Former Indian Minister lectures at AUK

Dr. Subramanian Swamy Ph.D (Harvard), former Cabinet Minister of Commerce in India and prominent Harvard scholar delivered two lectures at the American University of Kuwait (AUK) on May 6, 2010. 

The first lecture hosted by the Division of Business and Economics and Gulf Studies Center at AUK, was titled "Globalization and Financial Disorder: Was the Global Financial Crisis Inevitable?" Dr. Swamy emphasized that globalization is both inevitable and irresistible. He suggested that the global economy needs a financial architecture consisting of prudent norms, institutions to enforce the norms, transparency, and governance rules. He made an interesting reference about the World Bank's publication titled "The East Asia Miracle" that praised the East Asian Economies for having got their "basics right" and later publishing the article, "Rethinking East Asia's Miracle" after the 1997 financial crisis. He concluded that even with healthy macroeconomic fundamentals, financial crises is inevitable if there is a policy mismatch such as the "unholy policy trinity". Many AUK professors and students attended the lecture.

The second lecture, titled "India's Role in the Asian Framework" was organized by the Kuwait Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India in association with AUK's Finance Department. Dr. Swamy insisted that if India has to play a leading role in the Asian economic arena, then it has to improve its relationship with China as well as other East Asian countries. Dr. Swamy explained the need for bringing major structural changes in Indian agriculture in order to benefit from its capability to cultivate all through the year as opposed to other countries where the cultivation is limited to certain seasons of the year. Mr. M S Mathew, Chairman of the Kuwait Chapter presided over the lecture. Dr. Swamy presented a memento to the secretary of the Kuwait Chapter, Mr. Sriram Goplakrishan. 

Dr. Subramanian Swamy
 

A view of the audience
 

Dr.Swamy during the second lecture