Impressions from the 2019 meeting:
Co-hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Horasis convened its annual Horasis India Meeting on 22 June. The Horasis meeting was held virtually using its new ground-breaking digital conferencing platform, gathering 400 of the most senior members of the Horasis Visions Community to jointly inspire India’s future. Download the programme and report.
 |
 |
| V.K. Singh, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, India | Minister Piyush Goyal speaking about how to open India again for business |
The confirmed cases from Covid-19 continue to rise in India and elsewhere, creating dire economic and political challenges. At this critical moment, the Horasis India Meeting took an in depth look at both the short-term and longer-term impact on the Indian economy. Delegates at the Horasis India Meeting asked: Which economic sectors are most hit? How does the government combat the expected downturn in India, and with respect to its overseas activities?
|
|
| Axel Threlfall, Editor-at-Large, Reuters, UK, chairing the plenary Deepening India’s Transformation |
During this first virtual Horasis meeting, delegates received high-level briefings from Ministers of the Government of India, Chief Ministers of Indian States and some of India’s best-known business leaders. Delegates had the opportunity to interact with them to jointly develop solutions for dealing with the current crisis to help shape a durable and resilient economic system for India’s and the world’s post-Covid future.
|
|
| Special Address by Armen Sarkissian, President of Armenia, chaired by Frank-Jürgen Richter |
Indian Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal noted how he envisages the future of railways as a basic infrastructure and the need to extend its performance post-COVID. ‘The Indian government is working with its international partners to benefit from the the might of India’s commercial, technological and scientific capabilities so as to make them available in the international battle against the Covid-19 virus and its many ramifications,’ he added. In a similar vein V.K. Singh, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, explained that the Government of India will mitigate the effects of the lock-down. He also highlighted India’s increasing partnership with Africa in a virtual panel with Ibrahima Guimba-Saidou, Minister and Special Advisor to the President of Niger and Lucia Lipumbu, Minister of Industrialization and Trade, Namibia.
|
|
| Brainstorming session with CII |
In the future, as T V Narendran, President-Designate, CII; CEO & Managing Director, Tata Steel Limited noted, India Inc will engage more fully with other nations, forging stronger regional alliances as well as helping to develop its IT, AgriTech, and healthcare delivery of pharmaceuticals and vaccines – sectors in which it already has a strong global presence.
Amongst the many foreign dignitaries who spoke at the meeting Armenian President Armen Sarkissian’s views attracted particular attention as he called for a fundamental revitalization of global governance. ‘Post-Covid global challenges are increasingly connected, but multilateral responses are growing more fragmented,’ he said. ‘We need more global dialogue. And we need to rule globally yet keep local laws local,’ he concluded.
The 12th Horasis India Meeting, even though virtual, presented vigorous discussions for all to learn about the future positioning to redevelop global growth and equity for all. In the closing Plenary Sunil Mehta, Chairman, YES Bank, India noted the difficulties of financial liquidity that was disturbed by Covid, but he expected that several economic sectors would return to viability in the near term, and which would generally be prepared for the next ‘black swan’ event. Dilip Piramal, Chairman, VIP Industries, India noted how many industries globally were at risk of bankruptcy further supporting Mr Mehta that firms need to manage liquidity: once out of Covid the future looks brighter. Prakash Hinduja, Chairman Europe, Hinduja Group, added that better health in India and globally will engage commerce, and India will recommence its growth and development pattern. Frank G. Wisner, Under Secretary of State (ret.), USA noted how the relationship between the US and India is one of convergence, but it depends on patient close attention to geopolitical stressors.
|
|
| Horasis Panel on Bollywood, with Rajshri Desphande, Actor and Activist; Siddharth Roy Kapur, Founder, Roy Kapur Films; Prasoon Joshi, Chairperson, Central Board of Film Certification; Qaran Mehta, Artist; Swaneet Singh, CEO, Mzaalo; Nitesh Tiwari, Film Director; Priya Samant, Director, Sequoia Applied Technologies |
The co-chairs were:
 |
Mukesh Aghi, President and CEO, US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, USA |
 |
Binod K. Chaudhary, President, Chaudhary Group, Nepal |
 |
Ashish Chauhan, Chief Executive Officer, Bombay Stock Exchange, India |
 |
Tejpreet S. Chopra, President & Chief Executive Officer, BLP Group, India |
 |
Priyanshi Choubey, Co-Founder, InstaCar, India |
 |
Dinesh Dhamija, Chairman, Copper Beech Group, United Kingdom |
 |
Kris Gopalakrishnan, Chairman, Axilor Ventures, India |
 |
Prakash Hinduja, Chairman Europe, Hinduja Group, Switzerland |
 |
Dinesh K, Co-founder, Infosys, India |
 |
Asha Jadeja, Trustee, Motwani Jadeja Family Foundation, USA |
 |
Hemant Kanoria, Chairman, Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited, India |
 |
Rajive Kaul, Past President AIMA; Chairman, Nicco Group, India |
 |
Sanjay Kirloskar, Chairman, Kirloskar Brothers Ltd; President, AIMA, India |
 |
Hank McKinnell, Chairman, Moody’s, USA |
 |
Sunil Mehta, Chairman, YES Bank, India |
 |
Rekha M. Menon, Chairman and Senior Managing Director India, Accenture, India |
 |
Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, India |
 |
Vineet Mittal, Chairman, Avaada Energy, India |
 |
R Mukundan, Managing Director, Tata Chemicals, India |
 |
Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman, Hero Corporate Services, India |
 |
Nasser Munjee, Chairman, Development Credit Bank, India |
 |
Rajan Navani, Vice Chairman, Jetline Group of Companies, India |
 |
Vineet Nayar, Co-founder, Sampark Foundation, India |
 |
Harshvardhan Neotia, Chairman, Ambuja Neotia Group, India |
 |
Dilip Piramal, Chairman, VIP Industries, India |
 |
Preetha Reddy, Vice Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals, India |
 |
C K Ranganathan, Founder and Chairman, CavinKare, India |
 |
Murat Seitnepesov, Chairman, Integral Pretoleum, Switzerland |
 |
Anish Shah, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer designate, Mahindra Group, India |
 |
Harsh Pati Singhania, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, JK Paper, India |
 |
Gunjan Sinha, Chairman, MetricStream, USA |
 |
Sumant Sinha, Founder and Chairman, ReNew Power Ventures, India |
 |
Ron Somers, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, India First Group, USA |
 |
Deborah Wince-Smith, President, United States Council on Competitiveness, USA |
 |
Frank G. Wisner, Under Secretary of State (ret.), USA |
Introduced 12 years ago, the Horasis India Meeting has become the foremost annual meeting of Indian business leaders and their global counterparts. With this meeting, Horasis offers business and government to discuss a wide range of issues related to the Indian economy. The location of the meeting rotates annually, and has been held in Munich (2009), Madrid (2010), Naples (2011), Antwerp (2012), Belfast (2013), Liverpool (2014), Interlaken (2015), Cascais (2016), Interlaken (2017), Malaga (2018) and Segovia (2019).
Horasis – a global visions community committed to inspiring our future – provides a unique platform for companies from emerging and developed markets to globalize their organisations. In addition to the Horasis India Meeting, Horasis hosts the annual Horasis Global Meeting, Horasis China Meeting, Horasis Asia Meeting, as well as the annual gatherings of the Horasis Visionary Circle.
Co-host:
 |
Spain is open to foreign investments and the country has also invested a lot in India.
Reyes Maroto, Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Spain
As a sportsman, it feels immense pride to talk about the transformational power of Youth & Sports to economic development.
Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, Minister of Sports & Youth Affairs, Government of Punjab, India
Maharashtra a hot-bed for entrepreneurship and innovation.
Vishal Chordia, Minister of State, State of Maharashtra, India
India must more strongly engage with the world’s nations and especially with Spain with whom we have a very long history of trade and exchanges.
Sanjay Vema, Indian Ambassador to Spain
The Segovia summit is also a great opportunity to strengthen the bonds of cooperation between India and the rest of the world and, especially, with Spain.
Salvador Carmona, Rector of IE University, Spain
The states of India are competing against each other and India is still a young country opening doors to more economic development and inclusive growth while avoiding similar mistakes of the past.
TV Narendran, CEO & Managing Director, Tata Steel Limited, India
If India has to grow, critical skills have to be developed that create jobs.
Sanjay Kirloskar, Chairman, Kirloskar Brothers, India
The new government needs to deliver sustainable, international and domestic growth, especially on the international arena, India needs to step up. India is at a turning point.
Neena Gill, Member of the European Parliament, Belgium
India is a country deep-rooted in spiritualism.
Preetha Reddy, Vice Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals, India
Protectionism and Certainty are on the rise.
Akhil Bansal, Deputy CEO, KPMG India
While a storm cloud gathers over the global economy, India is in a better position than most and Government´s focus has to stay on securing its citizens and borders.
Frank G. Wisner, Under Secretary of State (ret.), USA