New Delhi: The second edition of the international conference of South Asian Economic Development is being held on 18-19 February, 2016 at the South Asian University. Former RBI Governor and former Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister Dr. C. Rangarajan will inaugurate the conference. Dr. Kavita A. Sharma, President of South Asian University will chair the inaugural event.

The keynote lecture of the conference will be delivered by Dr. Atiur Rahman, Governor of Bangladesh Bank while Professor Raghbendra Jha, Executive Director of Australia South Asia Research Centre and Fellow in Research School of Asia and the Pacific Crawford School of Public Policy, will give the distinguished plenary lecture.

The conference will provide a platform for research containing methodological advances, both in economic theory and empirical methods, which would provide deeper understanding of South Asian economic development.

Spread over two days, the conference will witness seven technical sessions wherein 22 research papers selected from more than 200 papers will be presented by experienced and young scholars from around South Asia.

The South Asian region presents a study in contrasts. Despite growing at impressive rates over last decade and half, the region is home to the largest concentration of world’s poor with abysmal levels of access to basic economic and social infrastructure. Despite sharing a common economic history that goes back several millennia, it remains one of the least integrated regions of the world with large untapped benefits from greater economic and financial integration. The conference will delve into such many economic development aspects pertaining to the region.

Professor Bibek Debroy, Member of NITI Aayog will deliver the valedictory address.