23 May 2011

District 7010 Conference Speaker

 
I will be one of the speakers at this year's Rotary District 7010 Fall conference on Lake Rousseau, in the Muskoka region of northern Ontario and will be sharing my experience as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar with all Rotarians who are able to join in the weekend!

03 May 2011

High Commission of India

Attended a luncheon, hosted by the High Commission of India in Sinagpore, which featured a panel discussion, lunch and keynote on the macro economic situation in India.

Here are some highlights from the talk:

-The India 'story' is relatively recent (especially over the last 5 years on the global scene)
-A rising economy like India is successful because of a building 'trust' factor which has been nurtured
-Since 2005, India experienced 3 consecutive years of growth at over 90% whereas China has experienced growth at around 10% for many more years
-Independence in 1947 started India out with 3.5% growth rate, which picked up in 1980's to 5.2%, break with oil crisis in 91-93 but 1994 onwards has been above 7% GDP
-Population of Indian, of working class (age 20-60) will rise dramatically but is also the demographic that will continue to save and invest, which in turn is another driver for growth
-Big worry is the recent inflation story of all emerging economies partly as a result of a global shift from single economies and central banks creating monies to now lots of central banks and injecting into the system
-Civic engagement is extremely high in India
-Population growth rate is 1.4%
-One challenge pertaining to world food shortage is India's wastage of food based on lack of appropriate storage space and inefficient means of dispersing food
-India has been majorly growing since 2005 whereas China has been growing for 20 years already