The immense potential that India offers to a cross-section of the New Zealand communities would come under focus at a meeting in Auckland this month.
The ‘New Zealand Indian Diaspora Convention’ organised by the New Zealand India Research Institute will be held on Saturday, July 26, 2014 at ‘Te Iringa’ Room (WG308) located at Sir Paul Reeves Building, AUT City Campus (Corner Mayoral Drive and Governor Titzroy Place, Auckland City).
Eminent speakers
AUT Business School is hosting the one-day Convention, which will commence at 10 am with an inaugural session. Former Governor General Rt Sir Anand Satyanand, Ethnic Affairs Minister Judith Collins, Indian High Commissioner Ravi Thapar, AUT Pro-Vice-Chancellor & Faculty of Business & Law Dean Professor Geoff Perry and NZIRI Director and Associate Director (respectively) Professor Sekhar Bandyopadhyay and Professor Edwina Pio will be among the speakers at this session.
Effective platform
Professor Bandyopadhyay said that the Convention will be an effective platform to engage in a dialogue with academic, business and community leaders.
“Delegates attending the event will have the benefit of participating in three panel sessions on Academic, Business and Community, each of which will feature four speakers and a moderator. We hope that the discussions will be useful,” he said.
Academic Panel
The Academic Panel will comprise Richard Bedford, Professor Edwina Pio (AUT), Jacqueline Leckie (Otago University) and Todd Nachowitz (Waikato University) as speakers and Dr Bandyopadhyay as the Moderator.
Business Panel
‘Indian Business in New Zealand and doing business with India’ will be the theme of the Business Panel, with Sunil Kaushal (ANZ Bank), Wenceslaus Anthony (NZIRI Advisory Board Member), Vinod Kumar (Magsons Hardware Mitre 10 Mega) and Editor of this newspaper as speakers. Mina Patel (AUT) will be the moderator.
Community Panel
The Community Panel will discuss ‘Opportunities and Challenges for Indians in New Zealand’ with Ashok Darji (Auckland Indian Association), Pushpa Wood (Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin), Rajinder Bedi (Auckland Sikh Society), Naena Chhima (Wellington Indian Association Mahila Samaj) and Ann Degia-Pala (EthNix Links & Advocacy Network) as speakers. Smitha Singh will moderate this Session.
