conversations were incubated around six pillars:
- Capacity Conundrum: Building Institutional Strength for Crisis Respons and Recover
- Inequity Pandemic: Reconciling the Duality of Response and Recovery
- Multistakeholder Multilateralism: Rise of Small Nations, Private Enterprise, Civil Society in Global Governance
- Corporations Beyond Borders: Extra-Territorial Regulation and Responsibility of Multinationals
- The Blue Imperative: Economic, Political and Security Roadmap for Leveraging the Oceans
The second edition of Colaba Conversation was launched by Florian Stegmann State Minister and Head of the State Chancellery, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, Almut Moller, State Secretary, Hamburg, Germany, Frances Adamson Governor, South Australia. Subhash Desai, Minister for Industries and Mining, Government of Maharashtra, India, delivered the Inaugural Address and Priyanka Chaturvedi, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, India delivered the vote of thanks at the inaugural session.
Over the course of three days, the conference hosted 30 sessions with over 110 speakers participating from 20 countries. The speakers included leaders from government, business, civil society, and academia, including: Aaditya Thackeray, Minister for Tourism, Environment & Climate Change and Protocol, Government of Maharashtra, India; James Sangma, Environment Minister, Government of Meghalaya, India; Ambassador Robert Blake, Senior Advisor to Special Climate Envoy John Kerry, USA; Jo Johnson, Chairman TES Global, Senior Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School; former Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation; former Director of the Number 10 Policy Unit; Dian Triansyah Djani, G20 Sherpa, Indonesia; Jayant Sinha, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, India; Kamal Kishore, Member Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority,
India; Jay Kotak Vice-President, Kotak811; Heribert Dieter, Senior Fellow, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Germany; and Sumit Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder, CoinDCX, India.
The key takeaways from the conversations at the second edition of Colaba
Conversation were:
- Climate change is the single most important policy imperative today and the single biggest opportunity for business, enterprise and entrepreneurship. Mumbai’s leadership in leading the green revolution can galvanise the nation towards a trillion-dollar green economy.
- An equitable recovery requires not just policies for financial inclusion, but also financial integration led by banks and the financial services industry that ensures that the products and services are designed for the marginalized.
- The new generation of micro-entrepreneurs, individual experts, and independent artists that are purely digital have been drivers of the economy and livelihoods during the pandemic.
- Multinationals have become increasingly cognizant of their corporate responsibility and global influence, and proactively participating in designing, developing and implementing regulations.
- Emergence of new stakeholders in global governance – cities, enterprises, non-government institutions – is providing a new impetus for international cooperation, which we need for solving policy issues at all levels – global, national or local.