Given the inclusive growth imperatives and growing need for creating employment opportunities we are organising the 28th Skoch Summit with the underlying theme of "Mainstreaming the Marginalised" on 27th March 2012, Le-Meridien, New Delhi . The key content of the summit is as follows:   

• Role of Cloud Services and Mobility in Inclusive Growth   
• Investor Protection and Financial Literacy    
• Mainstreaming Minorities, Weaker Sections and Women    
• Decentralisation and Participatory Democracy    
• Document Management and Government Reform    
• Development Perspectives from Forward Looking States more
  

Skoch Challenger Awards, instituted in 2003, salute people, projects and institutions that went the extra mile to make India a better nation. Skoch Challenger Awards – the highest independently instituted civilian honours – have been conferred, the mighty and the ordinary have shared this platform for their extraordinary achievements in contributing to the society.

The Skoch Challenger Awards cover the best of efforts in the area of digital, financial and social inclusion. They encompass the best of governance, look at excellence in academics, change management, inclusive growth, citizen services delivery, capacity building, empowerment and other such softer issues that get normally lost in the glamour and the glitz of industry sponsored or advertising focused jamborees.

The Skoch Challenger Awards are coveted for their independence, primary research and a distinguished jury based approach. The Skoch Challenger Awards are distinctive for its approach of selection of awardees, which is not based on nomination but on discovery. Additionally, the College of Skoch Lifetime Achievers are regularly consulted for expert identification, inputs and qualification of a project, person or institution to be considered for the Award. Some of the Skoch Lifetime Achievement Awardees include, Dr C Rangarajan, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister; Dr Vijay Kelkar, Former Chairman, Thirteenth Finance Commission; Mr Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure & Innovations; Mr C B Bhave, Chairman, SEBI; and, Dr R H Patil, Chairman, Clearing Corporation of India Limited. Further, documentary videos are produced after detailed research, for all the Lifetime Achievement Awardees and most of the projects and institutions. These are then shared with the domain experts and larger audience groups of practitioners ahead of the Awards and are put in public domain for larger dissemination once the Award is conferred. This has resulted in an unparalled video documentation of contemporary Indian history of best practices and has contributed to forming one of the largest online Knowledge Repositories hosted by Skoch.

No industry or government support or endorsement is either expected, accepted or solicited for the Skoch Challenger Awards and they remain independently instituted and conferred as a third party perspective. The Roll of Honour of the Skoch Challenger Awards over the years is a testimony to this. The Skoch Challenger Awards not only acknowledge exceptional achievers but also spurs inspirational guidance and motivational leadership.. more

 

A key figure in India's economic reforms from the early 1980s onwards, Montek Singh Ahluwalia's fingerprints can be found in policies from economics to education reform, and he has been a driving force in the liberalisation programme of the past 20 years or more. The Oxford-educated economist spent 11 years with the World Bank in Washington before returning to India in 1979 to work as an economic adviser to the government.

His commitment to poverty alleviation and inclusive growth can be found in his early writings and as deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, he has managed to translate this into the country's plan process. He is also the harbinger of participatory planning wherein for the first time Planning Commission started inviting suggestions and feedback for the 12th Five Year Plan.

This festschrift comprises a range of essays covering different drivers of economic growth and development, providing not only an insight into policymaking and its impact, but also directions for India if it is to become a major player in the global economy. This book is a must-read for students of development economics and political economy and is highly recommended for graduate students, academics and professionals interested in economic issues of developing countries. 

In this timely book—a festschrift for Dr. C. Rangarajan—top experts, policymakers and economists offer their assessments of India’s performance in the area of economic and financial reforms and analyse the successes and continued challenges. It provides an insight into critical macroeconomic and macro-finance issues of today. The book covers a broad set of topics, including fiscal, monetary and external sector policies, drivers of banking and financial growth, infrastructure and financial inclusion.

A strategy of gradual economic liberalisation combined with risk-averse prudential regulation in the banking and financial sector helped limit India’s exposure to the recent financial crises and the subsequent global economic slowdown. The improved economic performance in recent years encouraged the country to become more globally and regionally integrated. This process is unlikely to be reversed by the current global economic slowdown, given the economic and strategic benefits India has derived so far. 

The authors in this festschrift share a critical, but overall positive, view of the country’s future and outline several areas and recommendations for bettering the lives of citizens. Empirically rich and topically diverse, the book is broad in scope and full of deep analytic insights and will serve as a useful reference and planning tool for administrators, planners, policymakers and students of development economics, monetary economics and finance.  more