Hindu Economic Forum meet in Los Angeles 

DETROIT: For the first time in America, a three-day World Hindu Economic Forum (WHEF) is being organised from November 18 at Los Angeles. Addressing a select audience consisting of industrialists, technocrats and businessmen here on Tuesday, Swamy Vigyananda, the chief architect of the Forum, said that the WHEF-2016 conference would bring prominent industrialists, businessmen, bankers, international traders, economists, and senior professionals from diverse fields under one platform.

The conference will enable the top echelons from across the world to network, get insights into the North and South American markets and pursue opportunities for mutual growth. Stating that the USA is the premier economic power in the world, Swamji said it was driven by a spirit of entrepreneurship and leads the world in financial and technological innovations.

There are multiple opportunities for growth across the length and breadth of this nation. Los Angeles (LA) is the third largest economic metropolitan in the world, he added. He said that LA was a global hub for international trade, manufacturing, technology, finance , entertainment and fashion, making it an excellent venue for the WHEF. About 700 delegates from all over the world are expected to attend the conference and explore business opportunities.

Swamji said that while some economies were passing through turbulent phase today, many emerging economies were providing great opportunities. "The issue is how to leverage the global situation for collective growth. Hindus should cooperate and collaborate globally so that market access is facilitated amongst them. We need to create market access across geographical zones and countries spearheading from Aukland to Alaska and Oslo to Johannesburg across the entire globe," he added.

Claiming that the Hindus in the past knew how to create wealth and also freely shared knowledge, the Swamji who is on globetrotting, said, "our ancestors have amply expressed their wisdom in the Vedas’ Sai Hasta Samahara, Sahastra Hasta Sankira", which literally meant "Create wealth with 100 hands and share it with 1000 hands".

He said that the basic problems of the world today were hunger, poverty and illiteracy. These problems cannot be solved by mere donations and charity. The growing population had growing needs and these could be overcome only by creating surplus wealth and sharing this would empower those at the bottom of the pyramid and WHEF was that step towards creating "that, which sustains", he added.

By prof sunkari ram murthy