Guest lecture on Agriculture-Growth, Poverty and Inequality.

P.G. Department of Economics, Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar organized a guest lecture on Agriculture-Growth, Poverty and Inequality. Dr. Kamal Vatta a renowned economist from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana was the Chief Guest and speaker of the event.  Dr. Jaspal Singh, Principal of the college, in his address, lauded Department of Economics for making endeavours to make students aware about such social issues. Dr. Vatta apprised of the audience about the growth targets and ground reality of Agriculture and how poverty and inequality is related to it. Stating with the global scenario, he explained that countries having higher targets of growth are reeling with poverty as growth has led to poverty worldwide. He quoted world inequality report which says that the poorest 50 percent have only 8.5 percent of income and 2 percent of wealth. The richest 10% have 52% income and 76% wealth. India is having highest level of inequality as it has adopted jump strategy from agriculture to services. According to him, the structural changes in growth strategy can lead to slow growth but greater poverty reduction. Such growth will reduce inequality. It was an interactive session in which students from audience also shared their experiences and cleared their doubts from Dr. Vatta. He also gave prizes to the winners of inter-departmental collage making and poster making competitions organized by department of economics. More than 50 students participated and showcased their talent. Suryansh of B.com III Sem won first prize in collage making and Manpreet of B.A Sem-III (Fine Arts) was adjudged as the winner of the poster making competition. The economics students made the event more special by presenting a skit on economic issues. They mesmerized the audience by reciting their self written poems on agricultural problems. Vote of thanks was given by Prof. Navdeep Kaur, Head Department of Economics. She highly appreciated the chief quest Dr. Kamal Vatta for sparing his valuable time and sharing his views with students. Vice Principal Prof. Jasreen Kaur, Head of other departments and all the faculty members of economics department were also present.