The former Director of National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, Govinda Rao, has said that policies are agents of change, and without well-thought-out policies, it wasn’t possible to have accelerated growth and reduction of poverty.
“But, unfortunately, political factors and special-interest groups dictate policy issues in most cases,” he explained.
Inaugurating a refresher course in Economics, jointly organised by the Department of Economics and UGC-Human Resource Development Centre, University of Mysore, here recently, Prof. Rao, who is the former director of ISEC, Bengaluru, highlighted the importance of theory and the interconnectedness between theory, policy and practice.
Though they are agents of change, theories and policies are looked down upon as if were disconnected from practice. “That is how a bureaucrat is viewed as superior to an academic,” said Prof. Rao, who is also former member of Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council. He called upon the participants of the refresher course to give serious thought to framing theories and policies.
Director of UGC-Human Resource Development Centre, Lingaraja Gandhi, who presided over the inaugural session, explained the role of teachers in knowledge acquisition, knowledge production and knowledge dissemination.
Course Coordinator D.V. Gopalappa; chairman of Department of Economics S. Mahendra Kumar; and former Vice-Chancellor of Vijayanagara Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Ballari, Manjappa D. Hosamane, were among those present. More than 35 assistant professors from universities and colleges in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Maharashtra are participating.
‘Political factors and special-interest groups dictate policy issues in most cases, and a bureaucrat is viewed as superior to an academic’
