Six Indians participate in entrepreneur summit

As many as six business and social entrepreneurs from India have participated in the summit organised by US President Barack Obama to bridge the gap with the Muslim world, for which the White House pressed into service Indian-Americans from the Administration.

Prominent among the Indian-Americans who are actively working at the two-day summit to advance Obama's agenda of building bridges with the Muslim world, are Farah Pandith, Special Representative to Muslim Communities, and Rashid Hussain, Special Envoy to the Organisation for the Islamic Countries.

The two-day 'Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship' is being attended by some 250 successful entrepreneurs, most of whom are from the Muslim world.

Dr Rajiv Shah, Administrator of the US Agency for International Development, addressed the summit on "Access to Capital". Shah is the highest ranking Indian-American in the Administration.

Sonal Shah, Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, would moderate the panel discussion on social entrepreneurship today.

Pradeep Ramamurthy, Senior Director for Global Engagement, National Security Staff at White House, would moderate another session on "Culture of Entrepreneurship", which among others would be attended by Shane Tedjarati, president and CEO of Honeywell China and India.

Indian entrepreneurs invited to the summit are Irfan Alam, Shahnaz Husain, Ramachandran Kavli, Shaffi Mather, Shaheen Mistri and Sirajuddin Qureshi.

Irfan Alam is the founder chairman of Samman Foundation set up in Patna in 2007. He came out with an innovative idea of making cycle rickshaw pulling business a pleasurable ride for the commuters by redesigning the vehicle and transformed the business into a success.

Shahnaz Husain is the pioneer of herbal care in India and responsible for taking this traditional medicine system to every corner of the world.

Ramachandran Kavil is the Thomas Schmidheiny Chair Professor of Family Business and Wealth Management, Clinical Professor at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

Shaffi Mather is the founder of "1298 for Ambulance", a for-profit service with a sliding scale payment system that has revolutionised medical transport in Mumbai and Kerala.

Shaheen Mistri is the founder and managing director of Akanksha Foundation, a non-profit organisation that educates thousands of children in India and received the first Patricia Blunt Koldyke Fellowship in Social Entrepreneurship at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Finally, Sirajuddin Qureshi is a well-known businessman, national leader of the Quresh community and President of India Islamic Cultural Centre.