On 22 September, the Indo-German Centre for Business Excellence held its second Annual Conference on the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management campus with close to one hundred attendees. The Centre’s members, business representatives, members of the Consular Corps, researchers, journalists, and students participated.
Under the theme Partners in a changing world: Exploring business opportunities for India and Germany, participants discussed different topics related to the three thematic streams of this year’s event:
- Towards a sustainable and green future
- Innovation through startups and entrepreneurship
- Digital transformation and digital finance
The Indian Ambassador to Germany, H.E. Parvathaneni Harish, held the keynote address. In his speech, Mr. Harish emphasized how both countries could learn and benefit from each other. Whereas India is ahead in areas such as digitalization, biometric identification, and online payments, his country could benefit from Germany’s mid-sized companies (“Mittelstand”) to support the “Make in India” programme. Harish said. Prof. Hermann Simon (Founder and Honorary Chairman, Simon-Kucher) corroborated his comments during one of the panels discussing potential cooperation between German mid-sized companies and Indian startups. Simon pointed out that German “Hidden Champions” have little presence in India compared to, for example, China.
In addition to six panel discussions, there was ample time for interaction and networking, including a get-together in Frankfurt School’s exclusive Campus Lounge with a view over the city’s skyline, where participants could enjoy a drink and innovative Indo-German fusion cuisine. FrankfurtRheinMain, Partex NV, and ICICI Bank supported the conference as sponsors.
Next year’s Annual Conference will take place on 13 October 2023 on the campus of Mahindra University in Hyderabad.
