Meet on GDP recovery post Covid

Hyderabad ISB faculty, researchers and students of PGP cohort has participated in the virtual Final Presentation Conclave organised by the Indian School of Business under its Jumpstart India (JSI) programme, to steer India's post-Covid economic recovery.

The programme started in May 2020 and JSI has incorporated more than 45 projects involving over 30 faculty members and 300 ISB students to help the central and State governments with key policy decisions in eight priority areas of national significance, including informal economy, healthcare, remote work institutionalisation and agriculture. The conclave focused on student teams and researchers who had contributed to diverse research projects spread across the country and presented the progress of their respective pursuits, thereby developing frameworks. Professor Ashwini Chhatre, Executive Director, Bharti Institute of Public Policy (BIPP) and one of the architects of this initiative, appreciated the collective effort of the ISB faculty and students to volunteer at the time of this unprecedented crisis, in helping the government and private sector devise effective recovery plans.

He further added that various projects, in collaboration with the governments of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, have grown from short-term projects under JSI, as their success has prompted public agencies for long-term research-based projects that can help States in the post-Covid era. Other State governments also have approached ISB for specific collaborations under the JSI umbrella, he added. The presentations shared details of ongoing projects such as those based on food-grain procurement in Punjab during pandemic, pulse- an e-governance based project in Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, attracting investments in Tamil Nadu, mentorship-based model for meritorious students in Punjab, forest produce procurement in Jharkhand, developing an eco-system on remote work in India, and distribution of Covid vaccine in India.

Digital Identity Research Initiative (DIRI), Executive Director, Professor Bhagwan Chowdhry, who has been involved with JSI since inception, said that many projects based on financial inclusion have also been initiated under the JSI programme and would go a long way in stabilising the economy.