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Law, Economics, and Policy Conference

The LEPC is a flagship initiative of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), New York, designed to bring together leading voices in Law, Economics, and Public Policy to engage with complex, real-world challenges in a comprehensive and interdisciplinary manner. The Conference, launched in 2016 in New Delhi, is into the seventh year and is guided by a Steering Committee composed of distinguished experts from various fields.


LEPC VII will be held in collaboration with the Government of Karnataka, Institute of Social and Economic Change (ISEC), XKDR Forum, AP & Partners, University of Cambridge, and Vanderbilt Law School. This edition will focus on the Growth Strategy in the States of India.


This conference is led by a Steering Committee: Ajay Shah, K P Krishnan, Ila Patnaik, Akshay Jaitly, Sunanda Nair-Bidkar, Ajit Ranade, Anand Prasad, Krishna Raj, Shailaja Fennell, Arjun Sinha, and Yesha Yadav.

Type
Conference
Date
08 - 10 Dec 2025
Time
11:00 AM
Where
Bengaluru, India
In partnership with:
Inet
Government Of Karnataka
Isec
Fpi
Xkdr Forum
A P & Partners
University Of Cambridge
Agenda
11:00 - 11:10

INET opening remarks

Sunanda Nair-Bidkar, International Strategy & Advancement, INET

11:10 - 11:20

Introduction to LEPC

Ajay Shah, Co-founder, XKDR Forum

11:20 - 11:30

Introduction to inaugural speaker

Krishna Raj, Professor, Institute for Social and Economic Change

11:30 - 12:30

Keynote inaugural speaker

H.K. Patil, Minister of Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Legislation, Tourism, Government of Karnataka (Invited)

12:30 - 14:30

Lunch

14:30 -15:45

Panel 1: Economic growth strategy for the states

KP Krishnan, Former Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India

Ajit Ranade, Senior Fellow, Pune International Centre

Uma Mahadevan, Additional Chief Secretary to Government & Development Com-

missioner, Government of Karnataka

Arjun Jayadev, Professor, Azim Premji University

Ashish Kumar Singh, Former Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Maharash-

tra (Invited)

15-45 - 16:00

Break

16:00 - 17:15

Panel 2: The path for India’s climate transition

Ajay Shah, Co-founder, XKDR Forum

Shailaja Fennell, Professor, University of Cambridge

Krishna Raj, Professor, Institute for Social and Economic Change

Ashok Dalwai, Chairman, Karnataka Agriculture Price Commission

Niranjan Reddy, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha

17:30 - 18:30

Book Talk: A sixth of humanity

Panel:

Devesh Kapur, Professor, Johns Hopkins University & co-author

Arvind Subramanian, Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics & co-author

KP Krishnan, Former Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India

Ajay Shah, Co-founder, XKDR Forum

09:30 - 10:45

Panel 3: Improving state finance and city finance

M. Govinda Rao, Former Director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy

Manish Kumar Singh, Professor, IIT Roorkee

Vishal R, Director, Fiscal Policy Institute

L K Atheeq, Chairman, Bengaluru Business Corridor

Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan, Bombay High Court (Invited)

10:45 - 11:00

Break

11:00 - 12:15

Panel 4: New kinds of measurement

Ashwini Deshpande, Professor, Ashoka University

Susan Thomas, Co-founder, XKDR Forum

Amit Basole, Professor, Azim Premji University

Karan Nagpal, India Regional Director, IDInsight

12:15 - 13:15

Lunch

13:15 - 14:30

Panel 5: State of health

Amrita Agarwal, Independent Advisor

Nachiket Mor, Visiting Scientist, Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health

Satish B. Agnihotri, Professor, IIT Bombay

Harsh Gupta, Principal Secretary, Government of Karnataka (Invited)

Soumya Swaminathan, Chair, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (Invited)

14:30 - 14:45

Break

14:45 - 16:00

Panel 6: Doing better on export-oriented manufacturing

Arjun Sinha, Partner, AP & Partners

Pravakar Sahoo, Programme Director (Economics & Finance), NITI Aayog

Anup Wadhawan, Former Commerce Secretary, Government of India

Uma Reddy, Senior Vice-President, Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce

and Industry

16:00 - 16:15

Break

16:15 - 17:30

Panel 7: The chokepoint of the energy (electricity) sector

Renuka Sane, Managing Director, Trustbridge Rule of Law Foundation

Akshay Jaitly, Co-founder, Trilegal

R. Srikanth, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru

17:30 - 17:45

Break

17:45 - 19:00

Panel 8: Transforming the District Courts

Justice AKJ Nambiar, Kerala High Court

Justice Suraj Govindraj, Karnataka High Court

Siddharth Raman, Senior Research Lead, XKDR Forum

Prashant Reddy, Co-author, Tareekh pe Justice

Surya Prakash BS, Fellow and Programme Director, DAKSH

19:00 - 21:00

Invite Only Dinner: Taj West End

09:30 - 10:45

Panel 9: Social Welfare and Development

Sukhdeo Thorat, Professor Emeritus, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Mohammed Mohsin, Principal Secretary, Government of Karnataka

Anupama Shetty, Mission Director, Biocon Foundation

Krishna Raj, Professor, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru

10:45 - 11:00

Break

11:00 - 11:45

Talk: Minister of Social Welfare, Government of Karnataka

Dr HC Mahadevappa, Minister of Social Welfare, Government of Karnataka

11:45 - 13:00

Panel 10: Making cities work better

P Manivannan, Secretary, Government of Karnataka

Ashish Verma, Professor, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru

13:00 - 14:00

Lunch

14:00 - 15:00

Book Talk: Unshacking the Elephant: Transforming Indian Law, Culture and Economy

Anand Prasad, Senior Partner, AP & Partners & author

Bhargavi Zaveri-Shah, Co-founder, The Professeer

15:00 - 15:15

Break

15:15 - 16:15

Valedictory: TBA

Dan Berkovitz, Professor, Columbia Law School; Former General Counsel of the U.S.

Securities and Exchange Commissio; Former Commissioner of the U.S. Commodity

Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) (Invited)