29TH SKOCH SUMMIT

DR. FR. BARNABE D'SOUZA AT THE 29TH SKOCH SUMMIT

MUMBAI, JUNE 12, 2012: The twenty-ninth SKOCH Summit was held on June 8-9, 2012 at Hyatt Regency, Mumbai. The theme for the summit was ‘Refuelling Growth’. There were eminent personalities like Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Maharastra CM Mr. Prithviraj Chavan, Dr. K C Chakrabarty Governor of RBI who spoke at length on the economic reforms and policy processes and implementation challenges the  country is facing. Directors of major banks, Representatives of various government departments like ministry of rural development, Indian post, ministry of coal, ministry of Panchayati Raj Institutions etc. eminent economists participated in the deliberations at the conclave summit and at various round table discussions. They expressed their opinions on the importance of refuelling growth in order to reach out to the poor through various policies.

There were panel discussions on the themes of financial inclusion, growth- a prerequisite for inclusive growth, rediscovering MSMEs and self employment, Real sector issues and Policy making for Indian planning. The inclusion thought leadership roundtables included topics like building business for Indian post, financial literacy, technology and application trends for financial sector, role of cloud etc. Rev. Dr. Barnabe Dsouza speaking as one of the panellist on the topic “Community Participation for Growth - Rediscovering development banking and insurance for the poor”. He asserted that the marginalized in both rural and urban participate in community development. He questioned that in spite of this participation the lack of structured systems have hindered the process of community participation.

The following day was the thirteenth Thinkers and Writers forum. There were eighteen scholars who presented papers connected to the theme of Refuelling Growth. Ms. Marina D’costa from the RnD presented a paper titled “Inclusion of tribals through Public health Information Infrastructure”. The forum was a give and take of grassroot experiences and recommendations to the government for better governance and implementation of schemes. There were debates on policies and various issues that needed guidance for the welfare of the society at large. The content of research, the grassroots experiences and relevance of the recommendations given was focused by the jury.