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. WIEF is one of the largest India-based economic and business conferences in the United States. 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
Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam, 11th President of India
P. Chidambaram, Home Affairs Minister and former Finance Minister of India
Henry Paulson, 74th United States Treasury Secretary and former CEO and chairman of Goldman Sachs Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Government of India Shashi Tharoor, Member of Indian Parliament and former Under Secretary General of the United Nations Praful Patel, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Government of India Sachin Pilot, Minister of State, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India Naveen Jindal, Member of Indian Parliament Kalpana Kochhar, Country Head India, International Monetary Fund
Industry
Anil Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group
Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and MD, Reliance Industries
Sunil Mittal, Founder, Chairman and Group CEO, Bharti Enterprises
N. R. Narayana Murthy, Non-Executive Chairman and Chief Mentor, Infosys
Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India and former CEO, Infosys Kushal Pal Singh, Chairman and CEO, DLF Rahul Bajaj, Chairman, Bajaj Group Adi Godrej, Chairman, Godrej Group Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairman & Managing Director, Biocon Limited
Finance
Jim Rogers, Financial Investor and Author
Deepak Parekh, Chairman, HDFC
Chanda Kochhar, CEO & MD, ICICI Bank Limited
George Soros, Chairman, Soros Fund Management and the Open Society Institute
Vikram Akula, CEO and Founder, SKS Microfinance
Media & Entertainment
Abhishek Bachchan, Actor, Bollywood
Anil Kapoor, Actor, Bollywood
Vidya Balan, Actress, Bollywood
Karan Johar, Indian Film Director, Producer, and TV celebrity
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Indian Filmmaker and Screenwriter
Rohan Sippy, Indian Film Director
Shankar Mahadevan, Indian Music Composer and Singer
Subhash Chandra, Chairman, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL)
Sports
Sunil Gavaskar, former Indian Cricketer
Vijay Amritraj, former Indian Tennis Player and Sports Commentator
Geet Sethi, Professional Billiards Player
Other
Dominic Barton, Global Managing Director, McKinsey & Company
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:
K.V. Kamath, Chairman, Infosys Limited
Ajay Piramal, Chairman, Piramal Enterprises Limited
Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank
Keki Mistry, Vice Chairman and CEO, HDFC Limited
Niranjan Hiranandani, Co-Founder and MD, Hiranandani Group
R Gopalakrishnan, Director, Tata Sons
Vinod Rai, Comptroller & Auditor General of India
Gunit Chadha, MD & CEO, Deutsche Bank India
Manish Kejriwal, ex-India Head, Temasek Holdings
17th WIEF, 2013
Keynote Speakers
Montek Singh Ahluwalia (via live videoconference) - Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission of India Arvind Kejriwal, Founder, Aam Aadmi Party Ron Somers - President, US-India Business Council Dilip Cherian - Consulting Partner, Perfect Relations (Moderator)
Milind Deora opted out for an unspecified reason.
Media and Entertainment Panelists
Javed Akhtar - Poet, Lyricist, and Scriptwriter
Shabana Azmi - Actress
Boman Irani - Actor
Aseem Chhabra - Freelance writer (Moderator) Sudhir Mishra - Director and screenwriter
Women's Empowerment Panelists
Lakshmi Pratury - Co-Host, TEDIndia
Shabana Azmi - Actress
Vrinda Grover - Lawyer, High Court India
Jaideep Bose - Editorial Director, Times of India Group (Moderator)