Ivanka Trump to lead US team for entrepreneurship summit

New Delhi, Aug 17 () The upcoming 3-day Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad, likely to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is billed as "a big event", with presence of US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump. Business leaders from across the globe, along withentrepreneurs and investors, will be in attendance.India and the US will co-host the three-day event. The American delegation will be led by Ivanka. A US official here confirmed that the "big event" is slated for November 28 with "high-level" participation from the Government of India, but refused to confirm Modi's participation, saying a formal announcement is yet to be made to this effect. Sources, however, said the prime minister is likely toattend the high-profile event."Look forward to Ivanka Trump's presence at GES 2017 Hyderabad as the leader of the US delegation," Modi had said in a tweet last week. He said the event is aimed to bring together entrepreneurs of the two countries. "Honoured to lead the US delegation to GES2017 in Indiaand meet with Prime Minister Modi and passionate entrepreneursfrom around the globe!" Ivanka had tweeted.The theme of the summit is 'Women First, Prosperity for All', highlighting the critical role women play in fostering global growth and prosperity. "We hope to have women represent at least 50 per cent ofentrepreneurs and investors," the US official said.The focus sectors of the GES include energy andinfrastructure; healthcare and life sciences; financialtechnology in digital economy; media and entrepreneurship andpossibly, agriculture and agricultural entrepreneurship."The GES will showcase how the US and India areincreasingly beginning to converge on different aspects," theUS official said, adding that the bilateral ties are doingquite well. The summit is also a chance to reinforce ourincreasing cooperation on entrepreneurship and technology," hesaid.Other than the US, the GES had been held earlier in Morocco, Kenya, the UAE, Malaysia and Turkey. This is for the first time that the event is being held in India. Corporate giants, including Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Cisco and Google, had participated in the previous summit, said the US official, adding that a similar representation is expected this year as well. "This is the new (US) administration. In the last GES,President (Barack) Obama showed up, but this time it lookslike it will not be President Trump attending, so he hasdecided that his daughter Ivanka Trump will lead the USdelegation," said the official.Besides, the official added, the two countries areworking out the nitty gritties of holding the US-IndiaStrategic and Commercial Dialogue. RSNARD