Merrill Lynch's investment forum in NY on Sep 25-26

New Delhi, Sep 22 (UNI) The third annual India Investment Forum, the largest investment conference in the US hosted by Merrill Lynch each year, will take place in New York on September 25-26, to discuss India as the preferred choice of investment destination in various sectors.

Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Ashwani Kumar will inaugurate the meeting, while senior Indian government officials including Power Secretary R V Shahi, Civil Aviation Secretary Ajay Prasad, National Highways Authority of India Chairman Satyanarayana Dash, Ministry of Finance Chief Economic Advisor Ashok Lahiri, will make presentations to leading global investors.

The 2006 forum, which is expected to attract more than 450 international investors, will discuss sectors including infrastructure, highways, civil aviation, power, real estate, auto, IT and telecom, and India emerging as the choice of investment destination in these sectors.

''The forum provides an interactive platform for discussions with policy makers, key global investors and leading Indian corporates, and presents an overall insight into emerging investment opportunities in India which is of interest to global investors.

India is a long term opportunity for investors,'' DSP Merill Lynch Chairman Hemendra Kothari said.

Bajaj Auto Ltd Executive Director Sanjiv Bajaj, Larsen and Toubro Ltd Executive Vice President (Finance) R Shankar Raman, Air Deccan MD G R Gopinath, Bharti Airtel Ltd Joint MD Akhil Gupta and Hexaware Technologies Lt Vice Chairman and CEO Rusi Brij, are among the leading Indian Business representatives at the event.

Organised by Institutional Investor Conferences, the forum will attract Wall Street's buyside investors, Chief investment officers, portfolio managers, analysts and traders from US hedge funds and money management firms, senior representatives of US corporations and public pension funds, endowments and foundations as well as executives from major multinational corporations with extensive business interests in India.

UNI KR RA GC1639