Top US leaders to attend two-day summit on global economy in post-COVID era

Washington: The India Ideas Summit 2021, set to take place during a key post-pandemic inflection point in the global economy, will focus on the theme ‘Recovery to Resurgence’ and bring high-profile leaders from both the US and India, the event organisers said. Special US Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, India’s Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of State of Electronics & Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar are some of the top speakers at the two-day conference being organised by the US India Business Council (USIBC). The focus of the summit is going to be from ‘recovery to resurgence’. It reflects the importance of the global economic recovery and the emerging health issues and technology trends, USIBC president Nisha Desai Biswal told PTI. The summit will be held on October 6 and 7. As the world starts to visualise a post-pandemic world, USIBC sees both the countries as leaders in innovation — from vaccine partnership to advancement in the strategic digital relationship. India’s Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu is among the other key speakers in addition to a number of critical US government voices, at the centre of policy-making within both the executive and legislative branches. “The themes that we are going to be highlighting over the two-day summit include looking at what it takes to create a manufacturing economy, bringing together government and corporate leaders to really dive into what both the United States and India can be and should be doing to build a greater innovation and more attractive manufacturing climate, as we start thinking about de-risking and diversifying supply chains”, he said. “We know that if we want to bring supply chains out of an overreliance in any one country, then we have to make sure that we are creating the right ecosystem for those supply chains to go into. We see a trend towards much more regionalisation of the supply chain. We will certainly be diving deep into that”, the official said. Biswal said the challenges and opportunities represented by the collaboration on combating climate change are going to be another key area of focus. “Coming out of or being in the midst of the COVID pandemic, we will certainly have a focus on health, and both on the emerging health technology that we are seeing, but also reflection on the pandemic challenges and the ways in which our two countries are working on that. “As we look at emerging technology and kind of our digital future, we will be having discussions on the kind of the future of technology looking at not just 5G, but 6G, quantum communications and how the future technology collaboration between our two countries and the role of the private sector in that space,” she added. In its latest newsletter to USIBC members early this week, Biswal had said this year’s summit would be a mix of reflection and prediction, helping guide the attendees as to what they might expect from the global trade, strategic and economic scene in the coming months. “As with past practice, we will announce two USIBC Annual Global Leadership awardees at the Summit — both transformational leaders in their own right — and offer a unique honour this year. The USIBC Humanitarian Award, acknowledging steadfast commitment and concern for the citizens of our two great democracies”, she said.