SRCC holds Economics Summit

Academic endeavour

Sri Ram College of Commerce is associated with the subject Economics. So when SRCC students decide to hold a National Economics Summit, could it be a small event?

The premiere college’s recently organised Economics Summit saw speaker sessions by the most celebrated economists like Dr C Rangarajan, panel discussions by luminaries like journalist Mythili Bhusnurmath and a host of Economics related competitions which saw the participation of not only colleges in DU, but different outstation colleges as well.

This is the first time SRCC students decided to hold an Economics Summit besides their annual and different departmental festivals. A student member of the organising team, Priyamvad Yadav explained, “The subject Economics involves a lot of concepts and theories which cannot be understood adequately by just textbook reading. Often, one requires people who have actually worked in the field to explain their application. Therefore we decided to invite such erudite personalities to address us.” This year, they decided to work on the theme ‘Current Macroeconomic issues in India.’

Accordingly, Dr C Rangarajan, chairman, Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, delivered the inaugural lecture on ‘Capital flows to India.’ He observed that India was able to tide over the crisis of 1991 only by opening up its economy, and a steady stream of capital flows must be maintained by providing a good infrastructure to investors. The students also posed questions to him post the lecture.

This was followed by a speaker session by Dr Ashok Gulati, chairman, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices. He highlighted how building of roads and highways is essential to promote agriculture. Also, Punjab and Gujarat have attained a high agricultural growth rate for the same reason.

Hereafter, came an interesting panel discussion wherein professors Praveen Jhaand Ritika Khera and Consultant Editor, Economic Times Mythili Bhusnurmath discussed ‘Public Distribution System (PDS) or cash transfer: Which is better?” Mythili favoured PDS saying the banking network required for cash transfers is not strong in all parts of India. Professor Ritika cited that not many villagers were in favour of cash transfers themselves, while professor Praveen felt that corruption in PDS could be tackled in many ways.

The second day of the summit began with a lecture on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by TK Arun, chief editor with the Economic Times. He felt that companies should stick to CSR activities related to their core interest areas.

A Macropolicy debate simulated an inter-state council. Six students, representing six States, debated whether to allow FDI in their area or not.

There was also a paper presentation and lastly, a film festival on different economic subjects. Entries came from Lady Sri Ram College, Agra University and even St. Xavier’s, Kolkata.

Bhanu Pratap, a student, expressed, “It’s a great experience meeting and hearing from such eminent personalities. When they speak on issues we read about in textbooks, the subjects themselves seem to acquire greater importance. It was like three years of lectures fed to us in two days of exceptionally interesting speaker sessions.”