Former Indian president speaks at Penn

While presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton will grace Penn's campus today, over the weekend a former President was strolling Locust Walk.

Former Indian President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was a keynote speaker at the 12th annual Wharton India Economic Forum which was held on Saturday morning at the Park Hyatt Philadelphia. The conference was attended by over 600 people, which included Penn students, alumni and professionals from various industries.

The mission of the conference was "to engage the world's attention, on India's enormous potential and the limitless possibilities the country offers," according to the WIEF Web site.

The conference had three keynote speakers and six panels on various topics such as: the retail boom in India; the development paradox with respect to India's underprivileged citizens; the expectations of the Indian diaspora; the growth in infrastructure; the growth of private equity; and the paradox in health care production and delivery in India.

Kalam, who was the President of India until July 2007, is credited for spearheading both India's space and nuclear missile programs. In addition, he has received doctorates from 30 universities and institutions.

At WIEF, the President gave a presentation on policies that need to be changed and the process that needs to be implemented to make India a developed nation by 2020.

The other two keynote presentations were by Tejpreet Chopra, President and CEO of General Electric, and Vinod Dham, the man known as the "Father of the Pentium Processor." Both gave presentations on investing in India and Chopra also previewed G.E.'s plans for the country in the near future, including production expansion and company consolidation.

Wharton and Engineering freshman Rishi Agrawal said he was "curious about what exactly is going on [with the Indian economy] and how India is going to change over the next 10 years." He added that the panel discussions were "informative and interacting with President Kalam was a once in a lifetime opportunity."

Tanya Khubchandani, College senior and Panel Director at WIEF, said: "the best part of this conference was the uniqueness of the panels. [They] diverged from the traditional Wharton core. We had health care, retail and development for the first time. The speakers were insightful and the conference was definitely a success."

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