Third ISID Conference on India’s Industrial Transformation

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Inaugural Session (YouTube link)

ISID organised the Third ISID Conference on “India’s Industrial Transformation: Towards a Manufacturing Strategy to Navigate Global Shifts” during October 29–31, 2025, at the ISID campus, New Delhi. Supported by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) The conference brought together policymakers, academics, and industry experts to deliberate on pathways for strengthening India’s manufacturing sector. The inaugural session opened with remarks by Prof Nagesh Kumar, Director, ISID, followed by special remarks from Prof Dhananjay Singh, Member Secretary, Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), and the inaugural address by Mr Suman Bery, Hon’ble Vice-Chairman, NITI Aayog. The session concluded with closing remarks by Mr Ajay Shankar, Member of the ISID Board and former Industry Secretary

Besides the inaugural session, the ISID Conference was structured into four high level plenaries, and 12 competitive sessions covering presentations of 49 technical papers by young scholars, and the valedictory session. The conference was coordinated by Dr Reji K Joseph, Associate Professor, ISID and Dr Akhilesh Kumar Sharma, Assistant Professor, ISID.

Plenary on Industrial Strategy amidst the Changing Global Context (YouTube link)

The session was chaired by Mr Ajay Shankar, Member ISID Board and Former Industry Secretary, GoI. A presentation on the theme “Harnessing India’s Manufacturing Potential: Challenges and Opportunities” was made by Prof Nagesh Kumar, Director, ISID. This was followed by remarks made by distinguished panelists including Dr Rakesh Mohan, Member, PM-EAC, Dr Cristiano Passini, Director, UNIDO Regional Office, and Mr Ishtiyaque Ahmed, Programme Director, Industry, NITI Aayog.

Plenary on Driving Green Industrialization and Decarbonization: Addressing the Technology and Finance Gaps (YouTube link)

The session was chaired by Mr Nitin Desai, Former UN Undersecretary General. Distinguished speakers included Dr Arunabha Ghosh, CEO, CEEW, Prof Jyoti Parikh, Executive Director IRADE, Prof Ambuj Sagar, Founder and Head, Centre for Public Policy, IIT, Delhi, and Mr Girish Sethi, Senior Director, Industrial Energy Efficiency Division, TERI.

Professor Deepak Nayyar delivers the Commencement Lecture at the Launch of the Industrial Development Research Association (IDRA)
(YouTube link)

IDRA has been conceived as a forum for debate on the issues concerning industrial development, to promote and facilitate networking of various stakeholders, including researchers, academicians, business associations, and government bodies, and to undertake, promote and facilitate research and teaching in the areas of industrial development and related subjects. Bringing together professionals working on industry from across the country, IDRA is anchored by the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID).

The vision of IDRA was floated at the First ISID Conference on Industrial Transformation held during 4-6 October 2023 by Prof K L Krishna and was enthusiastically supported by the young researchers who felt the need for such a platform for them to come together to present their work and network with their peers from across the country.

The Draft Memorandum of Association and the Rules were discussed at the Second ISID Conference held on 19-21 November 2024, when the participants also nominated the founding office bearers, including Professor K L Krishna as the Patron and Professor Deepak Nayyar as the first President of IDRA.

IDRA was launched at a Special ISID@40-IDRA Session organised at the Third ISID Conference held on 29 October 2025, while the IDRA registration is in process. Prof Deepak Nayyar, as the President-Elect, delivered the IDRA Commencement Lecture at the Special Session. The logo of the fledgling Association was unveiled and the objectives and rules of IDRA were shared by Dr Akhilesh Sharma, its Secretary & Treasurer. The Session was joined by other office bearers including Prof K L Krishna, Patron, IDRA, Prof C Veeramani, Prof M Suresh Babu, Prof Nagesh Kumar, Prof TCA Anant, and Prof Ruchi Sharma, among other dignitaries.

ISID launches its 40th Anniversary Celebrations and honours its founders

ISID was registered as a society in October 1986. Hence its Board of Governors at the 87^th Meeting held on October 15, 2025 resolved to mark the period from October 2025-October 2026 as its 40^th Anniversary year. The Celebrations will include a number of commemorative activities and events throughout the year. ISID also launched the ISID@40 Distinguished Person Lecture Series, with the first Lecture delivered by Prof S Mahendra Dev, Hon’ble Chairman of EAC-PM, as reported elsewhere.

The 40^th Anniversary Celebrations were launched at a Special Session convened in the evening of 29 October 2025 and was addressed by Prof Dhananjay Singh, Member-Secretary, ICSSR, Prof Deepak Nayyar, Vice-Chairman, ISID, Prof K L Krishna, former Director, DSE, Prof S R Hashim, former Director ISID and former Chairman UPSC, Prof TCA Anant, ISID Board Member and former Chief Statistician and Secretary, Govt of India, Prof Pulin Nayak, former Director of DSE and Member of ISID Board, Prof Nagesh Kumar, Director, ISID, and Dr Satyaki Roy, Faculty Member, ISID. An ISID@40 Brochure was also launched at this occasion.

ISID decided to honour its founder Late Professor S K Goyal by naming a Conference Hall as Prof S K Goyal Conference Hall. Another Conference Hall was named after Late Shri Chandra Shekhar, Former Prime Minister of India and former Chairman, ISID. The memorial plaques for the founders were unveiled by Prof Deepak Nayyar, Vice-Chairman, ISID and Prof S R Hashim, former Director, ISID.

High-Level Policy Roundtable on Strengthening MSMEs amidst Global Trade Restructuring (YouTube link)

The session was chaired by Ms Anuja Bapat, DDG, Office of the Development Commissioner, Ministry of MSME, Govt of India. The session panellists included Prof M Suresh Babu, Director, MIDS Chennai, Prof K Narayanan, Head, Economics Dept, IIT Bombay, Mr Anil Bhardwaj, Secretary-General FISME, Ms Sonal Jaitly, MicroSave Consulting.

High-Level Policy Roundtable on India’s Manufactured Exports and GVCs Meeting the Challenge of Trump Tariffs (YouTube link)

The session was chaired by Mr Sumanta Chaudhuri, Principal Adviser, CII and former Secretary to the Govt of India. The speakers of the session included Prof C Veeramani, Director, CDS, Thiruvananthapuram, Prof Pravakar Sahoo, Senior Adviser, NITI Aayog, Dr Pritam Banerjee, Director, Centre for WTO Studies, IIFT, New Delhi, Prof S K Mohanty, RIS, and Prof Nisha Taneja, ICRIER.

First ISID@40 Distinguished Person Lecture on “Indian Economy and Manufacturing Sector – Issues and Policies”
delivered by Prof S Mahendra Dev, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) (YouTube link)

ISID has launched a series of ISID@40 Distinguished Persons Lecture Series to commemorate 40^th year of its founding. The first ISID@40 distinguished person lecture was delivered by Prof S Mahendra Dev, Hon’ble Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM). Prof Nagesh Kumar, Director ISID, gave the welcome address. The session was chaired by Prof K L Krishna, former Director, Delhi School of Economics. The theme of Prof Dev’s Lecture was Indian Economy and the Manufacturing Sector – Issues and Policies. In his lecture, Prof Dev highlighted the criticality of manufacturing-led growth at the present juncture of India’s economy, the key challenges and opportunities available and the policies that are expected to help realise the country’s potential.

Competitive Sessions

The competitive sessions were chaired by senior academics and included two discussants to comment on the papers presented at each session. The session chairs include Prof Ruchi Sharma, IIT Indore, Dr Rajesh Chadha, Senior Fellow, CSEP, New Delhi, Prof C Veeramani, Director, CDS, Thiruvananthapuram, Prof K Narayanan, Head, Dept of Economics, IIT Bombay, Prof Aradhna Aggarwal, Senior Advisor, NCAER, Prof Ananya Ghosh-Dastidar, DFBE, University of Delhi, Prof Aditya Bhattacharjea, Visiting Professor, ISID, Prof Bishwanath Goldar, IEG, Prof Suma Athreye, IIT Delhi, Prof Alakh Sharma, Director, Institute for Human Development, New Delhi, Prof Vijay Ojha, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi, Prof Uday Bhanu Sinha, DSE.The competitive sessions were chaired by senior academics and included two discussants to comment on the papers presented at each session. The session chairs include Prof Ruchi Sharma, IIT Indore, Dr Rajesh Chadha, Senior Fellow, CSEP, New Delhi, Prof C Veeramani, Director, CDS, Thiruvananthapuram, Prof K Narayanan, Head, Dept of Economics, IIT Bombay, Prof Aradhna Aggarwal, Senior Advisor, NCAER, Prof Ananya Ghosh-Dastidar, DFBE, University of Delhi, Prof Aditya Bhattacharjea, Visiting Professor, ISID, Prof Bishwanath Goldar, IEG, Prof Suma Athreye, IIT Delhi, Prof Alakh Sharma, Director, Institute for Human Development, New Delhi, Prof Vijay Ojha, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi, Prof Uday Bhanu Sinha, DSE.

Valedictory Session of the Conference

The valedictory session was chaired by Prof Nagesh Kumar, Director ISID. The conference summary report was presented by Dr Reji Joseph, Associate Professor ISID and Conference Convener. Prof Nagesh Kumar made the closing remarks at the conference followed by the Vote of Thanks presented by Dr Akhilesh Sharma, Assistant Professor and Conference Co-Convener.

Click here to Register for physical mode participation.

ISID is organizing the Third ISID Conference on India’s Industrial Transformation: Towards a Manufacturing Strategy to Navigate Global Shifts on 29-31 October 2025. The conference will take place at ISID campus, New Delhi.

As India strives to attain the status of an advanced country in the next two decades, India’s developmental aspirations cannot be realised without transforming the industrial sector, especially the manufacturing sector, as it leads to job creation, increased productivity and economic growth. However, India or for that matter, any other country, cannot pursue an industrial transformation strategy in isolation from the developments in the global economy. The global economy is witnessing a weakening of multilateral institutions such as WTO and the increasing significance of bilateral economic arrangements, increasingly favouring the use of industrial policy measures and moving away from mere efficiency-seeking supply chains to diversified and resilient supply chains. These recent developments, on the one hand, provide an opportunity for India in its efforts to transform the manufacturing sector, but on the other, they also pose challenges. The third conference will focus on strategizing India’s industrial policy to steer through the changes in the global economy to realise the objective of Viksit Bharat @2047.

The broad themes that would be addressed at the conference include:

o  Industrial Strategy in the Changing Global Context

o Trade Policy Changes, FDI, and Supply Chain Restructuring

o  MSMEs and Labour-Intensive Manufacturing

o  Fostering Innovation and Digital Industrialisation

o  Taking Advantage of Green Industrialisation Opportunities

This call for papers invites unpublished research and policy papers from authors on the relevant themes. The papers will be selected through a peer-review process. Interested authors may send in full papers of 6000-9000 words (inclusive of abstract and reference) including an abstract of 150 words. Papers should be submitted by email to conference@isid.org.in along with a cover letter and brief profile of the author(s).

The deadline for the submission of papers is extended to 15 July 2025.

Travel grants and accommodation will be provided to select young researchers.

Institute will publish selected papers through reputed publishers.

Organisation of the Conference

The Conference will combine keynote addresses by senior experts to set the agenda, competitive presentations, and policy roundtables. The policy roundtables would involve senior researchers, policymakers, and industry experts for drawing policy lessons based on insights and analysis.

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For further queries and correspondence, email at conference@isid.org.in.