Fall 2016 Visiting Fellow
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?