Jaipur Literature Festival to see top economists

Top international names from the world of economics and business, including Sebastian Mallaby, Arvind Subramanian, Thomas Piketty, Amitabh Kant, Nigel Harris and Niall Ferguson, will gather to discuss business issues and successes in the 9th edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival.

Wealthy, powerful, and potentially dangerous, hedge-fund managers have emerged as the stars of 21st-century capitalism. Based on unprecedented access to the industry, Sebastian Mallaby’s book, More Money than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of the New Elite, provides the first authoritative history of hedge funds. In a session of the same name, in discussion with Mihir Sharma, hedge funds are explored from their origins in the 1960s and 1970s to their role in the financial crisis of 2007-9.

Another international big-hitter in economics writing, Thomas Piketty’s ground-breaking book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, analyses a unique collection of data from 20 countries, ranging as far back as the 18th century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. At the festival he will discuss his theories with fellow economic historians and writers on finance Sebastian Mallaby and Arvind Subramanian, moderated by Pratap Bhanu Mehta in a session called “Capital”.

Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth at the heart of the political economy fascinate celebrated economist and professor of economics at the Paris School of Economics, Thomas Piketty. In “The Politics of Inequality” he will join with his former pupil, Mihir Sharma, to talk about his most recent book of the same name.

The government’s “Make In India” campaign aims to attract foreign investment in job-creating manufacturing industries, and the slogan has established a strong brand image. A well-informed panel, including secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Amitabh Kant; CMD of Biocon Ltd Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw; Dr Mehta, the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India; A. Didar Singh, secretary-general of Ficci; and Ford’s Nigel Harris will discuss the prospects, success and stumbling blocks in the path of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” campaign.

Pandemonium is Jaipur-born Piyush Pandey’s brilliant and incisive book on advertising which brings alive all aspects of the persuasion industry and explores the sources and inspirations of creative communication. He will be in conversation with Suhel Seth on contemporary Indian advertising and how to move minds and wallets with the power of focused narrative.

The journey from small town to visionary promoter of a global brand is captured in Subhash Chandra’s new memoir being launched at Jaipur Literature Festival. In the “Z Factor” he’ll talk about the highs and lows on his way to becoming a pioneer in the Indian television entertainment industry.