“Economic Policies for Emerging Economies

The Ministry of Finance, Government of India in collaboration with the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy

(NIPFP), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Delhi School of Economics (DSE) and Indian Statistical Institute (ISI)

organised a series of lectures, seminars and workshops during the week of 12-17 December 2011. To mark this occasion, the

week was declared as the Delhi Economics Conclave (DEC) 2011.The central day of the conclave was on December 14, 2011

when the main plenary sessions were held on the theme: “Economic Policies for Emerging Economies.”

The Conclave brought together eminent economic thought-leaders and economic practitioners as well as policymakers and

stakeholders in the Indian capital. More than 400 participants from diverse countries including the US, UK, Germany,

Australia, Singapore and Bangladesh attended. An intensive interactive forum, it elicited perspectives on the theoretical and

practical aspects of an evolving global economic environment, with particular emphasis on the role of India as a large

emerging economy, and a vibrant democracy.

With the backdrop of the recent economic and financial crisis, this conference was organized to discuss the ways through

which emerging market economies, such as India, could overcome the adverse impacts of these external vulnerabilities. In

this respect, the conference deliberated on a number of issues such as spillover impacts of the recession, and economic and

social policies to cope with the imminent slowdown. The deliberations converged on the view that emerging economies need

to have strong back-up plans and focus more on South-South trade. On distilling various views, there appeared to be six

priorities for India:

• investment and capital formation;
•  increased agriculture output and productivity through government investment;
• fiscal consolidation;
• education and skill development to harness the demographic dividend;
• ensure the flow of foreign investment for asset creation; and
• focus on inclusive growth through improved health facilities, education and

financial inclusion. Policymaking has to move on from a purely mechanistic exercise of implementing well-worn rules to

nurturing bold, strategic ideas and putting them to work. Nations that have done so have reaped large benefits. There is

need to bring in new people and innovations into the world of policy. A colloquium, like the Delhi Economics Conclave, is

a step towards this. But, as India advances and becomes industrialized, we will have to think of more sweeping ways of

injecting the imaginative spirit.



South-South Cooperation is a term historically used by policymakers and academics to describe the exchange of resources, technology, and knowledge between developing countries, also known as countries of the global South.



The north–south divide is a socio-economic and political division that exists between the wealthy developed countries, known collectively as "the north", and the poorer developing countries (least developed countries), or "the south."^[1] Although most nations comprising the "North" are in fact located in the Northern Hemisphere (with the notable exceptions of Australia and New Zealand), the divide is not wholly defined by geography.