Panel Discussions

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Subject to availability of time and resources, it is proposed to have a few Panel Discussions that are sharply focussed on particular issues , and are meant to generate clear viewpoints or recommendations on them.

Presently the following Panel Discussion is proposed.

 

Panel Discussion -1:

Poverty in India and the Knowledge Question

Working Group: Sharad Ananthamurthy, Sunil Sahasrabudhey, C N Krishnan

Anyone living in India is witness to poverty and deprivation on a mass scale – large sections of people lacking in adequate food, nutrition, drinking water, healthcare, housing, education, transport, employment and wages, environment, etc. This state of affairs is also captured by various indices released periodically by multiple agencies. The domains they pertain to are in reality our “core sectors” as far as the well being of the people are concerned, and addressing the poverty problem requires large scale public investments going into them, and not merely into 'infrastructure' projects like airports, highways, harbours, bullet trains etc. Significantly, not much of these investments need to go into capital and energy intensive inputs like high technology, large machinery, high science etc, most of which anyway have to be imported. These investments have to go primarily into (ii) employing much larger numbers of people in all the sectors with reasonable levels of salaries and job security, (ii) protecting our natural resources and assets and utilising them in a just and sustainable manner. The awareness, knowledge and  skills available with the ordinary people, supplemented wherever needed with specialised knowledge, technology and training, would mostly be adequate to address the pressing problems of poverty in our country. This  knowledge base available in the society is composed of elements from both the Traditional/Indigenous and the Modern/Western streams, created  through a continuous process of integration and innovation practiced by the people in their day to day lives.
The panel would debate the strengths and adequacy of this proposition.

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