Leaders, researchers discuss issues topical to modern South Asia at OUP conclave

Policymakers, bureaucrats, academicians and journalists debated on topics like issues affecting Indian politics, business and politics, political finance, civil-military relations and healthcare policy at a conclave here.

The second edition of the South Asia Conclave yesterday had policymakers, bureaucrats, academicians, and journalists discussing recent developments in South Asia and its significant positioning in geopolitics.

The conclave was organised by Oxford University Press (OUP) with an aim to become a major platform to talk about issues pertaining to South Asia and developing a deeper understanding.

The first session focused on "politics of Ideology and Identity; the role of western notion and the rise of social conservation". The book "Ideology and Identity: The Changing Party Systems of India" by academicians Pradeep K Chhibber and Rahul Verma formed the basis of the discussion.

The speakers, including Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh, debated how the ideology and patronage in the Indian political system should be more connected rather than the sharp divide that one sees today. They also spoke about how the method of measurements depends on the linguistic aspect of the way a question is asked, with respect to the surveys, as well as shift of power from metropolitan elites to small town rural India.

Based on the book "The Absent Dialogue: Civil-Military Relations in India" by Anit Mukherjee, a session revolved around the civil military effectiveness of India and how civil-military relations are rather dysfunctional.

There was also a session on healthcare in which the deliberation revolved around issues related to the measurement of success in the sector, the models, global debate on high drug crisis, trust deficit at large between patient and doctors, lack of budgets for research in the sector among others.

MP Rajeev Gowda and former CEC S Y Quraishi were among the speakers in the session on "Costs of Democracy: Political Finance in India" who touched upon issues like financial politics becoming a problem across democracies, absence of independent audit of political parties and outdated regularity framework.

There was also a session on business and politics in India, which discussed the growing power of business groups in Indian politics and the consequences of this process on key issue areas.