Source:www.indiatribune.com (Page No. 10)
Date: July 13, 2018
By J.V.Lakshmana Rao
Chicago: The stage for holding the scheduled September 7-9 World Hindu Congress (WHC-18) in Chicago is almost set with the targeted general category registration of 1,800 delegates has been successfully completed before the end of June. Now the registration is open for non-North American special category which will be for 200 delegates that makes the total number as 2,000 delegates, which is the capacity of the grand ballroom of Hotel Westin in Lombard of Chicago, the venue for inaugural and plenary sessions.
Delegates in excess of the number would be accommodated in the annex rooms with live streaming of the proceedings of inaugural and plenary sessions, according to Dr. Abhaya Asthana, president of World Hindu Council of America (VHPA), as the convener of WHC-18.
He says the special registration is now open for co-hosts for WHC and for sponsors of all levels. “We have blocked seats for dignitaries and speakers. Accommodation for digni- taries and speakers is being provided in Hotel Westin from the rooms that have been blocked for the purpose. When we exhaust those rooms we will use the rooms in Embassy Suites,” he adds.
Among the prominent speakers, who have confirmed their presence and participation in the plenary session are: Param Pawan Dalai Lama; Dr. Mohanrao Bhagwat, Sarsanghachalak of RSS; Pravind Jugnauth, Prime Minister of Republic of Mauritius; Paramasivum Pillai Vyapoory, Vice President of Republic of Mauritius; Ashwin Adhin, Vice President of Republic of Suriname; Ma. Dattatreya Hosabale; Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Head of Art of Living; Swami Swaroopanand, Head of Chinmaya Mission Worldwide; Sadhu Brahma Bihari Das, Head of BAPS International Relations; Pranav Pandya, Head of All World Gayatri Pariwar; Swami Purnatma- nanda, Head of Bharat Seva Ashram Sangh; Prof. S.P. Kothari, MIT Sloan School and chairman of WHC-2018; Raju Reddy, vice chairman of WHC- 18; Chandrika Tandon, Chairperson of Tandon Capital Associates and Grammy-nominated artist.
According to Dr. Sham Sheth, the host, among the forum-wise registrations, the Economic Forum tops with 456 delegates, followed by the Women Forum with 256, the HOTA (Hindu Organizations, Temples and Associations) Forum with 240 delegates; the Education Forum with 206 delegates, the Political Forum with197 delegates and the Media Forum with 160. “We will try to balance the sessions based on the room sizes and traffic flow,” he adds.
Regarding arrangements for the comfort of guests and delegates from around the world, Dr. Sheth says, volunteers and office bearers of the respective committees are taking utmost and minute care. The arrangements include food, security, transportation, on-site registration, health and emergency medical needs, publications, audio-visual facilities, back- drops and decorations. They are concentrating on minute-by-minute flawless planning to provide utmost comfort to guests and delegates with a view to making their visit to the WHC-18 the best memorable experience they can ever have.
Dr. Asthana says that already delegates from over 45 different countries covering all the continents have registered. Some of the prominent countries in addition to the host country of the USA include Kenya, Netherlands, Nigeria, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Bangladesh, Fiji, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Norway, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Nepal, United Kingdom, Canada, and India.
He says that the WHC-18 is a collective effort of over 100 different Hindu organizations from around the world. They have been very supportive in all aspects, particularly in delegate mobi- lization, publications, program content and publicity.
Here are some of the prominent delegates and speakers who have registered for various sessions:
Economic Conference: Dr. Mukesh Aghi President of USISPF; Punit Renjen, Global Chairman of Deloitte; Rajiv Kumar, NITI AYOG; Ajay Singh, Chairman of Spice Jet; Arun Kumar, KPMG-Chairman and CEO from India; Arun Kumar Sharma, Chief Investment Officer-IFC of the World Bank; Rajesh Subramaniam, Executive Vice President/Chief Marketing Officer of Federal Express; Ed Monser, President of Emerson Electric; Dilip Sundaram, President of Corporate Affairs at Mahindra Group – Americas; T.C. Chatterjee, CEO of Griffith Food; Mohan Das Pai, Chairman of Manipal Global; Mukesh Chatter, Chairman of NeoNet Capital; Sumir Chadha, Managing Partner of West Bridge Capital; and Milind Kamble, Chairman of Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Media Conference: Subhash Chandra, Founder of Zee TV; R.K. Sinha, CMD of Hindusttan Samachar; Suresh Chavhanke, CEO of Sudharshan TV; Sushil Pandit; Anupam Kher; Richard Gere; Rohit Sardana of Times Now; Francios Gautier, Journalist; C.B. Patel, Publisher of Asian Voice, UK; Vamsee Juluri; Ashay Javadekar, Producer; Prerna Lau Sian, CEO of Vahan UK;Avatans Kumar; Neha Shrivastava, Social media Writer; Shefali Vaidya, Social Media Writer; Sunanda Vashishtha, Social Media Co; Rahul Tewari, TV Producer-Director; Radha Bharadwaj/David B. Cohen; Vivek Agnihotri, Producer-Director; K.V. Vijayendra Prasad, Script Writer; Madhur Bhandarkar, Producer- Director; Mohanlal Viswanathan, actor, producer and singer; and Amish Tripathi, Author; Hindol Sengupta; and Prasenjit Basu.
HOTA Conference: Swami Parmatmanandji (Acharya Sabha); Madhu Pandit Das (Akshaya Patra Foundation); Dr. Shiva Subramanium – Shiva Vishnu Temple; Ma Mukthikananda; Sradhanand Sheetal; Prof. Ved Prakash Nanda; Swami V. A. Param Adwaiti, Peru; Swamini Hansanand Giri, Italy; Swami Satyanand, Ghana; B.B. Govind Swami (ISKCON); Bharamchari Saran; Pandit Ram Hardowar; Gaurang Nanavati; Sharad Ghole (Dharma Jagran); and Balabhadra Dasa, President of Vedic Friends’ Association; and Gaurang Das.
Education Conference: Viswa- nathan, Rahul Karad; Vijay Patil; Vidya Yerawadkar; Chimaya Pandya of Dev Sanskriti Vishwa- vidyalaya; Balakrishnan Shankar of Amrita University; Mitrananda of Chinmaya University; Manohar Shinde; Manoj Khandelwal; Sankrant Sanu; Rajiv Malhotra; Koenraad Elst;Vamadeva Shastri; Mukul Kanitkar; Dr. Ramachandran Nagaswamy, Indian historian, archaeologist and epigra- phist; and Prof. V.S. Ramachandran, Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition, Behavioral Neurology and Visual Psychophysics.
Women’sConference: Ramarathna B.L; Chandrika Tondon; Nandini Tandon;Toni Dasgupta; Meena Patel; Tejaswini Ananthkumar; Nivedita Bhide; Meena Chandavalkar; Dr. Vindhyavasini; Anupama Hosakere; Rasita Vishnu; Malvika Avasthi; Yashika Ramataur; Neha Srivastava; Mananiya Alaka Inamdar; Yogini Shambhavi ji; Sadhviji Swatmavidyananda; Prof. Madhu Purnima Kishwar; Chhayadevi Nanjappa; Akhila Ramarathimam; H.H. Archana ji; Bhanumati Narsimhan; Vanathi Srinivasan; Sheetal Mahajan; Uma Vaidya; and Jyothi Reddy.
Youth Conference: Drishti Mae, President of NHSF-UK; Varun Khanna, Assistant Professor of Sanskrit, UPenn, USA; Raja Kumari, Hindu rap musician, United States; Vinay Kumar Singhal, CEO, Witty Feed, India; Shobhit Kumar, Vision India Foundation, India; Priscilla Alvarado, ICCS, Costa Rica; Nihar Sashittal, National Youth Coordinator, HSS, USA; Gopal Patel, Director of Bhumi Project, UK; Nikki Avalokiteshwari, General Secretary, Aliansi Pemuda, Bali (Indonesia); Aparna Dev, Guyana; Aditya Patvardhan, Documentary filmmaker, USA; Karolina Goswami, India in Details, Poland; Sushyant Subra, Australia; Mayuri Parmar, Former Director, Conservative Friends of India; NHSF, United Kingdom; Himanshu Gulati, Minister of Justice and Public Security, Norway; Anchelita Gowrie, Country; Arnav Kejriwal, Hindu Students Council, USA; Adriana Salazar, ICCS, Colombia; Devika Sital GHRD, Netherlands; and Sadhna Gupta, MBA student, Stanford, USA.
Political Conference: Ashwin Adhin, Vice President of Suriname; Dr. Subramanian Swamy, MP, Bharat, Ravi Dev, Former MP, Guyana; C.V. Wigneswaran, Chief Minister of Northern Province, Sri Lanka; I Made Mangku Pastika, Governor of Bali, Indonesia; Priti Patel, Member of Parliament/Secretary of State for International Development, UK; Mahesh Bindra, Member of Parliament, NZ; Priyanka Radha- krishnan, Member of Parliament, NZ; Ashlra, California Assembly Member, USA; Raja Krishnamurthy, Congressman, USA; Swati Dandekar; and Jay Chaudhari, North Carolina.
For more information, please visit website – www.whc2018.worldhinducongress.org/