BeyondHeadlines News Desk
Pune: At the eve of 2019 Lok Sabha election, Pune International Centre (PIC) in association with the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), New Delhi held a Round Table conference to launch and discuss the policy document “Innovating India 2019-2024: Public Policy Agenda” at the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, New Delhi on 26th March 2019.
Our country has made considerable progress but despite our achievements so far, our economy is underperforming as compared to our vast growth potential and our legitimate aspirations. We have a window but only of a few decades to achieve the necessary momentum to overcome the “middle-income” country trap. To grasp this “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity we need big and bold policy initiatives. The 35 research-backed and balanced policy papers presented in this volume are structured around some such big ideas towards accelerating growth, improving equity, strengthening national securing, augmenting state capacity, and providing energy and environment sustainability.
As all parties get busy in the preparation of their manifestos, we at Pune International Centre (PIC) – an independent policy research think-tank, hope that this volume, just like our previous effort, would provide inputs to the manifestos of various political parties and help create consensus towards the much-needed policy reforms.
The conference was opened by Shakti Sinha, Director, NMML, and Prashant Girbane, Director (Hon.), PIC, who welcomed the participants to the conference. Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, President, PIC made the opening remarks in which he emphasized that modern India should not ‘leapfrog’ but ‘pole-vault’ over the obstacles in its journey towards a strong, developed, modern nation. The policy document “Innovating India 2019-2024: Public Policy Agenda” was then launched at the hands of Dr Narendra Jadhav, MP, Rajya Sabha and Trustee, PIC, Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, President, PIC, Dr Vijay Kelkar, Vice President, PIC, Shakti Sinha, Director, NMML, Prashant Girbane, Director (Hon.), PIC and Dr Sumita Kale, Editor of the Public Policy Agenda and Life Member, PIC.
Dr Kale and Girbane briefly described the concept of the policy document. Drawing upon the 35 papers written by distinguished leaders and intellectuals of the country, they highlighted the key challenges facing our country, such as weak institutional capacity, primary and secondary education, and infrastructure. They then invited some of the contributors to elaborate on the topics/sections they wrote on. Lt Gen Shamsher Singh Mehta spoke about the national security challenges faced by India today and remarked that ‘just because a country can be defended doesn’t mean it is secure’ and noted the important role played by internal socio-economic stability in securing the country. Dr Nachiket Mor pointed out that India’s healthcare sector was in dire need of practical, grassroots-level reforms which engaged positively with the network of private doctors and healthcare practitioners spread across the country. Dr Rathin Roy stressed that providing easy, reliable and widespread access to public goods needed to be prioritised over providing a universal basic income. Prof Amitav Mallik brought to the fore the issues of climate change and environmental degradation, and the need to mitigate both in order to secure our present and future.
The floor was then open for discussion which was moderated by Dr Kelkar. Distinguished participants from think tanks, academia, science, politics and governance, and the media discussed related issues such as funding start-ups, improving state capacity, availability of data, infrastructure, GST, energy, technology, importance of civic learning, dealing with inflation and an ‘inward-looking’ economy moving away from global integration, and the probable solutions outlined in the Public Policy Agenda.
Dr Kelkar concluded the session expressing hope that the policy document would foster constructive and creative debates within India’s intellectual and executive circles and thanked all contributors and attendees for their valuable inputs.
