Conference
Azim Premji University hosted its third international conference on ‘Law, public policy and governance’ with the theme ‘Institutions, public policy and State capacity: A sub-national approach to governance in India.’ Around 20 scholars from India, the U.S. and the U.K. presented papers. “Urbanisation and land management will emerge the most challenging areas for policy making and academic research in India,” said Ashutosh Varshney, Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and Social Sciences, Brown University, U.S. He also said that the share of agriculture in the GDP has decreased to 12 to 14 per cent from around 50 per cent in the 1960s. At the same time around 60 per cent of people continue to derive their livelihood from agriculture. Therefore, diversion of land from agriculture to non-agricultural sectors whose contribution to the GDP has been growing will be a serious challenge to manage for policy makers and an exciting area for academic research.
Nikita Sood of Oxford University, based on her studies in West Bengal, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, said the State governments were making a compromise with land regulations in the name of promoting pro-business industrial policies which demand liberal grant of land.
Rajesh Bhattacharya of IIM, Calcutta, said that new laws and policies related to mining, land acquisition and internal security work against the autonomy and rights of people enshrined in the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Area Act and Forest Rights Act.
Alumni meet
The seventh annual alumni meet was conducted at the HKBK College of Engineering. Manzar Imam, 2004 batch alumnus who is working as the Industry Lead India, IT Vertical, Adobe Systems, was the chief guest. Over 150 persons participated in the meet.
Yuvatarang 2015
Yuvatarang 2015 was inaugurated by the chairman of Indian Academy, T. Somsekhar. Along with the celebrations, there was a social service initiative organised by the students of Indian Academy Degree College. A ‘food fest,’ supported by the Department of Humanities, was organised and the profits earned by these stalls were given to a school which hosts children infected with HIV.
Course inaugurated
A specialised course — ‘Professional Diploma in Public Procurement’ (PDPP) — in association the Indian Institute of Materials Management (IIMM) was launched recently.
Speaking after the launch, Kalesh Kumar, Capacity Building Coordinator, Procurement Global Practice, World Bank, New Delhi, said, “India already has a robust public procurement system. Some of the government organisations have public procurement systems that are on par with the best in the world. But what is missing in India is standardisation. The public procurement differs from State to State, and this might discourage investors.”
Model U.N.
The International Relations and Foreign Policy Committee of the School of Law, Christ University, is organising the third edition of SLCUMUN, the annual International Model United Nations between January 30 and February 1.
The event is being hosted in collaboration with the United Nations Information Centre for India and Bhutan.
For more information and to apply, visit: >http://law.christuniversity.in/slcumun/
