In March, 2020, the Centre for Policy Research hosted the second edition of CPR Dialogues, on the theme of ‘Policy Perspectives for 21st-century India'

CPR Dialogues 2020 addressed the following questions:

● As norms of engagement and the global order change, how should India define its geopolitical position?

● Can the Indian state deliver cutting edge public services to all its citizens and build 21st-century public institutions?

● How can India create productive jobs while responding to challenges of technology, rapid urbanisation and global economic changes?

● How can India move towards a more inclusive and environmentally sound future while responding to its energy needs as a growing economy?

● How can citizen-state engagement create more inclusive citizenship?

● What are the underlying dynamics and emerging trends in India’s politics and how do these shape policymaking in the 21st century?

Key sessions at CPR Dialogues 2020 included:

Inaugural Address by Hon’ble Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs, India

At the Threshold of a New Decade: Navigating the Emerging Geopolitical Landscape

The panel featured James Steinberg (Professor, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs; Former United States Deputy Secretary of State), Frank N Pieke (Professor of Modern China Studies, Leiden University) and was moderated by Shyam Saran (Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research; Former Foreign Secretary, India). The panel discussed some of the key questions that confront nations, big and small, as they prepare to navigate the coming decade. What is likely to be the ‘new normal’ in international relations during the coming decade? Has the post Second World War order been finally laid to rest? If so, are the contours of a new geopolitical landscape beginning to emerge? Will some remnants of the old order continue to remain relevant? How are the major players positioning themselves in this ever-changing landscape? As global challenges such as climate change, cyber security, and security of space-based assets warrant a collaborative approach, will the new decade witness a new phase of accommodation and even cooperation? Are we inching towards a contemporary version of a bi-polar world or is the trend towards multi-polarity inescapable?

Creating an Inclusive Economy in a Digital World

The panel featured Himanshu Wardhan (Managing Director, Etsy India), Rituparna Chakraborty (Co-founder & Executive Vice President, TeamLease Services), Berges Y. Malu (Director, Public Policy & Policy Communications, ShareChat). The session was moderated by Sabina Dewan (Senior Visiting Fellow, Centre for Policy Research; President & Executive Director, JustJobs Network).

As the twenty-first-century progresses, India, along with the rest of the world, is witnessing the unfolding of rapid and significant technological change. This Fourth Industrial Revolution, as it is often called, is restructuring our labour markets. Against this backdrop, this panel explored how technology is changing the nature of work, and especially its implications for the workforce participation of women, who constitute half of the working-age population. It is essential to understand how the demand for workers will change and how the productive potential of women can be harnessed if technology has to be leveraged in service of development and growth.

What Would Happen if We Were to Believe in Indian Agriculture?

What would happen if we were to actually believe in Indian agriculture? This panel was an invitation to revisit and revise our assumptions about the vast potential of Indian agriculture, instead of treating it as a residue, a stalled structural transformation, a subsistence industry that requires only income support, or a buffer stock strategy for foodgrains.

The panel featured Saurabh Garg (Principal Secretary, Department of Agriculture & Farmers Empowerment, Government of Odisha), Harish Damodaran (Rural Affairs and Agriculture Editor, The Indian Express), Ajay Vir Jakhar (Chairperson, Bharat Krishak Samaj), Ramesh Chand (Member, NITI Aayog). The moderator for this session was Mekhala Krishnamurthy (Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research).

Technology and Administrative Reform: Experience from India and the World

This panel discussed Indian and global experience in using technology to reform the welfare bureaucracy at the state and national level. For cash transfer programs, the Direct Benefit Transfer initiative and Socio-Economic Census data are two large-scale digital building blocks for India’s future social protection system. However, a growing body of experience in India highlights that the effective use of digital resources requires complementary human resources, particularly within the local bureaucracy. Far from ensuring that the pipelines for payments are automated and mechanized, the next generation of administrative reforms will need to contend with eligibility determination, cross-departmental coordination, deeper IT familiarity, claim management and last-mile accountability with deeper citizen engagement.

The panel for this session included Arun Sharma (Director, DBT Mission, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India), Saurabh Garg (Principal Secretary, Department of Agriculture & Farmers Empowerment, Government of Odisha), Shrayana Bhattacharya (Senior Economist, Social Protection and Jobs, World Bank), Varad Pande (Investment Partner, Omidyar Network India). The moderator of the session was Yamini Aiyar (President and Chief Executive, Centre for Policy Research).

Rights in Times of AI: Emerging Technologies and the Public Law Framework

The opening keynote for this session was delivered by Shashi Tharoor (Member of Parliament, India). The panel members included Madhav Khosla (Associate Professor of Political Science, Ashoka University; Ambedkar Visiting Associate Professor of Law, Columbia University; & Junior Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows), Smriti Parsheera (Fellow, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy), Madhav Khosla (Associate Professor of Political Science, Ashoka University; Ambedkar Visiting Associate Professor of Law, Columbia University; & Junior Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows), Smriti Parsheera (Fellow, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy). The session was moderated by Ananth Padmanabhan (Visiting Fellow, Centre for Policy Research).

In the many decades since independence, courts and lawmakers have not had much of an opportunity to evaluate the impact of technology on constitutional values. However, in the past few years, new technological advancements such as biometric identification, facial recognition and other mass surveillance systems, have brought to the fore a new set of challenges that Indian democracy has not dealt with before. While courts have largely weighed in on the side of acknowledging freedoms such as privacy and free speech in the online context, the limitations and exceptions on these freedoms are far from clear. This panel explored the interaction between emerging technologies and existing public law frameworks, the need for novel approaches to address new kinds of harm, and the scope of independent governance in these emerging areas of technology.

The Role of Ideas in Shaping Policy

The session was opened by Lant Pritchett (Senior Visiting Fellow, Centre for Policy Research). The panel included Navroz K Dubash (Professor, Centre for Policy Research), Partha Mukhopadhyay (Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research), in conversation with Yamini Aiyar (President and Chief Executive, Centre for Policy Research). This session was an invitation to reclaim the space for ideas in our debates on public policy and consider the role of think tanks in driving and shaping the world of policy through ideas. In recent times, we have tended to focus our debates on policy much more in the realm of design, action and impact than on these underlying questions about the state of the world. Yet, it is ideas that shape our understanding of the state of the world and the possibilities for policy. The panel discussed the role of ideas in public policy.

Tracking Government Spending: Challenges in Social Policy Financing

What are the emerging trends of social policy financing in India? What should be the role of the Union Government in social policy financing in an era of more cooperative federalism? What is the role of technology in enabling a more efficient public finance management system? What is the optimal allocation of functions and capacities required across all levels of government to ensure an outcome-focussed financing system? By placing the current evidence on the processes involved in the delivery of social policies at the front and centre, this session revisited the current design of social policy financing given the recent changes in India’s fiscal architecture.

The panel included Rathin Roy (Director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy), Alok Kumar (Adviser, NITI Aayog), Jeffrey Hammer (Senior Visiting Fellow, Centre for Policy Research), TR Raghunandan (Adviser, Accountability Initiative; Former Indian Administrative Service Officer). The session was moderated by Avani Kapur (Senior Fellow & Director, Accountability Initiative, Centre for Policy Research).

Article 21 and India's Social and Economic Rights

Social and economic rights underpin basic human conditions necessary to live a life of freedom and dignity. The Indian Constitution, when it was adopted in 1950, guaranteed SER but they were made expressly non-enforceable by courts. However, starting from the late 1970s, in a series of judgments, the negative guarantee of the right to life in Article 21 was expanded into a positive one of right to life with dignity, and read the rights to health, housing, a clean environment, water, sanitation, food, education as the underlying determinants of the right to life with dignity.

The effect of the recognition of these various rights, however, varies, and the context and actors involved in the court cases has influenced the way in which these rights have been developed. There is considerable disagreement as to whether the articulation of social and economic rights has helped claimants and potential claimants. This panel including Sudhir Krishnaswamy (Vice-Chancellor, National Law School of India University, Bangalore), Namita Wahi (Fellow and Director, Land Rights Initiative, Centre for Policy Research), Shibani Ghosh (Fellow, Centre for Policy Research), Kiran Bhatty (Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research), tried to understand how specific social and economic rights are being put to use, and what constraints and limitations might prevent people from mobilising their rights. The panel was moderated by Arkaja Singh (Fellow, Centre for Policy Research).

Are India’s Financial Institutions in Crisis? Understanding India’s Economic Slowdown

The crisis in India's financial institutions is at the forefront of ongoing diagnosis of India's economic slowdown. As our government and banking ecosystems have begun to acknowledge some of their deep problems, there has been a scramble for quick diagnosis and remedies. But many of the problems in our financial system defy quick fixes; they will require a reorientation and rethinking of how the government has managed the economy over the last twenty years. Before diagnosis and remedies, we must ask the basic question: what is the state-run financial system good at? And where has it fallen short?

In this session, the panelists, B Sriram (Former Managing Director, State Bank of India and IDBI Bank), Upendra Kumar Sinha (Former Chairperson, Securities and Exchange Board of India), Naina Lal Kidwai (Former Chairman, HSBC India and Senior Adviser, Advent Private Equity), discussed their perceptions regarding what works, what does not work, and what must change in India's financial institutions going forward. The session was moderated by KP Krishnan (Former Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India).

Emerging Trends in Indian Politics

The rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party at the centre stage of Indian politics is marked by multiple shifts. India is undergoing a massive demographic transition as more members of the electorate are part of the middle class, living in urban areas, more educated, and more exposed to media sources. Furthermore, the BJP’s social base over the past two decades has undergone a transformation. The magnitude of the BJP’s victory in 2019 also restructured the competitive political space. While on the one hand, the BJP seems to be on the back foot in state elections, on the other, the party's ideological hegemony seems to be at its peak.

In this session, Rahul Verma, Fellow at the CPR politics team gave a brief presentation analyzing the emerging contours of Indian politics, followed by reflections and insights from the panelists which included Vandita Mishra (National Opinion Editor, Indian Express, Mukulika Banerjee, Director, South Asia Centre, LSE), Mukund Padmanabhan (Consultant & former Editor, The Hindu), Gilles Verniers (Senior Visiting Fellow, Centre for Policy Research & Co-Director, TCPD, Ashoka University). The session was moderated by Neelanjan Sircar (Senior Visiting Fellow, Centre for Policy Research & Assistant Professor, Ashoka University).

Indo-US Relations

In this session, James Steinberg (Professor, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University; Former United States Deputy Secretary of State and Shivshankar Menon (Former National Security Advisor & Foreign Secretary, India) in conversation with Shekhar Gupta (Founder, ThePrint India) discussed the Indo-US relations and the trajectory that it follows.

Political Elites and Local Bureaucratic Capacity

This panel reflected to a short presentation made by CPR Fellow Rahul Verma drawing on his fieldwork in Uttar Pradesh which shows that reproduction of traditional power structures as a by-product of well-oiled machinery maintained by few powerful elites - who are generally from upper castes, tend to keep political offices (across various levels) within family, collude with bureaucratic agents and oversee a large patronage network which has links with criminal entrepreneurs and brokers. They often operate like a cartel, which in turn has serious implications for local bureaucratic capacity.

The panel members included Shekhar Gupta (Founder, ThePrint India), Deepak Sanan (Senior Visiting Fellow, Centre for Policy Research), Patrick French (Dean, School of Arts and Sciences, Ahmedabad University), Jayant Chaudhary (Former Member of Parliament, India), Mukulika Banerjee, Director, South Asia Centre, LSE.

Challenges in Public Education: Balancing State and Non-State Actors

Public education has been under the scanner in the last few decades for failing to deliver the goals of education and enhance learning levels. The efficacy of state provision has been questioned, as state supply of education has consistently fallen short of meeting demand due to fiscal and other constraints. As quality declined, those who could, have sought non-state options, fuelling their proliferation. The entry of private, quasi-public, and public private partnerships has led to what has been called a ‘pluralisation of the state’, as the power and authority of the state are shared with a multitude of non-state actors. In a country such as India, where persistent social inequalities continue to pose a challenge, the entry of non-state actors is not a simple matter of increasing resources. As we enter a new era with a new education policy, conversations on how best to manage the trade-offs have thus become pertinent. This panel added to that conversation by bringing together enlightened and experienced minds to debate the different aspects of this issue.

The panel included NV Varghese (Chancellor, National Institute of Education Planning and Administration), Rashmi Sharma (Senior Visiting Fellow, ICRIER; Former IAS Officer), Priyadarshani Joshi (Global Education Monitoring Team, UNESCO), Parth J Shah (Founder President, Centre for Civil Society). The session was moderated by Kiran Bhatty (Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research).

The Air Pollution Crisis: Making Political Salience Count

The panel featured Gaurav Gogoi (Member of Parliament, India), Saurabh Bharadwaj (Member of Legislative Assembly, Delhi), Shreya Gadepalli (South Asia Director- Institute for Transport and Development Policy). The session was moderated by Shibani Ghosh (Fellow, Centre for Policy Research; Santosh Harish, Fellow, Centre for Policy Research).

The panel discussed the state of public demand for clean air, and the role of elected representatives in addressing air pollution. With growing public and media engagement, air quality seems to be becoming politically salient, featuring in Parliamentary discussions, election manifestos and political debates. Have we indeed turned a corner? How does this increased engagement translate into making tough decisions, higher resource allocation and improved environmental governance?

Land and the Constitution: Solving Land Conflict in India

This panel included Shyam Divan (Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India), KP Krishnan (Former Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India), Nitin Sethi (Independent Journalist, Usha Ramanathan, Independent Law Scholar). The session was moderated by Namita Wahi (Fellow and Director, Land Rights Initiative, Centre for Policy Research).

The panel celebrated the five-year anniversary of the Land Rights Initiative by deliberating on how we may eliminate land conflict in India, by addressing the legislative, administrative, and judicial factors responsible for such conflict within the framework of the Constitution.

What Would it Take to Build a 21st-century State for India?

CPR Dialogues 2020 witnessed the launch of CPR’s State Capacity Initiative. This panel was opened by Mekhala Krishnamurthy (Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research) with a short presentation followed by a discussion with Sanjay Mitra (Former Chief Secretary, West Bengal), T V Somanathan (Secretary, Department of Expenditure, Government of India), Junaid Ahmad (Country Director, World Bank in India). The session was moderated by Yamini Aiyar (President & Chief Executive, Centre for Policy Research).