International Seminar on WTO and
Implications for South Asia

An International Seminar on WTO and Implications for South Asia was organized jointly by Centre for SAARC Studies, Andhra University; GITAM Institute for Foreign Trade; Department of Economics, Andhra University; and RIS on March 27-28, 2004 at Visakhapatnam. The inaugural session was chaired by Prof. Panduranga Rao. Prof Y.C. Simhadri, Vice-Chancellor, Andhra University delivered the inaugural address. Dr. Nagesh Kumar, Director-General, RIS delivered the keynote address.

The first session on Trade Cooperation for Development and Poverty Alleviation was chaired by Prof. V.L. Rao. Presentations were made by Prof. Karori Singh, Mr. Hallay Gebretinsae, Prof. S. Madduri, Prof. U.N. Moorthy, and Dr. D. Krishna Murthy, and Prof. Y. Satyanarayana. Prof. D. Harinarayana was the main discussant. Prof. Ganti Subrahmanyam chaired the second session on WTO and South Asian Agriculture. Presentations in this session were from Prof. P. Leela and Dr. Vinayaka Reddy. Prof. C. Ratnam was the main discussant.

The special session on Linking Socially Responsible Globalization with National Governance, Decentralization, Reforms and Poverty Eradication: The Challenge for WTO, was chaired by Prof. R.V.R. Chandrasekhara Rao. In this session presentation was made by Dr. Ponna Vignaraja. Prof. I.N. Mukherjee chaired the third session on WTO Singapore Issues–South Asia. This had presenta-tions by Prof. M. Sundara Rao, Prof. Smriti Mukherjee, Prof. K. Sreerama Murthy, Dr. N. Nirmala, and Dr. R. Anita Rao. Prof. C.S. Venkata Ratnam was the main discussant.

The fourth session on Health and IPR’s was chaired by Prof. B. Bhattacharya. Presentations were made by Prof. I.N. Mukherjee, Prof. A.R. Bhuyan, Dr. J. Manohara Rao, M. Chandrasekhar, Dr. A Padmavathi, Dr. V. Rajylakshmi, and Dr. D.S. Prakasa Rao. Prof. G. Ramachandrudu was the discussant. The fifth session on WTO—China’s Entry – Implications for South Asia was chaired by Prof. V.V. Bhanoji Rao. Presentations were made by Prof. V. Ramachandraiah, and Prof. T. Nirmala Devi. Dr. L.D. Sudhakar Babu was the main discussant. Summing Up session was chaired by Dr. Ponna Wignaraja. Prof. K.C. Reddy, made preliminary remarks. Prof. C.S. Venkata Ratnam, Prof. V.V. Bhanoji Rao and Prof. A.R. Bhuyan participated. Prof. T. Nirmal Devi extended the vote of thanks.