NITI Aayog Vice Chairperson Mr. Suman Bery delivers inaugural address on ‘Reaping India's Demographic Dividend’ on Day 1 of 19th International Conference on Public Policy & Management
Executive Director of World Bank Shri Parameswaran Iyer leads plenary session on ‘Public Policy: The Challenges of Implementation and Approaches to Address Them’ at the conference being hosted by Centre for Public Policy from 27-29 August
27 August, 2024, Bengaluru: Mr. Suman Bery, Vice Chairperson, NITI Aayog, delivered the inaugural address of the XIX International Conference on Public Policy & Management on, ‘Reaping India's Demographic Dividend’ earlier today. The Centre for Public Policy (CPP) at IIM Bangalore is hosting the conference from 27 to 29 August 2024. The interdisciplinary conference draws scholars representing diverse perspectives on public policy issues and provides a forum for showcasing the latest developments in policy research and practice. The themes for the 2024 conference include: Emerging Technologies and Policy Implications; Policies on Climate Change and Sustainability in Industry and Agriculture; Policy Challenges in Gig and Platform Economy, and Innovations in Public Policy.
Employment creation, labor productivity: Drivers for country’s growth
The inaugural address, moderated by Prof. Anil B Suraj, Chairperson, N.S. Ramaswamy Pre-doctoral Fellowship as well as the Committee on Diversity & Inclusion and faculty of Public Policy at IIMB, saw Mr. Suman Bery emphasizing India's demographic dividend, focusing on employment creation and labor productivity, given India’s abundant human resources, which he said were crucial for economic growth. “The productive deployment of labor will be at the core of any development strategy of the country.”
Highlighting the role of policies to ensure job rich growth, he added, “India is filled with people who are within the zone of active labor force, but are not in the labor market. To harness the full potential of the demographic dividend, adequate policy responses are necessary. Female and youth workforce participation rate needs to be boosted. Plenty of schemes for employment generation are indeed being taken, and one such example is the site proximity housing assistance.”
He said he believes that solving the labor issue required a deeper sense of transformation and long-term thinking. “In fact, climate change and adaptation teaches us to think of the long term. Other fundamental reforms should come in Indian enterprises to take on labor, the relationship between Government and the private sector, educating youth, skill enhancement, and more. There are important Government schemes relating to learning, but learning outcomes have sometimes not been up to the mark. We are now focusing on quality with the use of technology.”
“India aspires to become a developed society by 2047 and on the way expects to become the third largest economy of the world. India’s demographic dividend has the potential to support economic growth and the country has to seize the opportunities to realize its growth aspirations. What matters is the growth in real capita incomes.”
He gave examples from key findings of various surveys and research conducted under NITI Aayog and other organizations. “The country has successfully addressed a lot of challenges it faced earlier, including food insecurity. Lot of other challenges still persist, and researchers need to understand and resolve the issues state-wise. In this journey, there are growth pains and pangs – but there has been growth, nonetheless. These initiatives take time, and it is important to work on the right agenda. Other than schemes, detailed research is a priority.” Thus, through a very insightful talk, he laid out imperatives and priorities for us, as summed up by Prof. Anil B Suraj.
Research for better policy formulation and implementation
Day One of the conference also included a plenary session on, ‘Public Policy: The Challenges of Implementation and Approaches to Address Them’, led by Shri Parameswaran Iyer, Executive Director, World Bank, and moderated by Prof. G Ramesh, former faculty of Public Policy at IIMB. The talk revolved around challenges on getting research translated into policies, during which he shared extensively from his experiences in implementing Government projects.
“Public Policy is a framework of laws, regulations and action taken by the Government to bring about social and economic growth. However, challenges in delivery often arise due to lack of capacity at the state level. Government is focused on designing policy, but sometimes the policies fail due to lack of focus on translation and final delivery.”
Shri Parameswaran Iyer termed the A, B, C, D, E and F of implementation as Align, Belief, Communicate, Democratize, Evaluate and Follow through, which he said are the guiding principles of translating research into policy. He also stressed on the importance of partnerships with the private sector, NGOs, academia, etc., in getting projects implemented.
He went on to list key schemes initiated by the Government relating to electricity, safe cooking fuel, water, toilets, housing, bank account, etc. He made special mention of projects such as the Swachh Bharat Mission and some related to water management, like the Swajal project of yesteryears and the Jal Jeevan Mission, adding, “IIMB has done stellar work for the Jal Jeevan Mission.” He also cited examples of other NITI Aayog-initiated projects and discussed international cases of policy related challenges.
Shri Parameswaran Iyer also highlighted the importance of research in better policy formulation and implementation, and added that the use of technology can actually leapfrog translation of policy into reality. “Today, I have shared with you a practitioner’s perspective of policy implementation, and hope this conference serves as a platform for such ideas to be taken forward. Remember, good policy is not just about making right decisions, but about making the decisions right.”
Both the keynote speakers interacted with the audience.
Earlier in the morning, Prof. Rishikesha T Krishnan, Director, IIM Bangalore, addressed the audience saying that he believed many research ideas and projects will have their seeds in this CPP Conference on Public Policy & Management.
Dr. Gopal Naik, Senior Fellow, Chairperson and Jal Jeevan Mission Chair Professor at the Centre for Public Policy, IIM Bangalore, introduced the speaker and briefed the audience about CPP and the conference.
Pre-conference
The 19th CPP conference on Public Policy & Management kicked off with the pre-conference Prof. M. R. Krishnamurthy Memorial Lecture on 26 August on, ‘Understanding and Harnessing Linkages between Sustainable Transport and Livability for Building Brand Bengaluru’, led by Prof. Ashish Verma, Transportation Systems Engineering, Convenor, IISc Sustainable Transportation Lab, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. On the same day, Prof. Arpit Shah, faculty of the Public Policy area of IIMB, led a pre-conference workshop on, ‘Research Using Spatial Data’.
What’s in store
Day Two will see V Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India, conducting a plenary session on, ‘Challenges in Generating High Employment in the Era of Rapid Technology Development’.
The conference will conclude with Prof. David Van Slyke, Dean of Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, conducting a plenary session on, ‘Partnership and Relational Contracting: Rethinking the Governance of Innovation’. S. Mahendra Dev, Editor, Economic and Political Weekly, will deliver the valedictory address on, ‘Future of India: Challenges and Policies for Growth, Inclusion and Sustainability’.
For registration and other details of this year’s conference, please visit: https://www.iimb.ac.in/CPP-XIX-2024/
To register for individual sessions, please click: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSea1L4g7riLLyZESZb2TfJqU7YsWY1j8gpqq9heiLbu8TuP9Q/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0
For a detailed schedule of the conference, please Click here.
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