Events

Amb. Rajendra Abhyankar, former Indian Ambassador to the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg and member, PIC was the guest speaker for this month’s PIC Adda. Amb. Sudhir Devare, former Director General, Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) and member, PIC was the Chairperson.
Amb. Abhyankar who had served in Sri Lanka as Deputy High Commissioner in his diplomatic career of nearly four decades spoke of the Sri Lankan crisis in terms of 3 broad elements. First, the continuing and undaunted protests of the Sri Lankan people; the tepid response of the international community and the roots of the economic crisis.
He noted that the downward spiral in Sri Lanka began two decades ago. The current crisis was compounded by heavy subsidies, populist value-added tax cuts, a government that failed to invest in welfare measures and the sudden adoption of organic farming across the country. Amb. Abhyankar described the crisis as “an Arab spring moment for the Sri Lankan people”.
The talk and the discussion with Amb. Devare was enriched by the Q&A session with the audience.

A discussion on the theme ‘Sharad Joshi: The Man who Introduced Bharat to India’ was organised during the release of the book, ‘Sharad Joshi: Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage’ by the well-known writer Mr. Bhanu Kale. Mr. Kumar Ketkar, eminent journalist and member, Rajya Sabha chaired the event with Mr Kale, Prof Pradeep Apte, Senior Fellow, PIC and Dr. Ajit Ranade, Vice-Chancellor, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, and Trustee, PIC, participating in the discussion.
Mr. Govindbhau Joshi, Executive Trustee, Shetkari Sanghatana Trust shared memories and anecdotes from his four decades association with the noted farmer leader.
Mr. Bhanu Kale explained how Sharad Joshi understood India as two contrasting nations, Bharat and India, of the rich and the poor. Joshi realised the economic distress of farmers and dedicated his life to empowering them by demanding remunerative prices for farm produce.
Prof. Apte spoke of Mr Joshi’s quest for new ideas and efforts to liberalise the agricultural sector and shared anecdotes of his close association with him. Dr. Ajit Ranade read excerpts from the book and spoke of Sharad Joshi’s personal struggles during his efforts to bring about agricultural reforms.
Mr. Kumar Ketkar described the book as an intellectual read with the potential for a documentary, “on a man who was a maverick”.

PIC’s Founding Member and the co-Chairman of Forbes Marshall, Dr Naushad Forbes, was the guest speaker for a discussion on his book, ‘The Struggle and the Promise: Restoring India’s Potential’. Dr Vijay Kelkar was in the Chair and PIC Members, Prof Ajay Shah and Dr V. Premnath were the discussants.
Dr. Forbes, in his opening remarks, highlighted India’s soft power and presented the three key priorities for the nation discussed in the book: Giving the industry a greater role in nation building, strengthen the quality of our liberal democracy and maintain a balance between the political and cultural institutions of the country. He said inclusive and equitable growth could happen in the decades to come once we focus on increasing CSR activities, promoting mass skill development and investing in R&D infrastructure.
Dr. Ajay Shah, Co-founder, XKDR Forum & Senior Fellow PIC, said while the support to the industry was positive, the lack of funding for research institutions by the government was disappointing. Dr. V. Premnath, Head of Innovations at CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory,  Founder Director, Venture Centre & Member PIC, reiterated the point of expanding the number of institutes in the R&D sector and listed steps to arrest the growing ‘brain drain’ which ultimately benefits the host nations.
Dr. Vijay Kelkar, in his concluding remarks, praised Dr. Forbes for his meticulous research and shared his observations on the current GST structure, the growing debate on ‘Centralization vs Decentralization’ and the way forward for Indian businesses to grow. The discussion included a lively round of questions from the audience.

Prof. Satish Deodhar, the distinguished Founding Member of Pune International Centre and Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, was the guest speaker for this month’s edition of PIC Adda.
He made a detailed presentation on the significance of gold in Indian society since ancient times and its impact on the Indian economy. He pointed out that while temples in India hold 4000 tonnes of gold, official reserves of gold are only 745 tonnes.
Prof. Deodhar explained that there are multiple ways in which idle gold stock can be recycled and channeled into the financial market. Gold Monetization Scheme (GMS), incentivizing banks and consumers, increasing access to the gold loan network of banks and keeping inflation low were some of the ways in which Indian households could be discouraged from hoarding gold, he said.
He suggested that India should develop the largest gold museum in the world. The lecture concluded with an interactive Q&A session which enriched the discussion.

Well-known columnist and media executive turned venture capitalist, Mr. Sajith Pai, Director, Blume Ventures was invited by PIC to speak on the topic, “India’s Emerging Startup Revolution: Learnings from the Indus Valley Report 2022”.
Mr. Alok Kshirsagar, Senior Partner, McKinsey and Co., and member, PIC, Chaired the event.
While lauding the achievements of Start-up’s in India, the chairperson, Mr. Alok Kshirsagar, spoke of the need for start-ups to “scale-up”.
An extremely informative presentation on India and the Startup ecosystem in the country as depicted in the latest Indus Valley Report was made by Mr Pai. He explained that India is a country of contradictions: for example, while India has the highest percentage of female pilots, it is a country with one of the lowest rates of female labour participation. He explained that startups were creating new jobs in sectors where opportunities did not exist, namely, eTailing, Fintech, and SaaS. The ‘Wang Trifecta’ was a key driver of startups in India with cheap bandwidth, smartphones in every pocket and seamless, digital payment gateways. Section 3 of the report gave recommendations for the future. The lecture concluded with an interactive Q&A session.

Indus Valley Annual Report 2022: http://puneinternationalcentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Indus-Valley-Report-PIC.pdf