Nirmala Sitharaman, Ravi Shankar Prasad to speak at Times Network’s India Economic Conclave

MUMBAI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das and International Monetary Fund chief economist Gita Gopinath are among the stellar speakers at the Times Network’s India Economic Conclave scheduled in Mumbai on December 16 and 17.
The event with the theme “$5 Trillion – Aspiration to Action” will see discussions on actionable strategies that will enable India to achieve this economic milestone by 2024-25.

Over the years, IEC has been instrumental in addressing critical issues related to the country’s economy. As a platform, it has brought together the sharpest minds in business, governance and policymaking and has become the hallmark of economic thought leadership.

“Times Network is invested in India’s growth story and is championing India’s $5 trillion agenda. At a time when people have been talking about gloom and doom, we hold on to this agenda as something that is realisable and something that we should not leave hope of,” said MK Anand, MD and CEO of Times Network.

Anand said that as leaders in the news media, which probably shapes the opinions of 70-80% of all key decisionmakers in the country through Times Now, ET Now and Mirror Now, it is the network’s responsibility to ensure that the spirit doesn’t flag.

“We should not take our eyes off from the goal of taking this country to its real deserved status among global economies. At IEC 2019, we will attempt to discuss ideas and policies to convert the ‘$5 Trillion – Aspiration to Action,’” he added.

In its first term, the Narendra Modi government had tackled the problem of bad loans in the banking sector, brought in the goods and services tax and put in place a bankruptcy law as it set about changing the orbit of the Indian economy.

With GDP growth dipping below 5%, the Modi government faces the challenge of unleashing a new set of reforms to spur consumption and drive demand. The IEC is a platform to exchange ideas that could lead to effective next-generation reforms.

The line-up of speakers includes commerce minister Piyush Goyal, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan, women and child development minister Smriti Irani, Telangana IT minister KT Rama Rao, scholar Nassim Nicholas Taleb and former RBI governor D Subbarao.

Among the other participants are State Bank of India chairman Rajnish Kumar, Kotak Mahindra Bank MD Uday Kotak, Indian yogi and author Sadhguru, Sequoia Capital MD Rajan Anandan, Vedanta Resources chairman Anil Agarwal, HDFC vice chairman Keki Mistry, Gopichand Hinduja, co-chairman of Hinduja Group, Ashok Hinduja - chairman, Hinduja Group of Companies (India) and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson.