Challenges & Policy Responses

The 19th Annual Leadership Summit and Exhibition “Skoch Summit 2009” was held at India Habitat Centre in Delhi on January 22-23, 2009. The Summit brought together policy makers, practitioners, eminent experts, civil society representatives and industry. 

As the nation recovered from the horror and tragedy of the Mumbai siege, the criticality of dovetailing security and emergency responses into the economic and development growth scenarios had never been greater. The 19th Skoch Summit conceptualised to take this agenda forward with the theme of “India: Challenges and Policy Response”. The two-day conference focused on the challenges faced by India in the areas of governance, disaster management, service delivery, education, and health care among others and came out with recommendations for appropriate policy responses to mitigate these challenges. Deliberations were carried out through National Consultations, Round Tables and Research Meetings. Key areas that were identified for deliberations included:

• Security & Disaster Management
• Focus: Gearing-up Power Sector
• Economy: Meltdown & Policies
• Inclusive Economics, Inclusive Governance: Telecentre 2.0
• Education & Employability: Capacity is King
• Round table: Next 5 Years of e-Governance
• Thinkers & Writers Forum

The 19th Summit builds on the 18th Skoch Summit held in October 2008 with the theme “Ideating Third Generation Reforms”. The emphasis was on enabling specific and deliberate social policies (enacted and pursued) that positively affect social well-being and security in the country. The critical areas of focus, therefore, were local governance, education and employability, disaster management and social security (including financial inclusion, micro-insurance and policies directed at bridging the socioeconomic disparities). The conference saw spirited discussions and meaningful debate with the participants concluding unanimously to pursue detailed deliberations on evolving an executable framework for the issues.