In the first decade of the 21st century India has shown that it can grow at near double-digit rates. The growth momentum continued till about 2007 until the sub-prime crisis of the US got globalised and wafted in to most economies as a shiver along the spine. Fortunately India was not affected much by the sub-prime crisis primarily because Indian banking system has had a spring-cleaning only a decade back immediately after the process of liberalization. In the following years, Indian economy had started showing signs of internal hemorrhage: of slowing reform-initiatives, of rising levels of corruption and nepotism, of serious predicaments of governance, of rising inflation , of depreciating Indian Rupee and finally of slowing down of the growth-engine. By 2012, India has emerged as the third largest economy on the globe with GDP of US$ 4.46 trillion (on PPP basis); its per capita income had risen to US$ 3400; it's Diaspora numbered 50 million PIOs, second only to the Chinese; but it also housed the largest chunk of the poorest people (those earning less that US$1 per day); the divide between the top-most and lower-most quartiles of its population has only been widening. This is the paradox that India is in: rampant ineptitude and abject poverty amidst a sea of affluence. Barely three centuries ago, India, accounting for 32 % of the global GDP, was the leading economy of the world (Angus Madison, 2005). Europe and later on the North America, propelled by the Industrial revolution, led the world till the close of the twentieth century. The third millennium, true to the prophecy of Alvin Toffler, is witnessing the power-shift to the Asian continent. As per the 2011 statistics from IMF released in April 2012, the combined GDP of the Asian giants – China, India and Japan- account for 26 % of the global GDP while USA the global leader accounts for 20%. In the years to come this balance is expected to shift rapidly towards Asia. It is in this context that we need to look at the current predicament of India's growth-engine. The reasons for stagnancy could be policy paralysis, sheer incompetence, leadership crisis or a combination of all of these. The challenges before India are only too many. The conference is an exploration in this direction. It is a platform for academicians, thinkers and practitioners to come together and deliberate on issues related to the main theme. Participation is through research-papers on any topic related to the main theme or any of the sub-themes. To facilitate focus the conference is structured to look at the managerial challenges facing the Indian economy in terms of a set of functional domains as also certain special perspectives. (This is shown separately in a matrix.) The conference will have few plenary sessions on select sub-themes and a series of technical sessions where the delegates will be presenting their research–papers. Select papers will be edited and published as a book by a leading national publisher. Certain journals have agreed to cherry-pick papers from this conference for publication in their forthcoming issues.
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