April 19-20, 2002

 

Information

Conference Schedule

Registration

Hotels and Directions to Ithaca

Papers

 

 

The Indian Economy Conference

 

Since 1991, India has undergone major reforms, consisting of opening up the economy to more foreign trade and investment, and dismantling the industrial licensing system. Whether there is a direct causal link or not may be debated but the fact is that, soon thereafter, India's growth rate picked up, foreign exchange started to flow into the nation at an unprecedented rate and the information technology sector boomed making India a major player on the global scene. This has led to a worldwide interest in the Indian economy, not witnessed since the time of India's independence.

It is not as if the scenario is without gloom. There are important questions about what is happening to poverty and inequality in India, whether the fiscal policy being followed is sustainable, whether the information technology boom is here to stay, not to mention the political and social tensions of modern India. But all this creates scope for serious research, analysis and debate. The purpose of this conference is to bring together major thinkers from academe, government and the corporate world, who have been working on India to present their views on various aspects of the contemporary Indian economy--its reforms, prospects and social implications. The conference will be organized around papers to be presented by invited speakers but there will be plenty of room for discussion, debate and dispute from the floor. It is hoped that the conference will throw up ideas for further economic reforms, be of interest to policymakers in India and elsewhere, and result in a proceedings volume of lasting interest to students of India.

The conference is being organized by the Program on Comparative Economic Development, directed by Kaushik Basu, at Cornell University. The Conference Coordinator is Gayatri Koolwal, who may be contacted at gbk5@cornell.edu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conference Schedule

Full Program Schedule (PDF format)

The preliminary timing for the conference is from 12:00pm on Friday, April 19th to 6pm on Saturday, April 20th. The conference will be held in the Yale/Princeton Room at the Statler Hotel on the Cornell University campus. Further details on the timing and order of events will follow shortly.

 

List of Speakers and Topics

Abhijit Banerjee - Professor, MIT: "The Provision of Public Goods" Download Paper

Pranab Bardhan - Professor, UC Berkeley: "Disjunctures in the Indian Reform Process" Download Paper

Barbara Harriss-White - Professor, Oxford University: "India's Informal Economy in the 1990s" Download Paper

Renana Jhabvala - SEWA, India, and

Ravi Kanbur - Professor, Cornell: "What Does Globalization Mean for SEWA"

Download Paper

N.R. Narayana Murthy - CEO, Infosys Technologies: "The Impact of Economic Reforms on the Hi-Tech Industry in India: A Case Study of Infosys" Download Paper

Mihir Rakshit - Professor, ICRA, Calcutta: "Economic Reforms and Macroeconomic Policy: The Indian Experience" Download Paper

Govinda Rao - Director, ISEC, Bangalore: "A Decade of Subnational Fiscal Reform" Download Paper

Y.V. Reddy - Deputy Governor, RBI: "Monetary and Financial Sector Reform: A Perspective" Download Paper

Jeffrey Sachs - Professor, Harvard: "Growth Prospects of the Indian Economy"

Amartya Sen - Master of Trinity College, Cambridge University: "What is Wrong With India"

Nirvikar Singh - Professor, UC Santa Cruz: "Information Technology and India's Economic Development" Download Paper

Nick Stern - Vice President, The World Bank: "Policies for Pro-Poor Growth in India" (paper jointly written with Manuela Ferro and David Rosenblatt, World Bank) Download Paper

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Registration

 

Registration form (Word format)

Registration form (PDF format)

 

The registration fee for the conference is US $200, with a reduced registration fee of $100 available to full-time university faculty and students outside of Cornell. Registration will include the right to attend all sessions, the dinner and talk on the 19th of April and the snacks and coffee during the breaks.

Cornell students and faculty are welcome to attend all sessions, except the dinner session on April 19th, free of charge; to attend the dinner session, there is a $40 charge ($15 for Cornell students). All invited "speakers" and "discussants" will be registered free of charge.

The last date for registration is April 5th. Registration after that will depend on availability. All checks for registration and dinner should be made payable to "Department of Economics" (credit cards not accepted) and mailed to:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hotels and Directions to Ithaca

 

Hotels

We have reserved blocks of rooms in the following hotels; please contact them directly to make reservations. Also, to qualify for the group discount, please mention that you will be part of the India Conference when booking the reservation.

Best Western University Inn

Phone: (607) 272-6100; 1-800-528-1234

Ithaca Courtyard Marriot

Phone: (607) 330-1000

 

Directions To Ithaca

• BY PLANE:

  Syracuse Airport: As you are leaving the Syracuse Airport, take Route 81 south. You will be on route 81 south for approximately 30 minutes until you see Exit 12 (homer/Cortland Exit). Take Exit 12 and bear right off the exit ramp and go to the intersection. At the light make a left on Route 281 south. Follow Route 281 to Cortland, where it will merge with Route 13. Follow route 13 to the town of Dryden. In the center of the town of Dryden, Route 13 turns right. South (you will be following clear signs to Ithaca). Follow the road for approximately 5 miles until you come to a traffic light. (NYSEG, New York State Electric and Gas Company, will be on your left.) There will be a small sign for Cornell University. At the traffic light, turn left on Route 366 south. Follow this road about 4 miles. Continue straight on Route 366 south. Continuing straight at 4 way stop at 366 & Judd Falls Road, and straight through at next 3-way intersection. At the stop sign you will be directly across from the Statler Hotel street entrance.

  Tompkins County Airport, in Ithaca, is serviced by USAir shuttle service or Car rentals are available from the airport. The Ithaca Airline Limousine meets every flight and can provide transportation to campus also. Direct or connecting flights are also available from Syracuse.

• By CAR: From the New England area, take the New York State Thruway west to exit 34A, Route 481 south to Interstate 81, Interstate 81 south to Homer, and Routes 281 and 13 south to Ithaca. From New York City and the Metropolitan area, take the New York State Thruway north to exit 16, Route 17 West to Binghamton, Interstate 81 North to Whitney Point, and Route 79 West to Ithaca; or take Route 17 through Binghamton to exit 64 and Routes 96 and 96B North to Ithaca. From the South, take Interstate 81 north through Binghamton to Whitney Point and Route 79 west to Ithaca. From the West, take the New York State Thruway east to exit 42 (Geneva) and Route 96 south to Ithaca, or take the Thruway east to exit 41 (Waterloo) and Route 89 south to Ithaca.

• CAMPUS PARKING: Stop at booths at entrances to campus for daily parking permit ($6.00 per day) or ask at place of lodging to shuttle you to the Statler Hotel, which will be much more convenient because parking on campus is limited.