MUMBAI - 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.

The draft Conference Programme can be viewed at: www.csmworld.org/public/conf2004/CSM%20Conf-Draft%20Prog.pdf

CSM will also be launching "A Rough Guide to Finance" at the conference.

Centre for Social Markets

Centre for Social Markets

More from Centre for Social Markets