Governor N.N. Vohra inaugurated the 54th Annual Conference of “The Indian Econometric Society (TIES)” at the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Kakryal.Dr. Hasseb A. Drabu, Finance Minister, Dr. Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council-PM and Member NITI Aayog, Prof. T.C.A. Anant, President TIES, and Prof. Sanjeev Jain, Vice-Chancellor, SMVDU participated in the inaugural function.Welcoming the delegates, Governor thanked TIES, which is one of the oldest and largest body of professional econometricians and quantitative economists, with members from all over India and abroad, for giving an opportunity to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University to host this important Conference.Highlighting the vital role being played by econometricians in supporting policy makers to formulate targeted schemes for the balanced growth and development of country the Governor stressed the importance of continually devising new and reliable methodologies for data collection.Governor observed that institutions of higher education must get involved in dealing with problems facing the people of the State and the region.He exhorted scholars and academicians to investigate, analyse and determine solutions for the varied serious problems facing the population and hoped that some of the participants could take up researches into some of the problems facing J&K e.g water and energy conservation, transport issues, effects of climate change, rural-urban relationship etc which would help the policy makers in evolving fruitful policies.
Emphasising the crucial importance of establishing a dynamic relationship between academia and policy makers, Governor observed that if NITI Aayog, in collaboration with local Universities, support groups of young scholars to take up researches into various State specific issues it would go a long way in optimising the utilisation of available resources.Dr. Drabu highlighted the importance of reliable data collection and converting this large amount of data into meaningful figures for usage by the planners. He appealed to the scholars to take up research projects in J&K for providing solutions to its problems and highlighting its achievements in various sectors.Dr. Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council-PM and Member NITI Aayog, Prof. T.C.A. Anant, President TIES, spoke on various aspects of econometrics and its importance for development of the country.Prof. D. Mukhopadhyay, Dean Faculty of Management, SMVDU gave introduction about the guests and Faculty of Management, the Welcome Address was given by Dr. Pabitra K. Jena, Organizing Secretary of the Conference and Vote of Thanks was given by Prof.Dipanker Sen, Convener of the Conference.