As global economists and business and political leaders gear up for the Emerging Markets Forum’s meeting in India starting June 23, IDFC CEO Rajiv Lall — one of the key people responsible for bringing the forum to India — discusses with Gunjan Pradhan Sinha issues pertinent to India’s emergence in an interview with The Indian Express

What is the Emerging Markets Forum? What made the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and IDFC bring it to India?

Emerging Markets Forum is a network of thought leaders, opinion makers, policy formulators and business people who come together to discuss issues of global and national significance. It is mainly a network of leading minds from emerging markets who create a platform for an open and informed debate focused on emerging markets. Usually the forum has four meetings in a year with one meeting focused on global markets including Latin America, Africa and Asia. So far we met in Jakarta in 2007, in Hanoi in 2008, and this year it is being held in Mumbai. The forum has emerged out of the Centennial Group based in Washington DC .

Does the theme of this meet take anything from the financial crisis around the world?

There are three distinct themes. One is the financial crisis where we are taking advantage of experience of a number of people to understand what the crisis means for emerging markets, for India and the lessons we can learn. The second theme is climate change and the challenge of energy independence and efficiency in the broader context of global climate change. Then there are a series of papers specifically focused on India.

... contd.