The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bhubaneswar hosted the 27th annual edition of the Indian Political Economy Association (IPEA) Conference, themed “Geopolitics, Energy, Finance, and Democracy” on January 27 and 28.
The event covered diverse topics such as environmental issues, global socio-political inequalities and solutions for addressing disparities. The conference facilitated discussions on international macroeconomics, finance, political economics of elections, governance, health policies, global economic footprint, etc. The conference deliberations focused on future research prospects and proposed effective policy measures that address the problems of inclusive growth, health and education issues and governance topics in the Indian context.
At the outset, Dr Sitakanta Panda, Assistant Professor of Economics, IIT Bhubaneswar, delivered the welcome address. Prof Balwinder Singh Tiwana, IPEA Signatory, spoke about the purpose, the history of the organisation and the future prospects of IPEA.
Prof Shreepad Karmalkar, Director, IIT Bhubaneswar, discussed his experiences with economics as a subject in comparison to politics and philosophy. He demonstrated how, in debates about society, the ordinary individual is more at ease discussing politics and philosophy than economics despite the fact that economics plays just as much, if not more, of a role in bringing about societal reform. Therefore, it is necessary to educate the average educated people about the meaning and use of fundamental economic indices such as GDP, FDI, stock index, etc., while discussing societal conditions.
Chief guest of the inaugural session, Dr Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Chief Economic Advisor, SBI Group, highlighted the future perspectives of finance and development in India. He focused on the Four I's: innovation, inclusivity, investment and infrastructure.
Two keynote lectures were delivered by renowned economists Prof Katharina Michaelowa of the University of Zurich and Prof CP Chandrasekhar of UMass Amherst.
