N.R. Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys Limited, will offer the keynote address during an India Conference at Cornell Oct. 13-15 that will span economics, politics and policy.
“India’s Economy in a Changing Global Landscape" will include leading economists and corporate leaders assessing the state of India's economy. They will explore India's historical, present and future trajectories and delve into micro-level foundations and macroeconomic policies.
The conference is a collaboration between the Cornell Research Academy of Development, Law, and Economics, which is a research group within the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, and the Department of Economics.
“Given the growing rift between Western nations and China, India is in a sweet spot, globally,” said Kaushik Basu, the Carl Marks Professor of International Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences and organizer of the conference. “Among the many nations that became independent in the last century, India stood out for its democracy, free media and secularism. They provide foundations for economic growth.
“One hopes that the nation will have the wisdom to hold on to these political pillars which made India special, and which are particularly needed now with all the post-Covid economic and social uncertainties that the world is going through.”
In planning the conference, Basu selected themes and speakers that address the full range of India’s concerns, including Murthy, who is a Cornell trustee emeritus and a presidential councilor. “He is the pioneer behind India’s success in the information technology sector and an important player in India’s economic take off in the 1990s,” Basu said.
Murthy is also the father of Rohan Narayana Murthy ’05. He and his wife, Sudha Murthy, endowed the N. Rama Rao Professor of Computer Science at Cornell.
Other featured speakers include:
- Naushad Forbes, co-Chairman, Forbes Marshall and chairman, Ananta Aspen
Naushad Forbes - Arvind Subramanian, senior fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics and former chief economic adviser to the government of India
- Rohini Pande, Henry J. Heinz II Professor of Economics and director of the Economic Growth Center, Yale University
- Ashwini Deshpande, professor of economics and founding director of the Centre for Economic Data and Analysis, Ashoka University
Deshpande - Maitreesh Ghatak, professor of economics, London School of Economics
- Ajit Ranade, vice chancellor, Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics
- Sonal Desai, distinguished professor of sociology, University of Maryland, College Park
- Viral Acharya, C.V. Starr Professor of Economics, Department of Finance, New York University Stern School of Business; and former deputy governor, government of India
Basu said conferences like this one offer an opportunity to carry ideas from the university campus to government, where policymaking happens. He hopes to be able to produce a book based on the conference that could draw policy-level attention to some of the discussions.
“As John Maynard Keynes reminded us, ideas are the ultimate drivers of the economy,” he said.
The conference is free and open to the public and will take place in the ILR Conference Center on the Cornell Campus. More information, the full conference schedule and registration links for two available livestreamed sessions are available on the Cornell events calendar.
