The 12th Wharton India Economic Forum 2008: ‘India | Imagine’

India continues to be a story of dramatic growth, even in an increasingly gloomy economic environment. It has traveled an extraordinary path to emerge stronger prouder than anything envisaged 62 years ago by our founding fathers. Today, 1.1 billion Indians can shape India's future, using their collective imagination.

The 12th Annual Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF) invites you to dismiss all your notions of India for a brief day, and imagine a dazzling future for India as seen through the eyes of some of India's most prominent leaders.

This year's conference will be held on Saturday, the 22nd of March, 2008 at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Philadelphia. The conference will feature as keynote speakers former President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, and prominent venture capitalist and the father of the Intel Pentium microprocessor, Mr. Vinod Dham .

The theme of this year's Conference is 'India | Imagine'. This Forum will serve as the platform for Indian leaders to envisage the next phase of India's journey to success while being mindful of potential roadblocks. Previous WIEF conferences have featured prominent speakers such as India's Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, McKinsey Managing Director Rajat Gupta, industrialists Rahul Bajaj, Anil Ambani, Sunil Mittal and Mukesh Ambani, technocrats N.R Narayana Murthy and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, former UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Shashi Tharoor, and US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson.

Speakers

-- Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam - Former President of the Republic Of India

-- Mr. Vinod Dham - Founder and Managing Director, NEA-IndoUS Ventures

India's New Mandate: Addressing the Health Care Paradox

-- Rajiv Gulati - Chairman and Managing Director, Eli Lilly and Company (India)

-- Prakash Khubchandani - Founder and Managing Director, Khubchandani Group

-- K. Srinath Reddy - President, Public Health Foundation of India

-- Suneeta Reddy - Director-Finance, Apollo Hospital Enterprises, Ltd.

Mass Retail: Getting Organized to Grow Too Soon?

-- Arvind Singhal - Chairman, Technopak

-- Sumant Sinha - CEO, Aditya Birla Retail

The Indian Diaspora

-- Sant Chatwal - President and CEO, Hampshire Hotels & Resorts, LLC

-- Neelam Deo - Consul General of India, New York

Investing in India: The Maturation Process, What's Next?

-- Sumir Chadha - Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India

-- Heramb Hajarnavis, Goldman Sachs PIA

-- Ranjit Pandit - Managing Director, General Atlantic Partners LLC

-- Zubin Dubash, India Head, Merrill Lynch Private Equity

Infrastructure: No Longer an Achilles Heel of Growth

-- Nasser Munjee - Chairman, Development Credit Bank Ltd.

India's Unprivileged Majority: The Real Development Story

-- Shanta Devarajan - Chief Economist, World Bank's South Asia Region

-- Vikram Akula - CEO and Founder, SKS Microfinance

Technology's role in the New Indian Economy

-- Mr. Sunil Dutt - Country Head, Samsung Mobile India

-- Dr. Y.V. Verma - Director (HR and Management Support), LG Electronics India Pvt. Ltd