MSE Silver Jubilee Conference on the theme “Technology and Development” was organised by Madras School of Economics in partnership with Knowledge Forum on August 11, 2018. Many distinguished professors presented their paper. The programme was introduced by Professor C. Rangarajan, Chairman, MSE, who spoke about the importance of technology diffusion as the key for generating higher economic growth. This was followed by the First technical Session on the theme “ICT and Development”, chaired by Professor K L Krishna, Chairman MIDS and former Director DSE. Dr. K.R. Shanmugan (Director, MSE) and Dr. Rakesh Nigam(MSE) presented their paper on “ A Clustering Based Approach to Study the Impact of Technology on the Performance of Indian Commercial Banks” and Dr. Simontini Das(Jadavpur University) and Dr. Amrita Chatterjee(MSE) presented their paper on “ICT Diffusion and Financial Inclusion: An Interstate Analysis for India”. The second technical session was on the theme “Technology, Employment and Labour”, chaired by Professor K Narayanan, Professor, IIT Bombay.
Dr. Arup Mitra (Institute of Economic Growth) presented his paper on “Technology, Productivity and Employment” and Dr. Vidya Mahambare (Great Lakes Institute of Management) along with Dr. Sowmya Dhanaraj(MSE), presented their paper on “Gender and Individual Access to Urban Opportunities: A study of IT workers of Chennai, India”. The third technical session was on the theme “Technology: Other Issues” and was chaired by Dr. Arup Mitra. Radeef Chundakkadan and Subash Sashidharan, (IIT Madras) presented their joint paper on “Financial Constraints, Government Support and Firm Innovation: Empirical Evidence from Developing Economies” followed by Dr. K.J. Joseph and Kiran Kumar (CDS), presenting on “The Paradox of Innovation and Productivity in India’s Manufacturing Sector: An Innovation System Perspective”. Mohina Saxena and Surajit Bhattacharya, (IIT Bombay) presented their paper on “Capital Structure, Process Innovation and Firm Level Output: The Limited Liability Effect under Demand Uncertainty in Cournot Duopoly”. The last paper in this session was by Dr. Sunil Paul (IIT Goa) and Dr. Santosh Kumar Sahu (IIT Madras) on “Aggregate Fluctuations, Productivity and Technical Efficiency”.
The final technical session was based on “Technology: Service Sector, Agriculture and Environment”, chaired by Professor N.S. Siddharthan, MSE and Knowledge Forum. Asmita Goswami and Dr. K. Narayanan, (IIT Bombay) presented their paper on “Technological Efforts and Productivity: A Study of Information Technology Service Firms in India”, Dr. Madhuri Saripalle (IFMR) presented a paper on “Promoting Technologies for Sustainable Agriculture: Lessons from Farmers in South India” and Debapriya Das and Dr. Zareena Begum (MSE) presented their paper on “Techno-Economic Assessment of the Forthcoming Sustainable Bioeconomy: The need to clear the clouds of conflict, consensus and confusion”. The program ended with valedictory address by Prof. K.L. Krishna, chaired by Prof. U. Sankar, Former Director, MSE.