Minorities in Business: What Can India Learn From U.S. Supplier Diversity Programs?

CASI Seminar

Fall 2016 Visiting Fellow

Naren Karunakaran
Senior Journalist, The Economic Times
Center for the Advanced Study of India
3600 Market Street, Suite 560 (5th floor)
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104

About the Speaker:
Naren Karunakaran is a Senior Journalist with The Economic Times, India's largest financial daily and has, in recent years, focused exclusively on corporate responsibility/sustainability issues including affirmative action in the private sector and philanthropy. His prime motive has been mainstreaming these issues and infusing a developmental hue to business journalism. Previously, he held key positions at The Indian Express, BusinessWorld, and Outlook Business. He was an Oxfam Fellow on Trade and Development and has attended a summer school at the LSE and a management development program at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.  

About the Lecture:
Dalits and other minorities in India are turning entrepreneurial but are weighed down by a host of issues that stem growth and the very conduct of their business. The US has had a tradition in supportive, public procurement policies. A section of large American corporations have also successfully diversified their supply chains by hand-holding minority businesses. The Indian government and Indian companies have begun examining supplier diversity seriously but are faced with challenges. Can India absorb and tweak some of the American best practices to its benefit?

[Event Flyer]

The Nand & Jeet Khemka Distinguished Lecture Series is an endowed public program of the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI). Launched in the 2007-08 academic year, and made possible through the generous support of the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, the series brings renowned India specialists to the Penn community and serves as a critical forum for analyzing and understanding the complex economic, political, social, and cultural changes that the world’s largest democracy is experiencing, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.
The Saluja Global Fellows Program has been made possible by the generous gift from Vishal Saluja ENG’89 W’89. CASI was excited to launch the program during the 2022–23 academic year, coinciding with the Center’s 30th Anniversary. This new program enables CASI to invite eminent leaders and rising experts on contemporary India preferably from the fields of media, culture, law, and contemporary history to be in residence for one to two weeks at CASI.