Overview

This year, on the theme “Question the Future”, we intend to engage the most promising minds with understanding the intricacies hidden in the challenge of making a better tomorrow. The task of understanding the path of India in the coming years presents a multi-dimensional issue. We intend to focus on the following major topics - Healthcare, Finance and Governance.
The three tracks we have chosen are issues that are lacking in implementation in India and through the symposium the flaws deeply wrought in each will be exposed, its gaps scrutinised and viable solutions proposed.

FINANCE
A pre-requisite for all growth and development related activities is an innovative and strong financial policy. Hence we present the Finance track which largely deals with realizing the role of finance and entrepreneurship in different aspects of growth. Focal points of the discussion will be the debate between the regulation and competition of enterprises, financing green technologies and financial inclusion. Green technologies are the need of the hour with wide spread concern over global warming and climate change and hence their financing plays a central role in today’s development sphere. Entrepreneurial ventures involving green technologies will be explored, as will the direction that these should take in the coming years. Focus will also be laid on the interplay between regulation and a perfectly competitive market for enterprises and the necessity to strike a balance between the two. The recent times have witnessed a sudden spike in the growth of the banking sector. But as is the case with other growth, it hasn’t been inclusive and a large section of the society has been left out. From this rises the need for financial inclusion. Besides trying to understand the need for financial inclusion, studying its impact on other forms of development is of great significance. An attempt will be made to come up with innovative solutions and ideas to see the inclusion of all into the financial boom.

GOVERNANCE
The implementation of any policy decision has been a major cause of concern in India. At this Symposium we deal with the issue of Governance. We will deliberate upon how technology can aid governance. We shall try and understand major initiatives like the UID project and how it will help, apart from providing social security and identity to the people, in identifying and providing financial, educational and healthcare services to the underprivileged. We will also look at other issues, most important among them being corruption, which is rampant in the political system of our country. Measures to curb corruption such as decentralization of governance, which will improve public participation in decision making, will also be discussed. Over the four days, this track aims to find linearity between healthcare, education, access to technology, etc., crucial for the proper governance of any country.

HEALTHCARE
Health care, or the lack of access to it, is one of the most plaguing issues facing our country today. With the highest population growth rate, and being the second most populous country in the world, deficiencies in the health care program affect a great number of people. Health care problems in India include affordability, lack of awareness of how to maintain one’s health including obvious preventions and timely cures, and most importantly lack of hospitals and doctors catering to the urban and rural poor. While the U.S allocates 12% of its national annual budget to health care, India allocates a mere 1%. Thus a Green Revolution, as was done in the agricultural sector to significantly increase food productivity is now required in the health sector. The ultimate goal of health care in India would be to ensure a fundamental right to demand health services. But this is our opinion of what the ‘ultimate goal’ of healthcare should be. At the Symposium 2011, scrutiny of every view and opinion is encouraged until we collectively reach a viable solution is capable of withstanding all challenges.