Shri Rajnath Singh to inaugurate the International Conference on Cooperative Federalism on 20th Jan, 2016

The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh will inaugurate the International Conference on “Strengthening Cooperative Federalism: National Perspectives and International Experience” here on January 20, 2016. The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh will also address the inaugural session.

This Conference is being hosted by the Inter State Council Secretariat (ISCS), Ministry of Home Affairs in collaboration with the Forum of Federations, UNDP and the World Bank. This is the first conference in the country where the subject of cooperative federalism is being discussed at the international level.

In addition to the senior policy makers and Government officials from Central and State governments, academics and practitioners and thinks tanks in India and international experts from Australia, Ethiopia, Germany, Switzerland, South Africa, Brazil and Canada will share their views in the Conference.

Mr. Roger Wilkins (Australia), former Director-General of the Cabinet Office in New South Wales and former Permanent Secretary, Attorney General’s Department, Commonwealth of Australia, Mr. Rupak Chattopadhyay (Canada), President and CEO, Forum of Federations, Ottawa, Canada, Mr. Yalew Abate (Ethiopia), Speaker, House of Federation, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Mr. Mohammed Bhabha (South Africa), Advisor to the Minister of Constitutional Affairs, Mr. Georg Milbradt (Germany), Vice-President, Independent Advisory Committee of the German Stability Council and former Minister-President of the State of Saxony, Mr. Thomas Pfisterer (Switzerland), former Member of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, Government of the Canton of Aargau, and the Swiss Council of States (Senate) will participate in the panel discussions.

Shri Arvind Panagariya, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, Shri Arun Maira, former Member, Planning Commission, Shri S. Narayan, former Union Finance Secretary, Shri G K Pillai, former Union Home Secretary, Shri Navneet Wasan, former DG, Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) and National Investigation Agency, Shri Nitin Desai, Chairman, Institute of Economic Growth, Shri Sudipto Mundle, Emeritus Professor, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy and Shri Probhito Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow and Director, The Energy Research Institute and Ms. Rekha Saxena, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi will also address the conference.

The Conference will have sessions on following five themes: Institutions, mechanisms and processes to facilitate Cooperative Federalism, Fiscal Federalism with a focus on Institutional and Legal Mechanisms and on key social sectors namely Health and Education and Horizontal and Vertical cooperation on Internal Security and Crime and Green Federalism.

The conference is expected to identify the best practices from other countries and come out with recommendations including changes in the institutional mechanisms to foster cooperative federalism in the Indian context.