National Council of Applied Economic Research
Land Acquisition
As the debate over India’s new Land Acquisition Bill rages in public and in Parliament, NCAER organised a very timely conversation on Land Acquisition, the first of NCAER’s new Looking East series of live, practitioner conversations by video with key East Asian policymakers, scholars, and analysts. Dr Ir Wahyu Utomo, Special Expert to the Coordinating Minister for Regional Development, Ministry for Economic Affairs, Indonesia and Dr Chatayan Phromsorn, Director, Bureau of Highway Standards & Inspection, Department of Highways, Thailand, shared their experiences with land acquisition policies and programmes. They were joined by Dr K. P. Krishnan, Additional Secretary, Department of Land Resources, Government of India. Dr Ramesh Subramaniam, Deputy Director-General, Southeast Asia Department, ADB provided opening comments. The conversation was moderated by NCAER Director-General Dr Shekhar Shah, and NCAER Distinguished Fellow Mr Rajat Nag.
About the Speakers
Wahyu has extensive public policy and implementation experience in infrastructure, land, PPP, and housing in the Government of Indonesia. He has a PhD in Regional Sciences from Cornell University. Chayatan has served extensively with the Thai Department of Highways including as the Director for Information Technology, and as project lead for some of Thailand’s largest infrastructure projects. His PhD in Civil Engineering is from University of Texas at Austin. Krishnan is a member of the Indian Administrative Service and has served in the Governments of Karnataka and India, including as Secretary Finance and Urban Development and Principal Secretary, Coordination, in Karnataka, Adviser to the Indian Executive Director at the World Bank, Joint Secretary, Capital Markets, Ministry of Finance, and Secretary, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. Krishnan has a PhD in Economics and Finance from IIM, Bangalore and also has a law degree. Subramaniam oversees a range of ADB-supported operations across ASEAN and has worked in 25 countries across the Asia Pacific in his 18 years at the ADB, including as the Deputy Country Director for Indonesia and co-Team Leader of the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund. He has a PhD in Econometrics and Development from McMaster University in Canada.
About Looking East Policy Conversations
NCAER’s Looking East policy conversations, spread over the next several months, are designed to provide an opportunity for live, focussed dialogue among public policy practitioners in India and East Asia. These roughly two-hour, tightly organized video conversations at NCAER will be driven by mutual interest and intellectual curiosity, with the invited East Asian policymakers selected for their intimate knowledge and involvement in their country’s public policy experience and their own interest in learning about how Indian policymakers are meeting similar challenges. The series is managed jointly by Shekhar Shah and Rajat Nag, both with extensive experience and contacts from their respective past work on East Asia on behalf of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. The conversations will cover topics such as infrastructure financing, managing public private partnerships, labour reforms, exchange rate management, inclusive growth, export processing zones, fiscal federalism, safety nets, service delivery in health and education, child nutrition, maternal health, pensions and old age security, and climate change.
