This year's conference will focus on the theme of Sustainable Finance & Investment with particular relevance to India. Although the world's 4th largest economy with the 2nd largest GDP of developing countries, India is home to over one quarter of the world's poor people and ranks 127 on the UN's Human Development Index behind China and Brazil. This represents a huge unmet need for investment in basic products, services and infrastructure. The Government of India has attached top priority to raising investment in India's growth and development with a cascade of recent investment summits.

FOCUS OF THE CONFERENCE : sustainable development, responsible enterprise, bottom of the pyramid

This conference complements these efforts but looks at the human, ethical and sustainable development dimensions of such investment. It will look at how different forms of finance and investment can promote both a sustainable development and a responsible enterprise agenda while attending to those at the bottom of the pyramid the hitherto neglected masses.

The conference will explore the 'what', the 'how' and the 'who benefits' dimensions of this subject. In today's world, it is not just the volume of investment but the quality of investment that matters. It is not just what financial institutions offer in terms of products, but how they do it, and the rules, norms and values that govern them that matters. And business can no longer focus on servicing elites, it must focus on how to service the masses.

CONNECTING WITH INTERNATIONAL GOALS

The conference will set the debate in the global context of the Millennium Development Goals and the Monterrey Consensus of the UN Conference on Finance for Development. Both recognise that overseas development assistance (ODA) and private investment (from domestic as well as foreign sources) must be more effectively employed to address poverty, employment generation and environmental rehabilitation. The conference will look beyond traditional sources such as ODA and FDI to equity investment, public development funds, social venture capital, micro-finance, etc. to explore how these can best respond to varying levels of need and different constituencies. It will consider how sectors such as SMEs can best be served, and the implications of calls for transparency and improved performance for firms, regulatory bodies and policymakers. It will look at how development disparities between states can be addressed through strategic investment interventions and how an 'investment-friendly' climate can be created that produces win-win-win outcomes.

CONFERENCE OBJECTIVES & OUTPUT

The objective will be to gain (i) a broader understanding of how finance and investment can promote the triple bottom line: people, planet and profit in India's development; in particular, how they can help realize lofty international targets such as the Millennium Development Goals; (ii) examine what changes to existing strategies might be needed; and (iii) seed a national platform that would take the discussion forward and focus on practical implementation. The conference output will be submitted to the United Nations' Review Conference of the MDGs in 2005.