Emerging Business Opportunities in India: A Student-Led Conference at The Yale School of Management

On April 3rd, 2009 The South Asian Business Forum at the Yale School of Management hosts a focused on discussing emerging business opportunities in India titled India: Seeking Opportunities in Crisis. The purpose of the conference is to take stock of the impact of the global financial crisis on India�s economy and discusses opportunities and challenges faced by foreign investors. The conference, which will draw participants from the whole Yale community, will feature leading entrepreneurs, policymakers and business leaders from the United States and India as panelists.

The opening remarks for the conference will be delivered by Sharon Oster, Dean of the Yale School of Management. The keynote address will be delivered by Rakesh Mohan, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. The conference is organized around three main themes which will be the discussed by various speakers in three respective panels.

Panel 1 titled, Emerging from the Storm: The Economic Crisis and its impact on India’s Development, will have speakers Ron Summers, President of the US Indian Business Council; Harish Damodaran, Journalist and Analyst, Press Trust of India and Hindu Business Line; Arvind Panagariya, Professor of Economics and Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economy at Columbia University; Suman Bery, Director-General, National Council of Applied Economic Research, and Rakesh Mohan, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India discussing the impact of the global economic crisis and how it is beginning to be felt in fast emerging economies like India and China with a slowdown being expected to continue well into 2009. The panel will examine how India is dealing with the economic crisis and what this slowdown means for the country’s economic development. The moderator for the panel is Richard Foster, Faculty Fellow, Yale School of Management.

Panel 2 is titled as, Other People’s Money: Private Equity in India - Emerging Risk, Structure & Reward, has Tom Barry, Founder Zephyr Capital; Norman Prouty, Senior Advisor, Groton Partners, and Jishnu Bhattacharjee, Partner, Nexus Capital, discussing how India’s economy is expected to slow down considerably in 2009, and how international investments into India is also expected to come down from the highs of 2007 and early 2008. The speakers will also address some of the emerging challenges and opportunities in the Indian economy. The panel will be moderated by William N. Goetzmann, Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of Finance and Management Studies & Director of the International Center for Finance at Yale University.

The final panel for the conference is titled, Spreading their Wings: Doing business in the U.S. - Lessons for Indian Companies. David Good, Chief representative, North America, Tata Sons, Malcom Frank, Senior Vice-President of Marketing and Strategy, Cognizant, and Ashok Vasudevan, CEO, Preferred Brands will examine Indian companies, such as the Tata Group, who have spent approximately $33 billion on overseas takeovers in 2007 and at the same time, have drawn up ambitious expansion plans at home. The speakers will further explore how the global economic crisis and slow domestic demand has served as twin blows to these ambitious plans. The panel will be moderated by Shyam Sundar, James L. Frank Professor of Accounting, Economics, and Finance at Yale University.

The South Asian Business Forum (SABF), a student-run club, provides a foundation of support for students at the Yale School of Management who want to participate and lead initiatives related to South Asia. We define South Asia as the region of Asia currently including India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Burma, Bangladesh, Bhutan and other regions in close proximity. Most activities are focused on the cultural, social, or business aspects of South Asia; however, the SABF board encourages members to take an active role in planning their own events for members in order to encompass the broad interests of many students. Their annual events include a Speaker Series, International Month and Social Events. For the Speaker Series, each year different leaders servicing South Asian Community are brought into School of Management to speak to the current students. Some of their past speakers have included, Dr. Arun Shourie, Former Union Minister of the Government of India and member of Parliament; Dr. Abhishek Singhvi, spokesperson for the Indian Congress Party; Mr. Vinay Rai, Ex-chairman of the USHA group. During the international Month, the South Asia Business Forum coordinates a presentation on South Asia, including food, dance, and music from the different regions of South Asia. This event provides a great opportunity for SOM students to get a flavor for South Asian culture. Through their Social events, the SABF coordinates movie nights, bhangra dances, cricket matches, parties and many other fun events throughout the year.

The SOM conference on India: Seeking Opportunity in Crisis is being generously supported by the South Asian Studies Council (SASC); The Yale Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS); and the Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS).