Free trade focus of Confluence '04

IIM-A's international management summit from October 23

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, (IIM-A's) annual international management summit 'Confluence 2004' will kick off on October 23. The vision for the summit is 'Mantras for Emerging Markets'.

"With the lifting of quantitative trade restrictions on the anvil, a change in corporate strategies is warranted. Changing lifestyles and spending habits, along with newer agreements towards free trade, create a whole new business paradigm. Confluence 2004 engages the business trinity of industry, academia and managerial student talent to create holistic perspective on this issue," Niranjan Rao, joint coordinator, Confluence 2004, said on Friday.

The three-day event will kick off with an opening address by Union finance minister P Chidambaram.

Speakers for this year's event include will include Yasheng Huang, an associate professor of international management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

He is an expert on private sector development in India and China and his published works include 'Selling China' which examines the institutional drivers of foreign direct investment (FDI) in China.

Also participating in Confluence 2004 is T N Srinivasan, Professor of Economics at Yale University. The opening ceremony will also be attended by the Bakul Dholakia, director of IIM Ahmedabad.

Ever since its inception in 1999, Confluence as an event has grown at a frenetic pace. It attracts participation from about thirty of the best B-schools from over 18 countries.

The uniqueness of Confluence lies in the student involvement that it entails. This is an event owned and managed completely by the students of IIM Ahmedabad. From formulating the thematic direction to taking care of the logistics, everything about Confluence is reflective of the students.

The top international school expected to participate in Confluence 2004, includes Wharton, MIT Sloan, Carnegie Mellon, NYU Stern, Chicago GSB, Purdue, Richard Ivey, Haas School of Business, University of North Carolina, University of Southern California (Marshall School of Business), London Business School, ESADE, Solvay Business School, National University of Singapore, Nanyang Business School, Singapore, Leeds University, UK, Rotterdam School of Management, Netherlands, University of Queensland, Australia, Lahore Management University, Pakistan, Copenhagen Business School, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.

The domestic institutes participating includes the remaining IIMs, ISB, XLRI, NITIE, FMS Delhi, MDI, NMIMS, and SP Jain amongst others.

The panel discussion will include 'Corporate Strategy: The India-China FDI Conundrum' which will features Yasheng Huang of MIT Sloan School of business, Sebastian Morris professor at IIM Ahmedabad, Rama Bijapurkar a leading consultant, and a representative from McKinsey and Company, among others.

The panal discussions on 'The making of multinationals in emerging markets' will feature Ratan Tata, N R Narayana Murthy, Brian Tempest and Sunil Mittal amongst others.

'Tradability of services and outsourcing: The road ahead' will feature T N Srinivasan, Professor of Economics at Yale University, Arun Shourie, Kiran Karnik, Jerry Rao and M S Ahluwalia amongst others.