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The government is planning a mega global investment conference this year that promises to bring together the who’s who of the global investment world.
The summit hopes to draw in the top 100 institutional investors and leaders from the top 100 Fortune 500 companies in a bid to showcase India’s economic potential, investment opportunities and facilitate global partnerships.
“This could be India’s own Davos,” said a senior official from a global consultancy firm. “A platform where global asset managers and private equity players come together to hear first-hand from the government, experience and learn how India has changed and the potential it offers.”
The government had floated a tender last month for a strategic knowledge partner to organise the day-long event that was originally scheduled to be held on March 4 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi. This has been rescheduled to later this year given time constraints ahead of the elections, said a person in the know.
An e-mail sent to India Invest, the investment promotion and facilitation agency of the government, did not get a response.
“The conference will be about relationship-building and giving global investors an audience directly with the policymakers,” said Siddharth Shah, Senior Partner, Khaitan & Co.
Shah believes investors stand to gain insight into the priority areas of the government, which can help define their India strategy more sharply. At the same time, the conference will give the government an opportunity to get feedback from investors to address issues on the policy and regulatory side.
While the government has invited and interacted with select global investors several times in the past, this is perhaps the first time an attempt is being made to bring investors together formally and on such a large scale, according to Shah. Last year, for instance, the Finance Ministry had invited a bunch of private equity and global LPs for informal discussions.
“The end objective would be to get investors to relook at India’s weightage in the emerging market basket. Any meaningful change could result in billions of dollars of additional flows in the form of foreign direct investment as well as portfolio flows,” said the official quoted above.
India currently has a weightage of 17.9 per cent in the MSCI EM Index, second behind China’s 25.4 per cent weightage.
Global funds have geographical and asset class weightages and allocate a small percentage of their overall AUM to emerging markets. A lot of these funds don’t want to invest in China or invest much less than earlier. They are faced with the choice of downsizing the EM basket or shifting their monies to the next most attractive market which is India, or doing a combination of both.
A host of foreign investors have recently signalled their intent to ramp up investment in India. Advent International, for instance, said it is looking to deploy $5-10 billion in India over the next five years.
The summit will bring together key stakeholders from the business, government and academic sectors, and identify strategic partners to conduct business and promote investment opportunities in the country, according to the tender.
“The conference is pitched at the highest level of private-public partnership, and would channelise efforts in priority sectors and investible opportunities for global investors. The conference is also aimed at strengthening India’s position as an attractive investment destination based on growth, opportunities, returns and ease of doing business,” the tender floated last month said.
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