Wharton India Economic Forum

Wharton India Economic Forum
Abbreviation WIEF
Formation 1996
Type Business Conference
Purpose To raise the profile of the economic potential of India
Location
Chairpersons
 Aman Jain. Ankita Bajaj. Divya Menon. Praveen Chunduru
Website whartonindia.com

The Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF), established in 1996 at The Wharton School, is a student-run business forum in the United States focused on India.[1] WIEF is one of the largest India-based economic and business conferences in the United States.[2] It is attended by over 800 people annually and receives extensive media coverage in India and the wider business by leading publications, such as The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The New York Times, The Economic Times and The Times of India.

WIEF's describes its mission as to "engage the world's attention on India's enormous potential and the limitless possibilities the country offers".

Speakers at the pre-2012 conferences

Government & Policy

Industry

Finance

Media & Entertainment

Sports

Other

16th WIEF, 2012

The 16th annual Wharton India Economic Forum was held on January 9, 2012 in Mumbai, India. This was the first time the WIEF was held in India.

The speakers included:

17th WIEF, 2013

Keynote Speakers

Milind Deora opted out for an unspecified reason.[3]

Media and Entertainment Panelists

Women's Empowerment Panelists

Private Equity/Venture Capital Panelists

Finance Panelists

Entrepreneurship Panelists

Narendra Modi Controversy

In 2013, the WIEF organizers invited the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi to deliver the keynote address via video-conferencing.[4] Toorjo Ghose, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a small group of colleagues put together a petition after learning about Wharton's invitation to Modi. Kasturi Sen, a Philadelphia-based attorney, created a group on Facebook and initially hosted the petition there.[5] The petition cited the revocation of visa to Modi in 2005 by the US state department.[6] They were joined by Ania Loomba and Suvir Kaul, both Indian-American UPenn professors, who were critical of Modi's handling of the 2002 Hindu-Muslim riots, started formal a petition demanding the cancellation of the invitation, failing which they would protest his virtual presence at the event.[7]

The petition was sent to Amy Gutmann, the UPenn president. The university leadership stepped in to diffuse what it saw as a potentially explosive situation.[8] The WIEF organizers had to cancel the invitation, even though they stood by the earlier decision to invite Modi. They stated that they wanted to avoid putting Modi in a "compromising position".[9] At the time of the decision, the petition had been signed by around 135 people, and the number of signatories grew to 250 later.[10] A senior Wharton official distanced Wharton from the decision stating “Make no mistake, the move to not have Modi was a result of UPenn, not Wharton,” pointing to the fact that not a single Wharton faculty member had signed the petition demanding cancellation of Modi's speech.

In Modi's support, the Shiv Sena leader Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu scrapped his visit to Wharton.[11] Another speaker, the Wall Street Journal writer and journalist Sadanand Dhume, also pulled out from the forum in protest.[12] He was replaced by Sudhir Parikh, a New Jersey-based eminent physician, philanthropist, publisher and Padma Shri awardee. However, Parikh too withdrew from the conference as a mark of protest. He stated, "The manner in which the committee has been pressurised to rescind its invitation to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on entirely suspicious grounds, I feel the intellectual integrity of the forum has been compromised."[13] Ron Somers, also a keynote speaker, termed the decision to drop Modi as "unfortunate and disrespectful", but said that he would attend the event in order to make his point about free speech.[14] Another keynote speaker Mohandas Pai also backed out complaining about mistreatment of Indians outside India; he mentioned the "shabby" treatment of Narendra Modi among other incidents such as the Italian marines controversy, Pakistan's reaction to Afzal Guru's hanging and Sri Lanka's treatment of Indian fishermen.[15] The U.S. Congressman Eni Faleomavaega expressed disappointment at the decision, criticizing the protesters as "a segment of professors and students who are reaching beyond the law and coming awfully close to violating the rights of others who have a different view".[16] Several others, including Rajiv Malhotra and the Indian Union Minister Shashi Tharoor also stated that Modi should not have been disinvited.[17][18]

The Adani group, the platinum sponsors of the event, withdrew their sponsorship.[19] Subsequently, Viacom 18's Colors, the silver sponsors, also pulled out.[20] Hexaware, the bronze sponsor, also withdrew sponsorship, saying that its chairman Atul Nishar (a keynote speaker) would be unable to attend the event due to other business engagements.[21]

Some media outlets reported that Arvind Kejriwal had been invited instead of Modi, but Kejriwal clarified that he had received the invitation several days before the decision to drop Modi was made.[22] Kejriwal also expressed his disapproval of the decision to drop Modi.[23]

After the controversy, the organizers announced that no media organizations other than TV Asia would be allowed to cover the event. This was for the first time in the 17 years history of the event that media was not given free access to cover the forum.[24] A coalition of activists opposed to the decision came together under the banner of Americans for Free Speech, and organized a peaceful protest at the venue.[25]

The cancellation of Modi's speech ignited a debate on free speech on UPenn campus.[26] Assem Shukla, Associate Professor of Surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania stated: "Penn’s tradition of free speech was celebrated when extreme anti-Israel speakers, Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam and radical Occupy Wall Street protesters held sway on campus. But free speech became an empty homily when it came to the speaker selection of a group of Indian-American business school students"[27] Loomba stated that disinviting a speaker is also freedom of speech. She said "Modi suporters can beam him in, but not in my house".[28]

WIEF Chairs

References

  1. ↑ "India's Ahluwalia Says "More Room" for Interest Rate Cuts". Bloomberg.
  2. ↑ "Chiefs spruik India's home turf". The Australian.
  3. ↑ "Arvind Kejriwal, Mohandas Pai to speak at Wharton; Deora drops out". DNA. 2013-03-13. Retrieved 2013-03-13.
  4. ↑ "Wharton snub: Support grows for Narendra Modi". Zee News. 2013-03-04. Retrieved 2013-03-04.
  5. ↑ Narendra Modi's address at Wharton nulled via Facebook, ET Bureau, Economic Times, Mar 5, 2013
  6. ↑ Why Narendra Modi Was Banned From the U.S., JAMES MANN Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2014
  7. ↑ Petition against Narendra Modi's invitation to the Wharton India Economic Forum, By PETITIONERS, The Daily Pennsylvanian, 03/10/13
  8. ↑ Inside story: why Wharton cancelled Modi's lecture, Charu Sudan Kasturi, Hindustan Times New Delhi, March 05, 2013
  9. ↑ "India minister Narendra Modi's US speech cancelled". BBC. 2013-03-03. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
  10. ↑ "A petition signed by about 135 people behind Wharton's decision to cancel Narendra Modi invite". DNA. 2013-03-04. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
  11. ↑ "Sena leader Prabhu cancels Wharton visit after Modi snub". India Today. Zee News. 2013-03-04. Retrieved 2013-03-04.
  12. ↑ "Columnist Sadanand Dhume opts out of Wharton forum". Business Standard. 2013-03-05. Retrieved 2013-03-08.
  13. ↑ "Indian-American pulls out of WIEF". The Pioneer. 14 March 2013. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
  14. ↑ "Wharton-Modi controversy unfortunate and disrespectful: USIBC". Hindustan Times. 2013-03-04. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
  15. ↑ Mini Joseph Tejaswi (2013-03-15). "Mohandas Pai says no to Wharton". The Times of India. Retrieved 2013-03-15.
  16. ↑ 'Disappointing that Wharton rescinded its invite to Narendra Modi': US lawmaker. March 6, 2013
  17. ↑ Wharton should have heard Narendra Modi: Shashi Tharoor
  18. ↑ The Hijacking of Wharton
  19. ↑ "Adani Group Withdraws Wharton Event Sponsorship". Outlook. 2013-03-04. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
  20. ↑ "After Adani Group, Viacom18's Colors pulls out of Wharton forum as a sponsor". IBNLive. 2013-03-04. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
  21. ↑ "Hexaware Tech withdraws sponsorship for Wharton event". The Hindu Business Line. 2013-03-06. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
  22. ↑ "Arvind Kejriwal not a replacement for Narendra Modi at Wharton: Sources". NDTV. 2013-03-05. Retrieved 2013-03-05.
  23. ↑ Wharton forum's decision to disinvite Narendra Modi was wrong: Arvind Kejriwal
  24. ↑ Organisers bar media from covering Wharton India meet
  25. ↑ Free speech group to protest Wharton India Economic Forum decision
  26. ↑ Debate over Modi and free speech at Penn continues, By ERICH KESSEL, 04/17/13
  27. ↑ A Conversation With: Prof. Aseem R. Shukla, University of Pennsylvania, NIHARIKA MANDHANA, MARCH 12, 2013
  28. ↑ Debating the Right: Narendra Modi and Penn, A panel hosted by The Penn Government and Politics Association, Apr 20, 2013
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