Book Launch and Panel Discussions: 7:00PM – 8:30PM (Tea: 6:30PM – 7:00PM)

Chief Guest: Dr. Bibek Debroy, Member, NITI Aayog

Key Speakers: Dr. Bibek Debroy, Member, NITI Aayog

Dr. Rajat Kathuria, Director and Chief Executive, ICRIER

Dr. Finn Tarp, Director, UNU-WIDER

Dr. Per Pinstrup-Anderson, World Food Laureate and Professor, Cornell University

Dr. Prabhu Pingali, Professor, Cornell University

Dr. Ashok Gulati, Infosys Chair Professor for Agriculture, ICRIER

About the Book: Food price spike not only hits the poor in terms of their economic access to sufficient and nutritious food but can also cause social and political instability. The global food price shock of 2007-08 had somewhat similar impact in a number of countries which even lead to food riots in some of the developing countries. The political responses of this price shock varied widely across countries ranging from export controls to building more buffer stocks, expanding public distribution system, increasing food subsidy and increasing allocation to agricultural sector. The book is a compilation of 16 countries’ case-studies (including India) spread across Africa, Asia, Latin America and developed countries of EU and USA. Experts have dealt in depth the political economic responses to the global food price spike in terms of causes and consequences and from these country-specific case-studies what lessons can be learnt so that future shocks can be dealt with more rationally and at much lower costs, while protecting the economically vulnerable sections of society.