The Forum for Global Knowledge Sharing is holding its 14thAnnual Conference at the IIT Madras focusing on the topical and important theme of ‘Technology and Economy’.  The conference, over three days attracted papers on a range of themes:  FDI in the context of innovation and technology development but also in the context of environmental disasters, etc. The inaugural on October 11 was chaired by N S Siddharthan, eminent economist, president of the Forum and the drive behind the Forum’s enviable track record of attracting high quality papers regularly.  Umakant Dash, the head of department of Humanities and Social Sciences welcomed the gathering. The director of IIT Madras, Bhaskar Ramamurthy drew attention to the exciting times we lived in and the opportunities for application of knowledge in various sectors.  

The range of papers, a large proportion drawn from younger scholars are addressing emerging problems such as the impact of environmental disasters on sectoral FDI worldwide, the impact of internationalisation  on innovation; the experience of Indian software firms on the closure of subsidiary closure; trade reforms and productivity; business group affiliation and FDI spillovers, technological effors and productivity in IT firms, on the impact of trade reforms. A session on R&D and innovation featured papers on technology and export performance of pharma companies, of IPr institutions, of the development of the nascent molecular diagnostic industry and of the role of digital access and usage. Interestingly, the annual conference as always and especially this one, draws paper submissions not only scholars in economics but also from a variety of disciplines.

The Knowledge Forum Conference held two panels on new, emerging areas of research interest.  This time around the spotlight was on a special session on Econophysics. This is a relatively new area that is less than two decades old is an interdisciplinary research field that seeks to apply methods originally developed in physics to problems in economics. 

The other focus in this year’s conference is a special session on Artificial Intelligence structured as a session to demonstrate its utility in economic problem solving, but also raising legal and ethical issues deriving from the use of AI.

The Knowledge Forum (www.fgks.in) is unusual in that it is an interdisciplinary global forum dealing with science, technology and economy interface and providing a platform for scholars across institutions, universities, countries and disciplines to interact, exchange their research findings and undertake joint research studies.  Ably supporting it is the Forum’s advisory body. Run on a small budget it relies on support through grants and institutional support.  This time around, the conference was supported by Tata Trusts and the excellent and generous support from the Humanities and Social Sciences department of IIT Madras.