founder of the Centre for Business & Strategic Affairs, will bring over three decades of experience as an international business strategy consultant and policy expert. Closely associated with the economic reforms and globalisation process in India, she has worked with governments of several Indian states to initiate economic reforms and attract foreign investments.

Professor Kumar is also the Founder Chairperson of Mega Ace Consultancy which works with international companies and organisations that seek to identify market and business opportunities in India. Her work focuses on developing new and innovative models that integrate high technology and high skills of international companies to meet the growth needs of Indian firms. With her international cross‐sector experience, she has built a strong network across the globe and brings the unique capability as an interface and liaison between the private and public sector.

Over the years, she has been working with Boards and senior managements of several global companies working with international teams to develop a phase-wise India‐entry strategy. Her work spans across several companies, institutions and organisations. These include companies in insurance, banking & finance, education, infrastructure; nuclear, oil & natural gas, clean energy, healthcare, information technology, education, food and agri-business, apparel & leather among several others. She also works with Indian companies seeking investment destinations abroad.

Her initiatives to develop innovative public private partnership models have led her to undertake pioneering work with various public and multi‐lateral agencies. Some of these include Department for International Development (UK); Commonwealth Business Council (UK); Commonwealth Secretariat (London, UK); International Finance Corporation (Washington); World Bank (Washington); Securities Institute (London, UK); Invest in France Agency (France); WTC Montreal (Quebec, Canada); Austrade (Australia); Paris EUROPLACE (France); Nepal Rastra Bank ‐ the central bank of Nepal (Nepal); Life Insurance Corporation (India); National Highways Authority of India (India); Securities and Exchange Board of India (India); Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (India); Bombay Stock Exchange (India) and numerous other government agencies and departments.

With her ability to understand modern day global business needs from an academic perspective, she has been instrumental in setting up the agenda at the Centre for Business & Strategic Affairs (CBSA) to align academics with modern day corporate realities. An Alumnus of the Harvard Business School, she has also completed senior management programmes in Human Resource Management (1994) and Global Strategy Management (1995) from INSEAD.

Professor Kumar is a member of several professional bodies, trade & industry organisations. She has addressed the European Parliament in Brussels (May 2006) as an expert on Indian Business when the EU‐India trade policy was being finalised. She has also been part of several other international Summits including India‐EU Summit, India‐UK Summit and the World Economic Summits since their inception in mid‐nineties and has presented papers in these forums for over two decades.