MUMBAI, Wednesday, March 14, 2018: Experts and policy makers convened this week in Mumbai for a conference on the changing global economy and India’s role in it. While they discussed complex issues with no easy answers, conference attendees came out optimistic in response to the conference theme, ‘Designing India’s Global Economic Engagement‘.
In a special morning session on Tuesday, March 13, Shyam Saran, former Foreign Secretary of India, was in conversation with Dr. Richard Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations. They discussed the relationship between India and the United States in a changing Asia, where the two major powers – the U.S. and China – are also the most disruptive in the region. In a day-long working session, participants explored India’s relations with China, the growing importance of services in global trade, the role of the G20 in global economic affairs, regulation of digital technology, and heightened competition between nations over ocean resources.
“As I look forward to the India of the future, I can say we are surely at the cusp of sustained, high-inclusive growth”, said Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, in his keynote address at the conference. “It is time to move beyond exclusively private solutions for public challenges, where delivery of government services will be efficient, transparent, and constantly improving.”
The conference, co-organised by Mumbai-based think tank Gateway House and the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, was the 3rd edition of the Gateway of India Geoeconomic Dialogue.
“Estonia currently has about 1,000 e-residents of Indian nationality, and as India makes progress in establishing a digital society, we are eager to engage more with India”, said Urve Palo, Hon’ble Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology, Republic of Estonia, in her opening remarks at the conference. “With a unique ID for all citizens over the age of fifteen, 99% of state services rendered online and a blockchain-based national secure cyberspace, e-Estonia is the future of e-government.”
“I have seen the Gateway of India Dialogue grow in a manner where it is contributing to India’s geoeconomic agenda, said Gen. (Dr.) V.K.Singh, Hon’ble Minister of State for External Affairs, Government of India, in his Keynote Address to the gathering in Mumbai. “As is demonstrated by India, an emphasis on quality, a rule-based transparent business regime, better connectivity and dialogue leads to the benefit of the whole world economy. I will be eagerly looking at timeline-based outcomes from this conference.”
Please contact Utsav Gandhi at outreach@gatewayhouse.in with further questions.
Utsav Gandhi
Outreach & Marketing Coordinator
Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations
Gandhi.Utsav@gatewayhouse.in
+91 22 2202 3371 / 22897856
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Cecil Court, 3rd floor
Colaba, Mumbai – 400 005
About Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations
Gateway House is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan foreign economic policy think tank in Mumbai. We focus on issues of global economic governance and international financial architecture. We are the only research-based platform through which foreign policy experts, corporate executives, business leaders and diplomats engage with each other in Mumbai.