PM Modi to speak at first Arun Jaitley memorial lecture

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will speak at the first ‘Arun Jaitley Memorial Lecture’ here on Friday in which Tharman Shanmugaratnam, a senior minister of the Singapore government, will deliver the keynote address on ‘Growth through Inclusivity, Inclusivity through Growth,’ the PMO said.

The event will see a panel discussion involving OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann and Arvind Panagariya, a professor at the Columbia University. The PMO said the Ministry of Finance has organised the lecture in recognition of Jaitley’s invaluable contribution to the nation.

A leading BJP functionary, Jaitley was the finance minister in the first Modi government. He was also a close associate of the prime minister. He died in 2019 at the age of 66. During the event, Modi will also interact with delegates participating in the Kautilya Economic Conclave (KEC), a three-day event being organised from July 8 to 10.

The economists Modi will meet include Anne Krueger of the John Hopkins University, Nicholas Stern of the London School of Economics, Robert Lawrence of the Harvard Kennedy School, John Lipsky, former acting managing director, IMF and Junaid Ahmed, World Bank country director for India among others. KEC is being organised by the Institute of Economic Growth with support from the Ministry of Finance, it said.