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COLETTE MATHUR - the former director of the World Economic Forum - has come a long way since 1985 when the first India Economic Summit was held in Davos. "Things were very different in those days, when there was hardly any interest in India and we had to put in a lot of efforts to find participants. And now there is such a boom in interest, that everyone wants to join in as a partner of the prestigious India conference," says Ms Mathur who has just retired but still remains a senior adviser to the managing board for India and South Asia at WEF. |
And even as she sees the global interest in India growing in the years ahead, she has chosen to remain associated with the India story even post-retirement from WEF. "As co-president of the prestigious EuroIndia Centre, I have the task of realising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's vision of bringing Europe and India closer together. While there's a lot of global interest in the economic boom in India, many European countries are still a bit timid in their approach. At EuroIndia Centre, we are trying to bring India and various European nations together through a focus on cities. We feel that European cities have a lot to share with Indian ones in terms of experiences with water management, infrastructure development, waste management, transport, restoration of heritage etc. So as a think tank, we're organising conferences that are bringing experts from various Indian and European cities on the same platform, to help shape future growth. In this, we have found various corporates both in India and Europe - who are willing to support us," Mrs. Mathur - whose late husband was an Indian IAS officer - said.
Her passion and love for India, of course, go well beyond just visiting her husband's extended family from her home in Switzerland. "My son Trivan and me have together formed a company called India Invest through which we want to make investments in India. We want to help Indian companies acquire European companies and European companies to understand India," she says. And that's not all - she's also writing a book on India which she hopes will help her grandchildren to understand the country.
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