ISB to host international meet on India, China

As part of its efforts to become a research-driven global institution, the Indian School of Business (ISB) Economic Forum is organising an international conference on 'Will the 21st Century belong to India and China?' at ISB on August 14.

The conference is the highlight of a five-day research workshop on finance and economics which is being attended by academia from both India and abroad.

ICICI Research Centre and the University of California at Los Angeles Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) are sponsoring the conference. The conference brings together prominent business leaders, policy-makers and academic scholars.

According to Bhagwan Chowdhry, professor of corporate finance and area leader for finance at the ISB, "This conference is unique in that it will be a platform for all "� policy-makers, business leaders and academia "� to listen to each other's informed opinions and think differently on policy-making, business practices as well as further research."

Chowdhry is the professor of finance at the Anderson School at the University of California at Los Angeles. He is at present at the ISB on a sabbatical for a year.

The conference hosts several eminent speakers such as Peter Tan, vice-president of McDonald's-Asia, Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, Sanjeev Sanyal, senior economist at Deutsche Bank, N J Sheth, director of Tata Economic Consultancy Services, Deepak Goyal, engagement manager of McKinsey & Co, Anwarul Hoda, member of Planning Commission, Ching - Sung Wu of National Taiwan University, Bhagwan Chowdhry of ISB, Ravi Jagannathan, Chicago Mercantile Exchange Distinguished Professor of Finance, and John Talbott, a consultant at ISB.

Chowdhry said that ISB was focussing on developing its research capabilities. The international conferences held on global corporate governance forum and financial market development in emerging and transition economies were efforts in this direction.

ISB is setting up five centres of excellence (CoEs) for research in emerging markets. The Centre for Analytical Finance was set up recently and the Centre for Integrated Marketing would be set up next.

The first of the CoEs, the Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurial Development, was established in 2001.