Examining U.S.-India Relations 2023: Naren Gupta Legacy Series Half-Day Conference
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On Thursday, June 15, Asia Society Northern California will host a half-day conference in Silicon Valley as part of its Naren Gupta Two-Year Legacy Program Series on the topic Examining U.S.-India Relations. Launched in April 2022, this series pays tribute to the legacy of our long-time and beloved Advisory Board Member, Naren Gupta (1948-2021) and will address the topics closest to his heart: business, entrepreneurship, and cultivating the next generation of innovative leaders, especially those hailing from India.
Our 2023 conference agenda will include sessions on the G20 hosted in New Delhi this September, U.S.-India geopolitics, Silicon Valley-India ties, and philanthropy.
CONFERENCE AGENDA
1:00 - 1:30 p.m. - Registration & Networking
1:30 - 2:10 p.m. - Session 1 - Keynote on U.S.-India Relations
- Rafiq Dossani, Director, RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy; Senior Economist, RAND Corporation | Professor of Policy Analysis; and Pardee RAND Graduate School
2:10 - 3:00 p.m. - Session 2: The U.S.-India Technology Corridor and India’s G20 Leadership
Panel Discussion:
- Marsha Vande Berg (Moderator), Independent Corporate Director
- Harshul Asnani, Sr. Vice President and Head of the Global Technology Business, Tech Mahindra
- Amit Kapoor, Honorary Chairman at Institute for Competitiveness, India; Visiting Scholar at Stanford University; President of India Council on Competitiveness; and Editor-in-Chief of Thinkers.
- Arun Kumar, Managing Partner, Celesta Capital
3:00 - 3:20 p.m. - Afternoon Tea Break & Networking
3:20 - 3:25 p.m. - Naren Gupta Tribute
- Sandeep Singhal, Senior Advisor at Nexus Venture Partners and Avaana Capital
3:25 - 4:10 p.m. - Session 3 - Silicon Valley-India Tech Ties
- Introduction by Anita Manwani, Founder and CEO, Carobar Business Solutions | President, TiE Silicon Valley
- Sumir Chadha, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, WestBridge Capital
- Manthan Shah, Senior Vice-President at WestBridge Capital
- Jonathan Siddharth, CEO and Co-Founder, Turing.com
4:10 - 4:55 p.m. - Session 4 - Philanthropy in India
Interactive Session:
- Dien Yuen, Assistant Professor of Philanthropy, The American College of Financial Services
- Closing Remarks by MR Rangaswami, Indiaspora Founder and Chairman of the Board | Co-Founder, Sand Hill Group
5:00 p.m. - Conference Concludes
Speakers

Harshul Asnani is the Sr. Vice President and Head of the Global Technology Business vertical at Tech Mahindra. Harshul orchestrates a high performing global team focused on helping Hitech and enterprise customers traverse the transformation journey. In his current role, he also provides executive sponsorship to strategic 360-degree relationships with hyperscalers and other technology partners. Prior to leading the Global Technology Business vertical, Harshul was responsible for Tech Mahindra’s Communications business in North America where he grew the organization’s footprint from a nascent stage to a multi-hundred-million-dollar business in the region.

Sumir Chadha, a co-founder and Managing Partner of WestBridge Capital, which is based out of Silicon Valley. Sumir has been investing in India for over two decades across private and public companies. He serves on many boards including Star Health, Aptus and Innovaccer. Earlier in his career, Sumir also co-founded and was Managing Director of Sequoia Capital India, and worked at Goldman Sachs and at McKinsey & Co.

Rafiq Dossani is director of the RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy, a senior economist at the RAND Corporation, and a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. He works on education, finance, regional development, security, trade, and technology issues. Previously, Dossani was director of Stanford University's Center for South Asia and a senior research scholar at Stanford University's Institute for International Studies.

Amit Kapoor, PhD, is Honorary Chairman at Institute for Competitiveness, India; Visiting Scholar at Stanford University; President of India Council on Competitiveness; and Editor-in-Chief of Thinkers. He is the chair for the Social Progress Imperative & Shared Value Initiative in India. He is an affiliate faculty for the Institute of Strategy and Competitiveness, Harvard Business School and an instructor with Harvard Business Publishing in the area of Strategy, Competitiveness and Business Models. In the last few years he has also delved significantly into understanding the democratic upheavals the world.

Arun Kumar is a managing partner at Celesta Capital, a leading deep technology venture fund. He formerly served as the Chairman and CEO of KPMG in India and was a member of the global board of directors of KPMG. Prior to that, he served in President Obama’s Administration as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and Director General of the U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service (USFCS). He was the Administration’s lead official to promote U.S. exports, foreign direct investment, and enhanced market access around the world. He is also the author of a book, The Global Trade Paradigm, published by HarperCollins.

Anita Manwani is the President of TiE Silicon Valley, a non-profit fostering global entrepreneurship. She is an industry expert in software businesses and in setting up offshore operations in India. She founded Carobar Business Solutions and served as Vice President and General Manager of Global Sourcing for Agilent Technologies. Additionally, Anita was Head of India Software Operations at Hewlett Packard and worked at NASA, leading the development of distributed computing systems.
Anita was one of 80 US women selected as a “Technology All Star” for the National Women of Color Conference for her executive leadership in technology in 2002. She also received the YWCA TWIN award for executive leadership and impact in 2003. She is deeply committed to empowering women and serves on the board of Girls for a Change.

MR Rangaswami is an entrepreneur, investor, corporate eco-strategy expert, community builder and philanthropist. In 1997, he co-founded Sand Hill Group, one of the earliest “angel” investment firms, and was profiled on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. He was named to the Forbes “Midas” list of investors and also recognized by CRN as one of the Top 25 Technology Executives. He also hosts the Enterprise Retreat for the top 100 leaders in technology. In 2007, MR founded the Corporate Eco Forum (CEF), an invitation-only membership organization for Global 500 companies that demonstrate a serious commitment to the environment as a business strategy.
In 2012, he founded Indiaspora, a nonprofit community of powerful global Indian leaders from diverse backgrounds and professions who are committed to inspiring the diaspora to be a force for good. Indiaspora hosts an annual Leadership Forum, Philanthropy Summit and the Global Connect initiative for the Indian diaspora worldwide.

Manthan Shah, a Senior Vice-President at WestBridge Capital helps firm evaluate SaaS investments. Before WestBridge, Manthan has been an early stage tech investor and an entrepreneur, his company was acquired by UrbanClap India. Manthan has briefly worked with ITC in the FMCG sector early in his career. Manthan received his Bachelor’s & Master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from IIT-Bombay.

Jonathan Siddharth is a Stanford graduate and the CEO & Founder of Turing, a data-science-driven deep jobs platform helping companies spin up their engineering teams in the cloud at the push of a button. Based in Palo Alto, California, they are a fully remote company of 400+ people who help connect world-class remote software engineers with world-class companies. Turing attained unicorn status in 2021.

Sandeep Singhal is the Senior Advisor for Nexus Venture Partners and Avaana Capita. He was co-founder & CEO of Medusind Solutions, one of the leading healthcare outsourcing companies in India. He co-founded eVentures India in 1999 with notable exits including CustomerAsset (acquired by Firstsource), Mentorix Solutions (acquired by Lionbridge), and MakeMyTrip (sale to SAIF Partners). At Nexus he is active in enterprise software, healthcare, and impact investments and sits on the boards of Eka, Intello Labs, CrelioHealth, Lybrate, Maximl, Mayadata, Pando, Sedemac, Suminter and Uniken. Successful exits include Netmagic Solutions (acquired by NTT) and dlight (sale to Shell). He is actively involved with TiE and the Stanford and Wharton India Alumni Associations.

Marsha Vande Berg is an independent corporate director and advisor with international expertise in global governance, sustainability strategy and C-suite management. She has served as a corporate CEO and an independent director of Tata Capital Singapore. She is an independent director of Quantum Advisors, a Mumbai-based financial services firm. She is currently leading a 7-month project with the Atlantic Council South Asia Center on India in the G20 Limelight.

Dien Yuen is Assistant Professor of Philanthropy at The American College of Financial Services. She is a recognized leader in the philanthropic sector and is especially known for her work with Asian American donors and donors with philanthropic interests in Asia. Dien is featured in many media outlets including Forbes Asia, The New York Times, Family Office Review, San Francisco Business Times and Economist Intelligence Unit reports.

Margaret Conley is the Executive Director of Asia Society Northern California. She is Chair of Asia Society's global Asian Americans Building America task force. Margaret was previously based in Asia for several years as a television news correspondent with ABC News in Jakarta and Tokyo, and with Bloomberg Television in Shanghai. She was part of the global ABC team that won a News and Documentary Emmy Award for presidential inauguration coverage. Margaret was selected as one of the Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business by the San Francisco Business Times in 2019. She is on the Advisory Committee of TiE, and is a member of the board of the International Women's Forum.

This program is part of our Naren Gupta Two-Year Legacy Program Series. Launched in April 2022, this series pays tribute to the legacy of our long-time and beloved Advisory Board Member, Naren Gupta (1948-2021) and will address the topics closest to his heart: business, entrepreneurship, and cultivating the next generation of innovative leaders, especially those hailing from India.
Series sponsors are invited to join a private VIP dinner hosted by Asia Society in Silicon Valley immediately following the conference. We also have a few additional tickets available for members and non-members on a first come first serve basis.
For more information on this series, including sponsorship opportunities, contact [email protected].
SPONSORS
Thank you to our event sponsors:

Sumir Chadha
Rob & Maggie Cox
Event Details
Computer History Museum
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA 94043