India is the fifth-largest economy in the world and one of the fastest-growing global markets, with a cohort of elite firms. A new study of more than 1,000 manufacturing firms across the country measures management and innovation and links them to growth outcomes. This study, funded by the King Center on Global Development and the Centre for Technology, Innovation and Economic Research (CTIER), explores how India can rapidly accelerate its economic growth by bringing the performance of its manufacturing sector up to the standards of its current high performers.

For our Speaker Series event, the King Center welcomes: Nicholas Bloom and Megha Patnaik, both Principal Investigators of the study; Rohini Chakravarthy, Managing Partner at NewBuild Venture Capital; and Naushad Forbes, co-chairperson of Forbes Marshall and past president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The panel will explore the past, present and future of the Indian economy, and outline specific factors that can be addressed to improve company, industry and national outcomes.

Schedule
4:00 PM–4:30 PM: Registration
4:30 PM–5:45 PM: Panel discussion with Nicholas Bloom, Rohini Chakravarthy, Naushad Forbes and Megha Patnaik, followed by Q&A moderated by Nicholas Bloom
5:45 PM–6:30 PM: Reception

About the Panelists

Nicholas Bloom is the William Eberle Professor of Economics at Stanford University, a senior fellow of SIEPR, and the co-director of the productivity, innovation, and entrepreneurship program at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is a faculty affiliate at the King Center on Global Development. His research focuses on management practices and uncertainty. He previously worked at the UK Treasury and McKinsey & Company.

Rohini Chakravarthy is Managing Partner at NewBuild Venture Capital, where she invests in early-stage enterprise and supply chain software companies. AI is an important enabling trend for her thematic firm. Prior to founding NewBuild Venture Capital, Rohini was a venture capitalist at NEA, Intel Capital, and NGP Capital for over 20 years. Over her career, she has invested through several enterprise architectural shifts including wireless networking, big data, cloud computing and AI, and has been on the India investment committees at her firms.

Naushad Forbes is the Co-Chairperson of Forbes Marshall, India's leading process and energy efficiency company. He is Chair of the Ananta Aspen Centre and the  Centre for Technology, Innovation and Economic Research (CTIER). Forbes was an occasional Lecturer and Consulting Professor at Stanford University from 1987 to 2004. He has received his Bachelor's, Master's and PhD degrees from Stanford. Forbes is on the board of several educational institutions and public companies. Forbes has long been an active member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and was President of CII from 2016 to 2017.

Megha Patnaik is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics & Finance at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome and a research affiliate at the Centre for Economic Policy Research. Her research interests include management, entrepreneurship, machine learning and open-source big data. Previously, she was faculty at the Indian Statistical Institute and the Lead Economist at the Esya Centre and a data science consultant at Intuit, Britannia, and Ambit Capital.