IGC-ISI India Development Policy Conference 2011

IGC - India Central, in association with the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), hosted an India Development Policy Conference on 19-20 December 2011 in New Delhi. The conference comprised seven sessions ranging from Urbanisation & Infrastructure, to Finance, Human Development and Urban Labour Markets, three keynote addresses and a Policy Panel.

The final conference programme and full report from the conference, which includes summaries of all sessions, are available for download below. Click here to view an article from the Business Standard by Shubhashis Gangopadhyay reflecting on the event.

Videos of the keynote addresses and sessions are also now available on our YouTube channel.

Keynote address 1: NK Singh (MP, Rajya Sabha)
NK Singh delivered the second keynote address, with the session chaired by T.N. Srinvasan (Yale).

Keynote address 2: Michael Greenstone (MIT)
Chaired by Kirit Parikh (IRADe), the first keynote address saw Michael Greenstone (MIT) debate the question of whether adaptation will save us from climate change.

Keynote address 3: Mark Rosenzweig (Yale)
Chaired by Santosh Mehrotra (Institute of Applied Manpower Research, Planning Commission), in the third keynote address, Mark Rosenzweig (Yale) looked at microeconometric evidence on the role of human capital in the growth process.

Session 1: Urbanisation & Infrastructure [Part 1] - Urbanisation/Environment
Chaired by Hardik Shah (Gujarat State Pollution Control Board), this session was made up of three presentations:

Parikshit Ghosh (Delhi School of Economics) discussed improving India's air quality.
Michael Greenstone (MIT) asked whether improved regulatory enforcement reduces industrial pollution.
Rohini Pande (Harvard Kennedy School) discussed urban governance and public good provision in Delhi slums.

Session 2: Urbanisation & Infrastructure [Part 2] - Infrastructure/Governance
Chaired by Pronab Sen (Planning Commission), this session saw three presentations delivered:

Farzana Afridi (ISI Delhi Centre) asked whether female leadership impacts the quality of public goods.
Gunjan Sharma (University of Missouri) looked at the determinants of clusters in Indian manufacturing.
Miriam A. Golden (UCLA) demonstrated that in Uttar Pradesh, electricity theft is electricity theft is greater in years when elections to the State Assembly are held.
Click here to view the video on our YouTube channel.

Session 3: Macroeconomics
Chaired by Tridip Ray (ISI Delhi Centre), two presentations were given in this session:

Amartya Lahiri (University of British Columbia) discussed macroeconomic takeoff and distributional churning in India.
Ila Patnaik (NIPFP) asked whether foreign institutional investment in India increases financial vulnerability.
Click here to view the video on our YouTube channel.

Session 4: Finance
Session 4 was chaired by Indira Rajaraman (ISI Delhi Centre) and comprised three presentations:

Mark Rosenzweig (Yale) discussed selling formal insurance to the informally insured.
Shawn Cole (Harvard Business School) presented on improving access to finance for entrepreneurs in developing countries.
Sankar De (Indian School of Business) asked whether banks are responsive to exogenous shocks in credit demand.
Session 5: Human Development - Health

Chaired by Arunish Chawla (Planning Commission), three presentations were given in session 5:
Sanchari Roy (University of Warwick) discussed the role of explicit incentives and social identity matching in the health insurance sector.
Nidhiya Menon (Brandeis University) presented on the seasonal effects of water quality on maternal and infant health in India.
Sonia Bhalotra (Bristol University) discussed political identity and public health provision in India.
Click here to view the video on our YouTube channel.

Session 6: Human Development - Education and Rural Livelihoods
Chaired by Surendra K. Bagde (Ministry of Finance), session 6 comprised two presentations:

Karthik Muralidharan (UCSD) looked at the aggregate effects of school choice.
Vijayendra Rao (World Bank) discussed designing a social observatory for the National Rural Livelihoods Mission.
Click here to view the video on our YouTube channel.

Session 7: Urban Labour Markets
Session 7 was chaired by Himanshu Prabha Ray (Jawaharlal Nehru University) and comprised three presentations:

Kaivan Munshi (Brown University) looked at past and present urban networks in India.
Jeremy Magruder (UC Berkeley) asked who gets the job referral?
Vegard Iversen (University of Manchester) looked at network mechanisms and social ties in markets for low and unskilled jobs.
Click here to view the video on our YouTube channel.

Session 8: Policy panel on the 12th Five Year Plan
Co-chaired by Dilip Mookherjee (IGC, Boston University) and Suman Bery (IGC), this session comprised a group discussion on the policy implications of the latest five year plan.

The participants of the session included: Pawan Agarwal (Planning Commission), Alok Sheel (Ministry of Finance), Manoj Singh (Planning Commission), Shubhashis Gangopadhyay (Jawaharlal Nehru University), Karthik Muralidharan (UCSD), Mark Rosenzweig (Yale), and Rohini Somanathan (Delhi School of Economics).