Annual conference of the Indian Political Economy Association begins at Punjabi University, Patiala

Deliberations on the opening day of the 13th Annual Conference of the Indian Political Economy Association (IPEA), which began at the Punjabi University’s Senate Hall on Friday, centered around the global financial crisis and its impact on the Indian socio-economic and political system.

In his presidential address, Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University Jaspal Singh said that the irresponsible and non-transparent behaviour of financial institutions, coupled with speculative strategies of price hike of assets, has led to the prevailing financial recession. “The developed countries are spending billions to bail out the private institutions working on the premise that profits are private and losses are public, has led to the spread of recessionist tendencies all around the globe,” he added.

The crisis, he said, has also caused reduction in the official development assistance to developing countries at a time when they were not in a position to repay the debt. The relatively lesser effect of the global crisis on the Indian economy was due to a strong public sector, slow pace of reforms and partial convertibility of currency, he added.

In his keynote address, Harbans Singh Sidhu, professor of Economics at GNDU, Amritsar, described globalisation as no different from capitalism and a “backdoor entry to imperialism”. “It achieves the same ends as imperialism by unleashing and manipulating the exploitative and destructive impulses of a capitalist market. The crisis that engulfed the US financial sector in mid-2008 is the worst-ever after the Great Depression of 1930s. But rather than correctly assessing the high risks associated with assets underlying the securities, the US banks are transferring those risks to other market players for quick and high profits. A speculative surge in stock and real estate market prices has further aggravated the situation,” he said.

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