Webinar Link

Meeting No: 2514 196 5471
Password: finance

Certificate of Participants

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Abstract

The Finance Commission is a critical institutional mechanism in India responsible for the equitable distribution of financial resources between the central and state governments. Article 280 of the constitution, its primary objective is to address fiscal imbalances by recommending a formula for sharing tax revenues. The commission assesses the economic and fiscal situation, taking into account factors like population, income levels, and special needs of states. Through its recommendations, it strives to ensure a fair allocation that promotes both fiscal discipline and socio-economic development. The Finance Commission has played a pivotal role in enhancing cooperative federalism, fostering financial stability, and addressing emerging challenges. The intricate balance it seeks to achieve between the Union and states contributes significantly to the overall economic governance of the country. India undergoes dynamic economic changes, the Finance Commission continues to evolve, adapting its strategies to promote inclusive growth and efficient resource utilization across regions. The webinar will discuss the ToR and scope of The Sixteenth Finance Commission.

About the Speakers

Surjit Bhalla

Dr. S.S. Bhalla, is a Senior India Analyst for the Observatory Group, a New York based macroeconomic policy advisory firm and Chairman of Oxus Research & Investments. In 2017, he was appointed as Member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council. He has been a member of the Secondary Markets Advisory Committee of SEBI and the National Statistical Commission of India. Dr Bhalla writes extensively on economic issues and has recently authored another book titled, The New Wealth of Nations.

Ajit Kumar Singh

Professor Ajit Kumar Singh (born 1944) obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from the University of Lucknow, Lucknow. He also holds a PG Diploma in National and International Development from the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands. He has taught at the University of Lucknow and RML Avadh University, Faizabad. He joined the Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow as Professor in 1987 and was Director of the Institute from 2004 to February 2013. He was awarded the National Fellowship of the Indian Council of Social Science Research in 2013.

A reputed economist Professor Singh has been a member of various working groups of the Planning commission and committees of the government at the state and central level. He was member Taxation and Resource Mobilisation Committee, Government of U.P. (1995) and Second State Finance Commission, U.P. (2001-02). He was also member of the Agrarian Relations Committee appointed by the Government of India and member of the Study Group for Preparation of Roadmap for Rapid Development of UP appointed by the Planning Commission. He has been member of the academic bodies of several universities.

Prof. A.K. Singh has been Vice President, Regional Science Association 1990, President UP and Uttarakhand Economic Association 2007 and Vice President, Indian Society of Labour Economics, 2009. In 2010 he was given the Kautilya award by the UP and Uttarakhand Economic Association for his contribution to teaching and research in economics.

Prof. Singh has written extensively on different aspects of planning and development with particular focus on the state of U.P. He has over 130 published papers to his credit apart from a large number of seminar papers. He has also guided forty research projects for national and international organizations.

Prof. A.K. Singh has authored many books, which include Patterns of Regional Development; Economic Development and Inequalities in China, Rural Poverty and Agricultural Development; Land Use, Environment and Economic Growth in India; and Uttar Pradesh Development Report 2000; and Socio-Economic Conditions of the Farming Communities in Northern India, Patterns of Development. In addition, he has edited five books: Economic Planning and Policy in India; Planning Strategy for a Developing Region; Twelfth Finance Commission Recommendations; Their Implications for the State Finances; Land Policies for Agricultural Growth With Equity; and Transparency, Disclosure and Governance.

His collection of papers have been published recently in six volumes: Agricultural Development and Natural Resource Management, Rural Development and Poverty, Regional Disparities in India; Dynamics of Development in a Backward Economy; Social Structure and Economic Development and Fiscal Reforms and State Finances.

Alok Ranjan

Prof. Alok Ranjan is a retired I.A.S Officer with 38 years of distinguished service. He retired as the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh (Executive head of the state) in 2016.

An established leader, with extensive experience of management and administration across Industries and sectors including education, economics, finance, agriculture, industrial governance, public policy and more. Some of the prominent positions held by him during service include Infrastructure and Industrial Commissioner U.P, Agriculture Production Commissioner U.P, Principal Secretary Urban Development & Technical Education, Vocational Education, Basic Education, Joint Secretary Defense (Govt. of India) and Secretary to the Chief Minister of U.P amongst many others.

Post retirement from I.A.S, he held the office of Chief Advisor to Chief Minister of U.P (Cabinet Minister Rank) and Chairman UPSIDC (Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation), where he oversaw all development initiatives for the State of Uttar Pradesh. He is currently serving on the board of directors for Bennett Coleman University, as Honorary Advisor to the PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry, as Chairman Indo-Latin Chamber of Commerce and multiple other organizations. He is also serving as Adjunct Professor for various leading universities.

Prof. Ranjan is an established thought leader and seasoned motivational speaker on Management, Leadership, Governance and Public Policy. He has also authored two books, and writes articles for leading national publications such as Times of India, Economic Times, Business Standard, HT and more.

Currently Prof. Ranjan is associated as Distinguished Adjunct Professor with Jaipuria Lucknow.

Lakhwinder Singh

Dr. Lakhwinder Singh is Emeritus Professor in Economics, Commerce and Management, Khalsa College, Punjabi University, Patiala. Prior to this, Dr. Singh has been Professor and Head, Department of Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala where he has founded Centre for Development Economics and Innovation Studies (CDEIS). He is the founding Editor, Millennial Asia-An International Journal of Asian Studies published by SAGE that is indexed in SCOPUS and Clarivate Analytics (ESCI). He has contributed nine books and more than hundred articles in various reputed journals and leading national dailies. He has authored Agrarian Distress and Farmer Suicides in North India published by Routledge 2020. Professor Singh is Coordinator of Indialics-a Chapter of Globelics in India. He has held several visiting positions including Yale University, USA and Seoul National University, South Korea. His specialization is Development Economics, Innovation Systems, Regional Economics, Area Studies and Punjab Economy. He has a teaching experience of more than 32 years and successfully supervised 20 Ph.D Students.

Saswati Choudhury

Saswati Choudhury has been with OKDISCD, Guwahati since 2002. Prior to her joining OKDISCD, an ICSSR Institute, she was Ph.D Fellow at Indian Institute of Bank Management, Guwahati. Her area of work includes, Regional Development, Gender and Health.

Bhagirathi Panda

Professor Bhagirathi Panda works as a Professor of Economics, NEHU and Honorary Director of ICSSR-NERC, Shillong. Earlier he has served IIM Shillong as its founding faculty and headed its Sustainable Business Development, Cell. He has also held several positions in NEHU such as Dean, School of Economics, Management and Information Sciences, Head of the Department of Economics, and Finance Officer. As an Asia Fellow of Asian Scholarship Foundation, Bangkok, Prof. Panda was a Visiting Professor in Thammasart University, Thailand and Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok. Prof. Panda was a member of a number of expert committees formed by Ministry Rural Development, Govt. of India and in this capacity has provided continuous policy support to GOI. Currently he is the editor of the UGC CARE Listed Journal ‘Man and Development’. Along with teaching and research, Prof.Panda has also undertaken a number of research projects and consultancies on topics such as Act East Policy and Transaction Costs, MGNREGA, Urban Informal Sector, Rural Non-Farm Employment etc. from agencies like Ministry of External Affairs, Ford Foundation, MORD, UNDP , V.V. Giri National Labour Institute and UGC.

Parag Dutta

Parag Dutta started his career as a Lecturer in the Department of Economics in Haflong Government College in November 2005. After serving one year, he joined Bapujee College as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics on 16/07/2007. Later, he joined Dispur College on 26/12/2013 as an Assistant professor in Economics. Presently, he is associated with Krishna Kanta Handique State Open University as an Associate Professor in the Discipline of Economics under Surya Kumar Bhuyan School of Social Sciences since 31/12/2019. As a teacher, he basically teaches Economics and does research on his area of interest i.e.; Public Economics. In his research work, he uses both time series and panel analysis extensively to carry out both theoretical and empirical research work. He is well-versed with statistical software such as SPSS, STATA, E-Views and RATS and participated in several workshops on time series analysis as a resource person. Now, he focuses on Self Learning Material, Audio-visual material and open and distance learning technology. Besides that, he is a trained Associate NCC officer commissioned as Sub-Lieutenant by the Ministry of Defense, Government of India.

Barna Ganguli

Barna Ganguli is presently a faculty member at the Bihar Institute of Public Finance and Policy (BIPFP), Patna. She has done her Ph.D. on Urbanisation and Environmental Degradation: A case study of Patna. She has been engaged in social science research for nearly a decade and her areas of interest are- human development, environment, public finance, rural economics, and regional economics. She has assisted State Government (Bihar) in preparing many policy documents including Gender Budget, Child Budget, Outcome Budget, etc. She has been actively associated with the preparation of the Annual Economic Survey of Bihar since 2010, Memorandum of Fourteenth and Fifteenth Finance Commissions for Bihar, State Finance Commission reports, Vision Document of SDG for Bihar, and other projects. She has also prepared policy documents for other departments like a State Response Paper on the introduction of the New Labour Code for Labour Department, data and training sessions for the Women Development Corporation, etc. Presently, she is also part of a team formed to assess the GST potential of Bihar. Dr. Ganguli has articles on various issues like MGNREGA, climate change, food security, rural tourism, education and health, fertility trends and gender disparity, etc. Her recent publications are in SAGE, Economic and Political Weekly (EPW), Journal of Indian School of Political Economy (JISPE), Arthik Charche (The Journal of FPI), Man and Development, Bihar Journal of Public Administration (UGC care listed), etc. She has also played the lead role in research projects funded by NUEPA; Government of Bihar; UNICEF; etc.