Annual conference on labour and development

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation (GIFT) will host the 59th annual conference of the Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE). The conference will see ministers, economists, academicians, researchers and scholars talking about various issues on development and labour.

Though the conference starts from December 15, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the meet on December 16. The conference will begin with a lecture and a panel discussion in memory of Preet Rustagi on December 15. Former Additional Advocate general of India Indira Jaisingh will deliver the lecture.

On December 17, Finance Minister Thomas Issac will deliver the lecture ‘Employment and Development in Kerala: Progress and Prospects’. This year’s conference is centred around the themes – informality and labour market, macroeconomics and employment, and technological change and employment.
Panel discussions will also be held on ‘Regional Dimension of Labour Market Inequality’ and ‘Demographic Transition and Challenge of Employment in Kerala’.

Labour Minister T P Ramakrishnan, Monitory Policy Committee member Ravindra Dholakhia, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation country lead Suneetha Krishnan and United Nations former undersecretary general Nithin Desai will be present at the concluding session on December 18. The GIFT is organising the conference in association with the Centre of Development Studies and Economics Department, Kerala University.