Part 2: Let the Econ Festivities begin!!!
Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune held its annual Econ Fest ‘MANAN’ from 11th to 13th February. Read on to follow up with all the exciting things that happened during the fest!
Panel Discussion (Days 1 & 2)
On the first day, the theme for the discussion was ‘International Trade And Finance: Multi-Lateral Growth Facet Of World Economy’. The first panelist was Dr Subodh Mathur who has a Ph. D. in Economics from MIT. He spoke on Globalization acting as a driver of economic inequality owing to the pandemic. The next panelist was Urvashi Prasad, Director of Development Monitoring & Evaluation Office (DMEO) at NITI Aayog. She joined us to shed light on ‘From a soot-filled world to a soothing world: how can the world collaborate for a sustainable future ?’. The Third panelist was Dr Badri Narayan Gopal Krishnan who is currently the Lead Advisor and Head- Trade and Commerce at NITI Aayog. He shared his views on ‘Developing countries being mules of developed countries’. The Final panelist for the day was Dr Mohan Kumar who is an outstanding diplomat, trade negotiator, and foreign policy expert serving in the arena of foreign trade and policy for over 36 years in countries like France, the Kingdom of Bahrain. He discussed his thoughts on ‘Can India be the ‘+1’ in China Plus One’.
On the second day, the theme for the discussion was ‘The opportunities and challenges of post COVID economic optimism: Aspects of Finance and Policy’. The discussion on the second day was started off by Dr Ashok Warrier who is a retired IFS officer. He shared his views on the topic ‘The opportunities and challenges of post COVID economic optimism: Aspects of Finance and Policy’. The second panelist for the day was Mr Bhaskar J Kashyap who has been a Research Assistant at Research and Information System for Developing Countries. He shared his ideas on ‘The opportunities and challenges of Post COVID economic optimism: Aspects of Finance and Policy and International Relations’. The next panelist was Dr Asif Iqbal who is the President of the Indian Economic Trade Organization (IETO). He graced the event by discussing his views on the topic ‘Indian trade development on the grounds of the COVID recovery’. The day’s discussion was concluded by the final panelist, Professor R Ramakumar, who is an eminent academician and professor in the School of Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He shared his thoughts on the topic ‘The opportunities and challenges of Post COVID economic optimism: Aspects of Finance and Policy’.
Paper Presentation
The Econ festivities concluded with the prestigious D. R. Gadgil Paper Presentation on Sunday, 13th March 2022. The theme for this year’s paper presentation was ‘The Realm of Structural Development’. Several students enrolled in undergraduate, post-graduate and doctoral courses across various universities participated in this event and presented their insightful works which spanned from Game Theory to Impact Evaluation!
The First prize was bagged by Shristi Salian whose paper was titled ‘The Impact of Educational Decisions on Adult Earnings’.
The second prize was claimed by Sanjeev Vasudevan and M Suresh Babu with their paper titled ‘Global Production Sharing, and Manufacturing Export Performance: Evidence from Emerging Economies’. The third prize went to Udit Kumar Sahu, Anshita Sachan and Ashis Kumar Pradhan for their work titled ‘Why do Indian banks borrow in foreign currency: a CAMEL framework approach’.
–Madhura Joshi (SYBSc Div-2, 2020-2023) and
Himanshu Rathi (SYBSc Div-1, 2020-2023)