Over 300 people from Canada, the US and India attended the IIT North American Regional conference held in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It was organized by the IIT Alumni in Canada. The theme of the conference was Knowledge and Skills: Creating Values beyond Borders. “This theme was chosen in recognition of India’s contribution to the knowledge-based economy and with respect to the increasing interconnectedness of nations, economies and individuals” said Rabiz Foda who was the Conference Chair.

The eighty-five year old Mayor of Mississauga, Her Worship Hazel McCallion energized the crowd with her riveting welcome address. She spoke highly of the contributions that the Indian Diaspora had made to her Mississauga and to Canada. She affirmed that talented and friendly people with excellent knowledge of English and the existence of a justice system made India a wonderful collaborator for businesses in Canada.

H.E.Shyamala Cowsik, the high commissioner for India to Canada, gave the key note address at the first plenary session. “The IITs have, by now, rightly become a global brand. They have come to represent both the vanguard and a symbol of India’s surging high-tech capabilities” said Cowsik.  In his talk at the plenary session, Rajat Gupta, Chairman of PAN IIT USA, emphasized the need to “give back” to India.

The conference had a variety of tracks based on the themes of Energy and the Environment, Globalization of Information Technology, Societal Contributions to a Knowledge Based Economy, Knowledge and Training - The Canada-India Imperative, Engineering Beyond the Present, From Concept to Product – How to Commercialize Technology, Engineering and Entrepreneurship and others.

Technical presentations gave an insight into the excellent work being done by the Indian Diaspora in North America. Etienne Mansard, Executive Director, Canadian Hydraulics Center presented his work on the modeling of disasters which may help plan for catastrophic disasters like Katrina and the Tsunami. Krishnan Iyer, from District Energy Solutions, spoke about creative energy alternatives and presented a case study on harnessing Geo-Thermal energy from Lake Ontario.

Dr. H. K. Kesavan, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Waterloo, spoke on the important topic of Socio-economic issues apropos to a knowledge based economy. The IIT Alumni of Canada presented an award to Dr. Kesavan in recognition of his contributions to Canada and India.

Rosemary McGowan, Assistant Professor, Wilfred Laurier University, spoke about the position of women in a knowledge economy while Pratima Ram, Country Head, USA, State Bank of India, spoke about the importance of cutting-edge technology for success in the banking sector. Padmashree Warrior, EVP and CTO Motorola, moderated a panel discussion presenting the initiatives of the Academic and Research Council. (PAARC)
 
Several CEOs, including Hari Pandey (ICICI Bank), Sudhakar Shenoy (IMC), Sankar Das Gupta (Electrovaya), P.S.Rana (HUDCO), and Lakshmanan (ORTECH) spoke about their experiences and gave some tips for doing business in India. “Manufacturing is the key to rural development. Anyone creating opportunities for manufacturing in India will really help with India’s development” said Sudhakar Shenoy, who has started a company, Indus Bridge, to focus on this issue. Rajesh Subramanium, President of FedEx Canada, talked about the importance of leadership in a competitive international context, while Surya Kant, President, North American Operations, TCS, told the TCS story.

At the banquet on Saturday, June 24, 2006, Tata Consulting Services presented a check to Operations Eyesight, a Canadian organization providing free eye-treatment to the underprivileged around the world.  Lata Pada and her contemporary dancers from Sampradaya Dance creations, fused elements of Bharatanatyam and modern dance in their two creative choreographies – the first dedicated to Lord Ganesha, and the second to cricket.  These creations added a sparkle to the conference.

The right mix of technical, business strategy and social entrepreneurship information,   important for development in India and North America, made for a content rich conference. IITians also cherished the opportunity to meet friends from their college days.  IITians are eagerly looking forward to the Global Conference to be held by PAN IIT India, on December 23-25 in Mumbai, India. For more information please check out http://www.iit.org.

|