By Lachman Balani
TORONTO: It was a power-packed and extremely upscale evening as the Pan-IIT gala evening got under way with brainiacs and achievers from the US, Canada and India descending upon the International Plaza hotel in Toronto.
To start off the evening, Mr. Srinivasan Venkatesh addressed the crowd in both English and French (a first for many attendants – a person of Indian origin speaking French)! Then came the first speaker of the evening, none other than Governor General David Johnston, who gave an excellent speech on entrepreneurship and the ties between India and Canada, peppered with highly detailed anecdotes. He ended with one of George Bernard Shaw’s famous lines, an ode to entrepreneurship, “But I dream things that never were; and I say: “Why not?”
Markham mayor Frank Scarpitti came next talking about his city and his visits to India and his many invitations to companies in India to set up shop in multicultural Markham as it is the number one city for fiscal transparency. He spoke highly of Indian Prime Minister Modi and narrated how he had seen the progress in Gujarat under Modi and how he would do the same for India by creating better business environment.
Another distinguished speaker Susan Fennell, the mayor of Brampton, also touched upon her visit to India and expressed Brampton’s plan to develop two universities, one given to regular education and another complement one given to research and development and invited anybody from the audience to step up to the plate and she would do her level best to see it happen smoothly and seamlessly.
Fennel also commented that in her formative years the emphasis was on ‘get an education and get a job’ but nowadays she sees students with diplomas and degrees more given to entrepreneurship and she will do all she can to prop the trend to continue.
Full article via: newseastwest
