Senior Japanese government representatives will be the star speakers, along with senior ministers from India and several G-20 countries, at the India Global Forum 2014, jointly hosted by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) and Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in New Delhi on November 9 and 10. The theme for this year’s forum is ‘India 2014: New Opportunities for a New Government’.
The organisers said the forum would give the Narendra Modi government an opportunity to communicate its economic, foreign and defence policies to an elite global and Indian audience.
Finance and defence minister Arun Jaitley will deliver the keynote address.
The forum will be addressed by prominent government and business leaders and intellectuals from India and countries including the US, Japan, China, the UK, Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, Singapore, Sweden, Bahrain, Turkey and UAE.
Government leaders from India participating in the summit include commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman and PM Narendra Modi’s G-20 ‘sherpa’ Suresh Prabhu. Japan will be represented by senior vice-minister in PM Shinzo Abe’s office (Japan) Yasutoshi Nishimura and Tadashi Maeda of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.
“India Global Forum will focus on India’s strategy for economic revival, its view of multilateral economic institutions and multilateral economic negotiations, the challenge of energy and cyber security, regional security and business opportunities being provided by India’s new defence manufacturing policy,” said Sanjaya Baru, director for geo-economics and strategy, IISS.
A special feature of the forum will be a session devoted to ‘The Soft Power of Indian Enterprise’, featuring business leaders Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Mittal.