About the Talk
Capitalist economic theory argue that a completely liberalised global market is the most efficient way to foster growth, because each country specialises in producing the goods and services in which it has a comparative advantage and thereby it ushers to a new growth level. Theoretical construct for this argument could be seen in Vent for surplus theory, Absolute advantage/comparative advantage, Factor price equalisation theory and so on. However, what is missing in this line of argument is whether cutting trade barriers and opening markets do necessarily generate development equally to all countries? And within a country across sector/social group/gender? It is in this backdrop that this talk engages discussion on
(a) India’s trade sector performance;
(b) the channel through which trade shapes the development impact
(c) empirical evidence on the same.

About the Speaker
Dr Malini L Tantri is Associate Professor at Centre for Economic Studies and Policy (CESP) at the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru. Her areas of specialisation include international trade and development, trade facilitation, doing business, India–China studies, Special Economic Zones, trade and gender, and food security. Her works have been published by leading national and international publishers. She was a visiting scholar with the Schulich School of Business, York University, Canada. As part of her consultancy work with GIZ–Lao, Dr Tantri assisted the Government of Lao PDR (National Committee on SEZ) with the draft of the Prime Minister’s Decree on SEZs. Besides this, she has worked with numerous funding agencies in India and abroad.