India Business Summit Marks 15th Year With Georgia Tech

An Atlanta summit focused on India as a budding investment destination for U.S. firms and showcasing its growth in innovation and technology is marking 15 years in 2025.

The USA-India Business Summit on Feb. 12-13 is organized by Ani Agnihotri in partnership with the Center for International Business Education and Research at Georgia Tech, or GT-CIBER, which is also celebrating its 30th year hosting its own Global Business Forum, now conjoined with UIBS. See info about the summit here or register here

“UIBS and GT CIBER have been working all these years to bring distinct events and conferences on a wide range of topics and excellent speakers to grow international business in the area specifically between India and Georgia. To our knowledge, there has not been any other such consistent effort going on in the country,” Mr. Agnihotri said.

Georgia Tech in November hosted an awards ceremony and preview of the 15th annual summit, highlighting the sponsors, speakers and backers that have led to the conference’s consistency over the years, blending academic inquiry with insight from cross-border business practitioners.

GT-CIBER, one of 16 federally funded centers focused on U.S. international competitiveness, has developed particular expertise on India in large part thanks to the conferences and the relationships developed through them, said John McIntyre, executive director.

“We really go back in terms of doing conferences. In 1992, we covered the rise of India as a global power, which is a phenomenon that has occurred over the last 20 years, give or take, but India launched itself on that pathway, perhaps before,” Dr. McIntyre said.

Vice Provost Bernard Kippelen, like Mr. McIntyre a France native, said it was fitting that the celebratory reception was occurring on the tail end of International Education Week, when U.S. universities focus on the value of free-flowing scholarship across national borders and the enrichment that comes with providing opportunities to study abroad.

“Scholarship should transcend borders. It should foster academic freedom, open inquiry, dialog, what Vannevar Bush, the founder of the National Science Foundation used to call the ‘endless frontier,’” Dr. Kippelen said. “Universities are integral to the global network of scientific inquiry, contributing to and expanding shared knowledge, but also fueling economic activities and future growth and innovation.”

He added that universities play a vital role in enhancing local culture, and in Atlanta’s case, helping put it on the map for investors looking for technologically skilled workers.

While institutions like MIT and Stanford and places like Boston or Silicon Valley are customarily front of mind, Georgia Tech and Atlanta are increasingly in the global conversation, and the institute has become a tool in the investment recruitment process.

“They say, it’s the first time I’ve heard about Georgia Tech, but I’ve been in meetings all day long, and I haven’t been a single meeting where Georgia Tech was not mentioned,” Dr. Kippelen said.

Already, India is the largest source of foreign students for Georgia Tech, but an inventory of the university’s international partnerships persuaded Dr. Kippelen that more could be done with the nation of 1.4 billion people. Over two trips in 2024 to Delhi and Mumbai, then to Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai, a plan is starting to emerge that Dr. Kippelen said will soon transform into new initiatives.

Indian Consul General Ramesh Babu Lakshmanan outlined India’s ambition to grow its economy to $7 trillion by 2030, becoming the third largest in the world as it grows at a 7-8 percent clip in a time of stagnation in many parts of the world. About 200 of the U.S. Fortune 500, he said, have innovation centers or major business operations in India, providing a foundation for even more economic partnership.

He noted that the about 100,000 startups have been registered in India in the last four years, with more than 100 of them becoming “unicorns” — private companies with valuations of more than $1 billion.

“That’s a big thing in the innovation space, especially attracting a young talent pool, so that is another indicator that requires looking at India seriously as it comes into the demographic advantage,” the consul general said.

Mr. Agnihotri doled out awards at the outset of the event to recognize those whose work and patronage have enabled the conference to continue.

Emory University’s renowned marketing scholar and philanthropist Jagdish Sheth was given the UIBS lifetime award, along with Dr. McIntyre.

IT giant Infosys took home the USA-India Business Growth Award, accepted by Madhusudan Menon, a vice president for the company in Atlanta. The Georgia Department of Economic Development received the same — accepted by Mary Waters, chief administrative officer.

Paddy Sharma, a trustee on the board of Clayton State University who runs an educational nonprofit focused on boosting STEM instruction in the developing world, received the USA-India Education Collaboration Award.

Longtime sponsors Turkish Airlines and Tabla restaurant received the Business Excellence Award, while the“Friend of UIBS” award to Georgia Tech CIBER’s James R. Hoadley, Alex Warner at Forward Forsyth and Lalit Dhingra of Ensignis Digital.

The Distinguished Services Award award went to Stacey Key of the Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council.

Attendees to UIBS will also have free access to the below event at the Consulate General of India on Feb. 11, focusing on Georgia Tech’s efforts to launch a Hindi language program: