the goan I network
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The 2nd International Conference on Economics and Finance (ICEF) was organised by the Department of Economics, BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus, in collaboration with the University of Missouri.
In his inaugural address, Director Prof Raghurama G emphasized on asking the right questions and creating solutions that can be used by society.
Prof Aswini K Mishra, Head of Department of Economics, shed light on ongoing collaboration between the academia and industry.
During the three-day event, the audience was enlightened by current research insights from the eminent speakers from India and
abroad.
The keynote speaker, Jeffrey Thomson, President and CEO of IMA (Institute of Management Accountants), stressed on the growing need and motivation for businesses to incorporate social and environmental considerations and adopting “purpose-based l
eadership”. Prof Avanidhar Subrahmanyam, Distinguished Professor of Finance at the John E Anderson Graduate School of Management, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), gave an insightful plenary lecture on challenges of big data in finance and explained how economic fundamentals and consumer sentiments predict s
tock returns.
Dr Hamza Ali Malik (Director, Macroeconomic Policy and Financing for Development Division, United Nations ESCAP) stressed on prioritising and mapping the progress of SDGs and the need to invest in people, planet and prosperity for sustainable long-term development.
Dr Sweta Saxena (Chief, Macroeconomic Policy and Analysis, UN-ESCAP)) shed light on economic booms, crises, and recoveries and explained the “illusionary phase” of economic recovery post-crises.
Prof Sanket Mohapatra of IIM Ahmedabad explained how stronger insolvency regimes can reduce firms’ default risk.
Jaywardhan Semwal, VP at Hewlett Packard, elucidated the evolving nature of finance from being retrospective to predictive to now being prescriptive.
Prof Sujeet K Sharma of IIM Trichy elaborated on the research opportunities for social science scholars in data analytics.
Dr Joyojeet Pal of Microsoft Research India provided insights on how social media drives election campaigns and results. He presented ‘Politwictionary’ a database of nearly 18,500 Indian politicians, tracking their activities, consistency and popularity on social media
platforms.
Prof Prakash Singh of IIM Lucknow explained the importance of non-quantitative component of company annual reports, while Prof. Vairam Arunachalam, (University of Missouri) provided insights on asset misappropriation and financial statement fraud.
