The World Bank's first Annual Bank Conference on Economics Development in a developing country began in Bangalore on Wednesday with a clarion call for speedy reforms to accelerate development and bridge the digital divide.

About 350 delegates, including eminent economists, scholars and academic experts from the world over are attending the three-day mega event to deliberate on various societal and development issues.

Among the dignitaries participating in the brain-storming sessions are International Monetary Fund director Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Reserve Bank of India deputy governor Rakesh Mohan, World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern, and National Council for Applied Economics Research director Suman Bery.

For the first time the World Bank has chosen India as a venue for the annual meet. Sponsored by the World Bank Development Economics Presidency, the annual meet was held every year at its headquarters in Washington DC since 1989, and in Europe since the last four years alternately.

"We have chosen India to hold such an annual conference for the first time as a tribute to its remarkable growth and development ever since the country embarked on a reform process a decade ago," Stern declared during the inaugural remarks.

In the absence of Union Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, who was scheduled to inaugurate the conference, Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna stepped in to preside over the opening session.

As part of its millennium global policy, adopted at the United Nations summit in 2000, the World Bank has chosen 'accelerated development' as the theme of the conference, with a special focus on the developing countries.

"In order to eliminate poverty and improve the quality of life, the World Bank has decided that developing countries should be ambitious enough to overcome illiteracy, malnutrition, infant mortality, and shortages," Stern stated.

With a 30-strong contingent from the World Bank itself, the bank will facilitate a free exchange of ideas and issues concerning the developing countries and their efforts to raise the bar in the key socio-economic sectors, including education, healthcare, environment and infrastructure.

"We are here to learn more about these countries rather than pursue them to follow any specific agenda set by the bank," Stern asserted while referring to the objectives of the conference.

"In the past, the World Bank used to invite economists and scholars from the developing countries to Washington for such annual meetings. But in view of the rapid strides being made by these countries, we have appropriately decided to go to them and learn more about their leadership," Stern added.

The conference is also focusing on globalisation and the need for greater integration of the world economies to pave the way for accelerated development in developing countries.

During these three days, the conference will deliberate on 'Fostering Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Growth; Challenges of Development in Lagging Regions; Participation, Inclusion and Results, and Scaling up and Evolution'.

Sixty scholars from about 20 countries, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal are showcasing their development models and achievements made during the last two decades.

They will also present new research findings and discuss key policy issues related to poverty reduction in the plenary sessions and workshops over the next two days.

Lauding the Indian reform process, Stern said India had emerged as a role model for the developing countries to accelerate development and overcome the kind of hurdles they face in removing poverty and improve the standard of living.

On choosing India as the first developing country to host the annual conference, Stern said Indians have been on the forefront of research in development economics.

Stern also referred to the phenomenal growth achieved by China, another developing country with over 1.5-billion population during the last two decades.