Sibal, Obama's top technology man to attend Pan-IIT summit

Kapil Sibal, India's minister for human resource development, Aneesh Chopra, America's chief technology officer, and Sam Pitroda, India's National Knowledge Commission chairman, will be the key speakers at the Pan-IIT Global Conference to be held in Chicago Oct 9-11.

About 3,000 IITians from around the world are expected to attend the annual gathering, organising committee conference chairman Ray Mehra told IANS in Toronto.

He said Kapil Sibal will open the conference while Chopra will be the keynote speaker at the gathering.

"Chopra's presence at the Pan-IIT conference will underline the strong commitment of the Obama administration for nurturing innovation as the engine of growth for the US and indeed the global economy," Mehra said.

He said the theme of this year's conference is 'Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Global Economy'.

Jim Owens, chairman and CEO of Caterpillar; Raghuram Rajan, Eric J. Gleacher distinguished service professor of finance at the University of Chicago and former chief economist of the IMF; and Prith Banerjee, senior vice president (R&D) at Hewlett Packard Labs, will be other key speakers.

In the past, the conference has been addressed by Microsoft chief Bill Gates, former GE CEO Jack Welch, current US National Economic Council chairman Larry Summers, current GE CEO Jeffery Immelt and Hillary Clinton.

Since its inception in 2003, the Pan-IIT annual conference has become one of the leading technology summits for executives looking to build partnerships with leaders in the world of advanced technology, Mehra said.

"The 2009 conference will once again bring together the world's top public and private sector technology leaders to forge new initiatives in a wide range of advanced technologies," Mehra said.

He said the conference offers extensive opportunities for attendees to network with leaders from industry and academia in diverse areas such as manufacturing, clean energy, healthcare and nano-technology.

For those looking for capital and resources, the conference will also feature the Entreneurship Networking Zone with booths for venture capitalists.

There are estimated to be 35,000 IITians in the US alone.