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Finance Conclave 2010

The New Normal - The business landscape has changed fundamentally. Tomorrow’s environment will be different, but no less rich in possibilities for those who are prepared.

It is evident that the current economic downturn is fundamentally different from the recessions of the past decades. What we are experiencing is not merely another turn of the business cycle, but a restructuring of the economic order.

For some, short-term survival is the only agenda. Others are trying to peer through the haze, thinking about how to position themselves once the dust has settled and things return to normal. The question is “What will the normal look like?”. While no one can say how long the crisis will last, what we find on the other side will not look like the normal of recent years. The new normal will be shaped by a confluence of powerful forces—some arising directly from the financial crisis and some that were at work long before it began.

Leverage - the Private Equity and Venture Capital Club of IIMA, Beta – the Finance Club of IIMA and the Centre of Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship [CIIE] bring to you the IIMA Finance Conclave 2010, where we take a closer look at these questions and their implications through focus on the central theme – “Challenging the New Normal”

This Conference will bring together professionals from the PE/VC industry, investment banks, business houses, students, alumni and academicians to discuss recent trends and emerging issues in the industry, the challenges and opportunities they present and the way ahead. It will also act as a forum for budding entrepreneurs to interact with investors and preeminent business leaders.

The conclave promises to enrich the participants with deep musings and intellectual stimulation on all dimensions of the theme over the two days through speaker sessions, panel discussion and workshops. A key highlight of the event will be the B-Plan showcase which will present a unique opportunity for budding entrepreneurs to interact with the VC and PE firms.

 

Day 1: The Elusive 10% Mark

India and China are increasingly being looked at as the emerging economic engines of the world. China had been recording double-digit % growth in GDP while India was close to catching up with the Chinese benchmark for about half a decade before the roller-coaster ride in the two nations was hit by an all-engulfing global economic meltdown. The titans however are set to resume their extra-ordinary levels of growth post crisis. Would the 10% mark continue to elude India?

On the inaugural day of the conference, professionals with vast industry experience get together to discuss how, and if, India can reach the magic figure of 10% growth. Greater availability of capital combined with ingenious financial engineering could provide the engine for that kind of growth. Doing that, while avoiding a catastrophe that we witnessed elsewhere in the developed world would be a major challenge. A greater alignment of incentives of corporate managers with long term growth, rather than short term gains, would be necessary, as the world has learned the hard way in the recent crisis. The role of inorganic growth in complimenting organic growth cannot be overlooked either. The issues are complex and critical.

The discussion will also look at the upcoming sectors that offer the best growth opportunities. The blazing growth of IT services industry that played a major role in establishing Indian Inc worldwide is now stabilizing. Search is on for the next big driver of growth. Real estate could be the answer, with India’s demographic advantage unravelling itself. Infrastructure, so long ignored, could usher India onto a newer growth trajectory. Underdeveloped Education and Healthcare sectors could generate huge returns for investors while also increasing productivity of the available human resource pool. Besides these, are there other sectors that have not caught notice but carry a huge promise?

A discussion on these issues would help participants get a realistic view on whether we can get any closer to the elusive 10% mark.


Day 2: New world order – a new regime of regulations

World would not be the same again. Failure of regulations and implementing agencies is being blamed as one of the core reasons for present economic crisis and its magnitude. In response, all over the world regulators are gearing up to formulate new practices to avert any such crisis in future. As the crisis had its roots in financial sector, the players here may expect more stringent regulations. Early signes are already on the horizon. Capital adequacy requirement for banks is all set for a major overhaul and greater regulation of financial institutes is being sought.

Major world economies have also joined forces and there is a scope for globalisation of regulation as different regulators across countries increase their cooperation. Furthermore there has been a significant increase in pressure on tax havens to adopt international codes of conduct and information-sharing. There will also be pressure to curb insane trade unbalances globally and countries like China would find it more and more difficult to keep their currency highly undervalued.

These winds of change will certainly have profound impacts on India, the second fastest growing major economy of world. The impacts of changing regulatory landscape on competitiveness of Indian economy need to be analysed and that is the main focus of second day of the conference.

New flurry of consolidation activity

As we come out of crisis, there exists a possibility of heightened activity of industry consolidation. It would be interesting to envision which sectors will observe more mergers and acquisitions? What will be the role of private equity in that? Will there be enough build-up of business confidence? How will the role of new FDI norms, if any? The conference will try to fetch answers of these tricky questions from belly of future. The conference would establish a platform for discussion over expert opinions from different sectors of financial industry.

Inclusive growth

As a vast majority of our population remain impoverished, the benefits of development remain restricted. If one lane of society proceeds by leaps-and-bound and other remain stagnated it will create the agar-agar medium for spreading of social unrest. If India has to become a major world power in true sense, all strata of society has to be strengthened in as many ways as possible – socially, politically, and economically. The burden of economic upliftment cannot only be left to the government and corporate world must do it bit. It need not be looked from lenses of CSR, instead integration with each facet of society may be part of larger corporate strategy.
In this light, the conference will try to uncover ways in which corporates can contribute to inclusive growth, its importance from strategic point of view, and, role of micro finance and micro-enterprise in total upliftment.