Punjab Newspaper

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


In his presidential address, noted political scientist and Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, Dr 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 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. The crisis, he said, has also caused reduction in the official development assistance to the developing countries at a time when they were not in a position to pay back the debt. The relatively lesser effect of global crisis on Indian economy was due to strong public sector, slow pace of reforms and partial convertibility of currency, he added. Referring to the farmers committing suicides and continuous trend of unemployment in India, Dr Jaspal Singh said that it was the percolating effect of the global financial crisis, triggered by the capitalist forces.

In his keynote address, Dr Harbans Singh Sidhu, Professor of Economics at GNDU, Amritsar, described globalization as no different than capitalism and a backdoor entry to imperialism. It achieves same ends as imperialism by unleashing and manipulating the exploitative and destructive impulses of capitalist market. He stated the crisis that engulfed the financial sector of United States economy in mid-2008 to be the most serious one being faced by the developed capitalist economies since the great depression of 1930s. Rather than correctly assessing the high risks associated with assets underlying the securities the investments, the US banks were 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. India too remains an adjunct of global capitalism with all its inherent contradictions including periodic financial crisis, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr M.S. Saini, Dean Academic Affairs, said that we need utmost efforts to tide over the unfavourable financial situation even as there was no short cut or easy escape to avoid it. Dr Balwinder Singh Tiwana, Organising Secretaryalso spoke on the occasion.