A pre-budget panel discussion was held by the students of IIM Raipur here on Monday. Prof. BS Sahay, Director IIM Raipur, opened the session while terming the discussions as crucial.
He urged the students to participate and share their views while mentioning that such discussions should happen every year so that it will help to put what is learnt to practice in real life.
The first panel discussion revolved around ‘Agriculture and Rural Development’ where students spoke about how India’s agricultural sector needed a stimulus. The expectations from Budget 2014-15 for the agricultural and rural sector are that there should be a boost in infrastructure spending which will give an impetus to the agricultural sector.
The second panel discussed over ‘Infrastructure and Industry’. The students spoke on how, till date, the manufacturing and infrastructure sectors have been performing. A huge section of the Indian population still lacks access to proper roads.
The third panel discussion was on ‘The Financial Sector’ in which the students talked about the banking sector, insurance sector and the capital market.The panel discussed how the sector was facing the downside of a slowing economy. The banking sector has been experiencing an increase in the percentage of non-performing assets.
The event’s final panel discussion was on ‘Social Sector Programmes.’ The students broadly discussed topics such as job creation, poverty alleviation, social healthcare, education, food, water, sanitation and so on. The students proposed budget allocation on nation-wide Incubation Centre and to encourage SMEs and social entrepreneurship.