Wharton hosts India forum

"Why did the Indian chicken refuse to cross the Indian road?" The answer, according to Deepak Parekh, chairperson of India's Infrastructure Development Finance Co. Ltd.: "Because it did not want to get stuck in the potholes." Parekh's joke typified the sentiment of many India experts who believe the world's second-most populous country has yet to live up to its economic potential. Parekh, along with a host of other experts on the current state of India, spoke Friday at the third-annual Wharton India Economic Forum. More than 400 students, professors and professionals attended the day-long conference at the Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel in Center City. Keynote speakers included Rajat Gupta, managing director of McKinsey & Co. Inc. Worldwide, and former U.S. Ambassador to India Frank Wisner. A series of three panel discussions focused on financing India's economic growth, keeping pace with a digital world and managing risk in India. Second-year Wharton graduate student Manjunath Chanrasekhar served as the forum's chairperson and led the organizing committee for the conference. He said he hoped the forum allowed participants to walk away "with a better understanding of doing business in India." The country's current political instability was a hot topic at the conference. After a controversy-ridden election process, India's new coalition government was installed less than 24 hours before the conference began. Wisner noted that India's "seemingly chaotic politics? are not the defining features of modern India." He praised India's 50-year old democracy for providing "a powerful crucible for introducing change" and called on the new government to "strengthen capital markets and to give foreign and domestic private enterprises the policies and incentives they require." While Wisner focused primarily on how to improve India's economy, he only touched briefly on India's more fundamental problems such as the country's high illiteracy rate, overpopulation and widespread environmental pollution. Sam Pitroda, the chairperson of India's WorldTel Corp., proposed that a partial solution to these problems is to increase the number of telephones in Indian households. For India's 950 million people, only 15 million telephones are currently installed. He explained that there is a "connection between telecommunications and basic human needs" such as literacy. Pitroda himself used a telephone for the first time when he came to the United States at the age of 21. N.R. Narayana Murthy, the chairperson and founder of Infosys Technologies -- India's first software company -- spoke on the same panel as Pitroda and noted that India's main asset is a large pool of talented citizens. Wharton Vice Dean Richard Herring moderated the panel focusing on financing India's economic growth. India is "a country of wonderful possibilities," he concluded after listening to the panelists. "But somehow, it hasn't been harnessed yet to the dynamic growth that you would otherwise expect."