Rubbing shoulders with them will be a host of successful non-resident Indian traders like HN Harilela from Hong Kong, MK Chanrai from Singapore and Manu Chandaria from Kenya.

The chamber has also roped in many high-profile ministers besides prime minister Vajpayee and finance minister Yashwant Sinha to address delegates at nearly half-a-dozen events to be held in Delhi and Mumbai. Not far behind will bebureaucrats and academicians, including some from international universities, who will make presentations on the subject.

The event, comprising seminars and a trade exhibition, hopes to find answers to questions like `Do we need to globalise to survive', `How can globalisation ensure survival of domestic businesses', and most of all, `How can we prevent a south-east Asia-like crisis?'

Citing examples of South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Russia, a Ficci functionary said: "The world has moved in a different direction than what we had planned for. In this situation, we have to decide what should we do so as to ensure we do not run into similar problems like the rest of the world. The emphasis of the meetings will be to look at the business of globalisation and how India should perceive it."

The chamber's two-day annual general meeting here from October 24 will set the event rolling. The theme of the meeting, scheduled to be inaugurated by Vajpayee, will be "The Rhetoric and Reality of Globalisation: TheIndian Response". From here, the extravaganza will move to Mumbai on October 27 for the 17th Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce & Industry (CACCI) meeting, where the delegates comprising heads of industry and trade chambers from eastern Europe and the Asia-Pacific region will debate on "Restoring Asian Dynamism in the Global Context".

The conclave will develop strategies the region can adopt to overcome the economic crisis and the business difficulties arising out of it. RPG group chairman emeritus and chairman advisory board RP Goenka will take over as the chamber's president from Masafumi Ohnishi for the next two years.

The extravaganza will move back to Delhi for the third seminar, this time to develop strategies for closer co-operation between the small and medium enterprises in the India-Asean region. The SMEs Partenariat '98 will focus on "Technology Transfer and Business Partnership" and aims to attract SMEs in the Asean region to invest in production bases in India in partnershipwith local partners.

Then there will be a high-profile two-day bi-annual Global Indian Entrepreneurs Conference on November 12, where persons of Indian origin (PIO) will rub shoulders with senior government functionaries and Indian businessmen. The prime minister and many senior cabinet members, including the finance minister, industry minister and external affairs minister, deputy chairman of Planning Commission, secretaries to the union and state governments have committed to address the gathering. Besides, top businessmen like Hinduja and Mittal, several Indians who have made to the top of their chosen field like Subhash Chandra of Zee TV, representatives of financial institutions and banks are also tipped to address this gathering.

The event will culminate with the meeting of the trade ministers from the G-77 countries, India and China. Concurrently, a trade fair is being organised in conjunction with the India International Trade Fair. This conference will promote interaction between governments andthe private sector of the G-77 countries to achieve a practical result in south-south cooperation.