Young Sri Lankan Global Shapers attend WEF India Economic Summit 2014 in Delhi

Tuesday, 11 November 2014 00:49 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

From 4 to 6 November in New Delhi, India, the World Economic Summit hosted the India Economic Summit 2014. Held under the theme ‘Public Sector, Private Sector Corporation for a New Beginning’, the Summit brought together business leaders, members of the public sector, media, as well as communities of The Forum including the Young Global Leaders and Global Shapers from across South Asia.

With sessions such as ‘Investing in a Cleaner India’ that featured Sri Lankan Minister for International Monetary Corporation Sarath Amunugama and ‘Inclusive Finance: From Paper to Action’ featuring the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Ajith Nivard Cabraal, there was a strong representation from the region, as well as Sri Lanka. The Global Shapers Community is an initiative of the World Economic Forum and is a network of hubs developed and led by young people who are exceptional in their potential, their achievements and their drive to make a contribution to their communities. The community now has over 356 hubs in over 150 countries with over 4,000 young people. Global Shapers are well represented in South Asia with 36 Hubs collectively in South Asia with two of those in Sri Lanka – the Colombo Hub and the Kandy Hub. For the Indian Economic Summit, Global Shapers from all over South Asia were invited to apply to be a part of the 40 Shapers that would be selected to attend and represent the community. From the Colombo Hub and Sri Lanka, Sharanya Sekaram and Anoka Abeyrathne were selected and flew to New Delhi to attend the Summit as well as a special Shapers program organised by the New Delhi Hub held prior to the commencement of the Summit on 3 November. There were joined by 40 other Shapers from across South Asia including the Dhaka Hub (Bangladesh), Kathmandu Hub (Nepal), Lahore Hub (Pakistan) as well various Hubs in India including Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kochin and Surat.

The Global Shapers were highly commended for the participation and engagement at the Summit by many participants and were given much prominence. The Global Shapers were in attendance at a special ‘Meet the Leader’ Session with Professor Klaus Schwab – Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, as well as numerous other prominent leaders such as David Aikman – Managing Director and Head of the New Champions at the Forum, N. Chandrababu Naidu – Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, and BhaskarPramanik – Chairman of Microsoft India and a special Shapers only meeting held at the BJP Head Office with National Spokesperson of the BJP – Meenakshi Lekhi. The Colombo Hub was founded in 2012 by Young Global Leader and Executive Director of the Kadirgamar Institute Asanga Abeygoonasekara. The Hub is now led by Curator Stephanie Siriwardhana and has 13 Shapers from various sectors. Colombo Shapers have had active participation in Forum events with Shaper Anushka Wijesinha attending the Annual Meeting of the New Champions held this September in Tianjin, China and Sharanya Sekaram attending the Global Shapers Community Annual Curators Meeting held this August in Geneva, Switzerland. This January, the Colombo Hub will also have Stephanie Siriwardhana attending the Annual Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland as one of 50 Shapers selected for the event. To find out more about the Colombo Hub and their projects please email them [email protected] and follow them on Twitter @ColomboShapers.