The Centre for Public Policy at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore hosted the Ninth Annual International Conference on Public Policy and Management from August 11 to 13, 2014.
The three-day international event was inaugurated by Dr Arvind Mayaram, Finance Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. The Keynote Address was delivered by Shri Arun Maira, Former Member, Planning Commission on August 11, 2014.
The 3 day Conference saw a submission of about 350 abstracts from India and abroad. Of this, 164 abstracts were accepted for full paper submission. A team of faculty members/reviewers selected about 65 papers for presentation at the conference. Apart from this there were about 16 invited papers that were presented at the conference.
There were four ‘Tracks’ that was organised during the conference. Harun R Khan, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India inaugurated the track on Debt Management which was chaired by Dr Charan Singh, RBI Chair Professor. The track on Financial Inclusion was organised by Professor Rajalaxmi Kamath, Chairperson, Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy and Management and Professor Thankom Gopinath Arun from the University of Central Lancashire. This track ran on all the three days with about 13 presentations. Development and Information and Communication Technologies tracks were well received.
Others were single-panel sessions that profiled emerging public policy concerns such as Education, Public Service Delivery and Last Mile Challenges, Energy, Insurance as a Driver of Growth, Infrastructure, MGNREGA, Social Security and Public Systems, Right to Public Services, India and China among others.
We had also invited eminent speakers for three Round Table Discussions on 'Challenges of Urban Development and Policy Paradigms' Chaired by Supriya Roy Chowdhury of Institute for Social and Economic Change and 'Addressing Recycling Issues in Solid Waste Management' organised by Professor Gopal Naik. A Round Table on 'Debt Management' was organised by Dr Charan Singh.
A Symposium on 'Use of Experimental Design in Public Policy Design' organised by Professor Gopal Naik and chaired by Arjunan Subramanian, University of Glasgow was packed with students who found the topic useful to their research.
The CPP also hosted two parallel hacking events – Policy Hackathon and App for Governance centered on generating insights and tools for policy and governance – on August 9 and 10, 2014.
The IIMB Policy Hack was a team event focusing on developing data based policy responses to existing policy challenges in society. Participants were given access to a large dataset (e.g. Census, NSSO, etc.) with information on multiple domains of social policy in India. Each team chose a policy domain and worked on developing a 5-page document that identified a key policy challenge and data based solutions to it within a 24-hour period. The data set was announced on the morning of August 9 and the team with the best use of data (visualization and analysis) to support ideas for policy problems was to be declared the winner. Past winners have been cited by scholars such as Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze, been published in peer-reviewed journals and been the basis of different white papers, influential blog posts etc.
The Conference ended with a Valedictory Ceremony on 13 August, 2014. After the Valedictory Address, Professor Devanath Tirupati, Dean, gave away the Hackathon Awards to the winners.
This intellectually stimulating event was attended by scholars, practitioners, policy makers, NGOs and experts. Over 202 participants, including paper presenters and invited speakers, attended the conference during the three days.
More details are available on the conference website: