This post is a little late, it should have been up by the 15th. The event was one hosted by LSE which marked the launch of LSE's India observatory. The speakers were:
OP Bhatt - Chairman of the State Bank of India
Mervyn King - Governor of the Bank of England
Kamal Nath - Minister for commerce and industry for the Indian government
YV Reddy - Governor of the Reserve Bank of India
Nicholas Stern - IG Patel Chair in Government and Economics and director of the India Observatory at LSE.
The event was an enjoyable one and unlike what I feared, there was a good mix of praise and concern when the speakers echoed their sentiments. I shall list some notable comments by Kamal Nath and OP Bhatt.
Kamal Nath:
"India's perception of itself is changing, not the world's alone."
"...India has more people living on $1 a day(300 million) than those in all the Least Developed Countries put together. "
"Indian agriculture is about subsistence and not about commerce."
OP Bhatt:
"Infrastructure is a concern and if not addresed will choke growth.......India will need $600 billion in the next five years for infrastructure development. "
"The scale and size of Indian banking is a concern.......market capitalization is very low."
In terms of the speeches OP Bhatt's was the most engrossing, he spoke more about the problems facing the country, and even as he did so, there was the unmistakeable spirit behind his words that none of these problems were indomitable. He dwelled on all the key sectors(education, public health, infrastructure, finance, labour) which have a direct/indirect bearing on the country's future. Reflecting his awareness that he was addressing a global audience, he brought his speech to an end with a sanskrit phrase - "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" (the world is one family) and stressed on the world's need to realise it soon. That alone made my day.
The future looks bright.
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