[Soasiastudents] Indian Economy Workshop in Vancouver, BC

[Keith Snodgrass]

Hari and Madhu Varshney Lecture Series:

Workshop on "Indian Economy: Policy and Performance 1980 - 2000"

The Varshney series will open this year with a workshop on the Indian economy hosted

by the Centre for India and South Asia Research (CISAR) with help from the Department

of Economics at UBC. The event is scheduled on June 24th and 25th, 2005 in the

Conference Room in the Institute of Asian Research and is preceded by a public forum

on the afternoon of June 23rd at UBC Robson Square campus. About 10 to 15 academic

economists from Canada, India, U.K. and U.S. will discuss and debate ideas that shed

light on the much talked about performance of the Indian economy during the period

from 1980 through 2000. There is a consensus that the growth rate took a noticeable

jump during this period and the percentage of people living under the poverty line

declined. What is not well understood is what policy measures were responsible for this

observed outcome. What makes the issue a bit mysterious is that the growth acceleration

preceded the major policy reform of 1991 (i.e., the dismantling of the License Raj and

trade liberalization). It is also not clear how the observed poverty decline could be

reconciled with the relatively low level of employment growth outside agriculture. We

know that a noticeable and desirable change took place in the Indian economy during

these two decades but we have little understanding of the causal process responsible for

the improved performance. The goal of the workshop is to improve our understanding of

such a process.

The tentative programme schedule is as follows:

Public Forum on "Eye on India: Making Sense of the Fast Growing Economy of

India"

Speaker: Shubhashis Gangopadhyay,

Director, India Development Foundation

Gurgaon, India.

Place: C130, UBC Robson Square

Time: June 23rd, 2005 at 4 - 5.30 pm

Shubhashis Gangopadhyay has the unique distinction of being a distinguished academic

economist, a policy consultant and a TV commentator on business and economic issues.

He has a Ph.D. in Economics from Cornell University and was a Professor of Economics

in the Indian Statistical Institute till 2002 when he took over as founder-director of India

Development Foundation - a think tank. During his academic career, he also anchored a

weekly program of debate on business and economic issues on the national channel and

anchored a daily business programme on the Star Television network.

Professor Gangopadhyay has published widely in journals on development economics,

international trade, industrial organization, regulatory economics and finance. He has also

co-authored and co-edited a number of books in economics and finance. He is the Chief

Editor of the Journal of Emerging Market Finance and is the President of two

professional societies, the Society for Economic Research and Financial Analysis

(SERFA) and the Society for the Promotion of Game Theory and its Applications

(SPGTA). He has been on many government committees and consulted with various

ministries and private business. He has a great deal of experience in interacting with

international business delegations to apprise them on India. He has been an invited

speaker at various universities in Europe and the US and at international conferences.

The admission is free as the planned forum is a part of Hari and Madhu Varshney

Lecture Series at UBC. All are cordially invited.

Academic Presentations

The academic presentations will take place on June 24th and 25th in the

Conference Room of the Institute of Asian Research, C. K. Choi Building, 1855

West Mall, The University of British Columbia. The tentative programme is as

follows:

Friday, June 24th , 2005.

9.00 - 9.30am

Coffee and Registration

9.30 - 9.45am

Welcoming remarks by Ashok Kotwal

9.45 - 10.45am

Chair: Ashok Kotwal

R. Nagraj, (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research), "Industrial Growth in

China and India: A Preliminary Comparison"

10.45 - 11.00am

Coffee

11.00 - 12.00am

Chair: Nisha Malhotra

Kunal Sen, (The University of East Anglia), "Financial Policies and Investment in

Post-Reform India: Macro and Micro Perspectives."

12.00 - 1.30 pm

Lunch

1.30 - 2.30 pm

Chair: Parikshit Ghosh

Shubhashis Gangopadhyay, (India Development Foundation) "Churning of

Manufacturing in Indian States" (with Shagun Krishnan)

2.30 - 2.45 pm

Coffee

2.45 - 3.45 pm

Chair: Patrick Franc ois

David Donaldson,, (London School of Economics), "Heterogeneous factor

Reallocations after Trade Liberalization: Evidence from India" (with Rocco

Macchiavello)

3.45 - 4.00 pm

Coffee

4.00 - 5.00 pm

Chair: Mukesh Eswaran

Alessandro Tarozzi,, (Duke University),"Child Nutrition in India in the Nineties: A

Story of Increased Gender Inequality?" (with Aprajit Mahajan)

Saturday, June 25th , 2005.

9.00 - 9.30 am

Coffee

9.30 - 10.30am

Keynote Address

Chair: Bharat Ramaswami

Pranab Bardhan, (University of California, Berkeley), Reflections on Indian

Economic Reforms.

10.30 - 10.45am

Coffee

10.45 - 11.45 am

Chair: Wilima Wadhwa

Robin Burgess, (London School of Economics), ""The Unequal

Effects of Liberalization: Evidence from Dismantling the License Raj in

India", (with Philippe Aghion, Stephen Redding and Fabrizio Zilibotti)

11.45 - 1.15 pm

Lunch

1.15 - 2.15 pm

Chair: Siwan Anderson

Andrew Foster, (Brown University), "Agricultural Development, Industrialization

and Rural Inequality" (with Mark Rosenzweig)

2.15 - 2.30 pm

Coffee

2.30 - 3.30 pm

Chair: Ashok Kotwal

Peter Lanjouw, (The World Bank), "Non-farm Growth and Agricultural Wages".

3.30 - 3.45 pm

Coffee

3.45 - 4.45 pm

Chair: Ashwini Deshpande

Mukesh Eswaran, (UBC), "The Impact of the Non-Farm Sector on Labour Earnings

and Gender Disparities in India: 1983-1999", (with Ashok Kotwal, Bharat Ramaswami,

and Wilima Wadhwa).

4.45 - 5.00 pm

Concluding comments. By Ashok Kotwal

Keith Snodgrass      
Associate Director  & Outreach Coordinator
South Asia Center, Jackson School                     
Box 353650, University of Washington                  
Seattle, WA 98195    
Phone: (206)543-4800; Fax(206)685-0668                                    
                     South Asia Center on the Web:
     <http://jsis.artsci.washington.edu/programs/soasia/index.htm>
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