K R Narayanan Oration Lecture Series

The Narayanan Lectures are hosted by the Australian National University in honour of the former Indian President, DR K R Narayanan. The annual oration is delivered by a leading India thinker, and the list of distinguished speakers has included Dr Raja J. Chelliah, Professor Jagdish Bhagwati, Professor U. R. Rao and Mr P. Chidambaram. The Narayanan lectures are published annually by Australia South Asia Research Centre (ASARC).

Past lectures

1 June 2012

Title: The Indian Economy: Rising to global challenges

Lecturer: Dr Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Government of India

23 June 2011

Title: India and the Global Financial Crisis - What Have we Learnt?

Lecturer: Dr D. Subbarao, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India

29 November 2010

Title: India's Prospects in the Post-Crisis World

Lecturer: Mr M.S. Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission of India

2 November 2009

Title: Rocket Science, Other Science: A Trajectory of Indian Science and Technology from the 20th to the 21st Century

Lecturer: Prof Roddam Narasimha, Chairman, Engineering Mechanics Unit Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, India

16 September 2008

Title: Why Environmentalism Needs Equity: Learning from the environmentalism of the poor to build our common future

Lecturer: Ms Sunita Narain, Director of the Centre for Science & Environment, Director of the Society for Environmental Communications and publisher of the fortnightly magazine Down to Earth

8 August 2007

Title: Coping with Climate Change: Is Development in India and the World Sustainable?

Lecturer: Dr Rajendra Pachauri, Director-General of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), India.

20 July 2006

Title: India's Space Enterprise - A Case Study in Strategic Thinking and Planning

Lecturer: Dr K. Kasturirangan

27 September 2005

Title: Science and Shaping Our Agricultural Future

Lecturer: Professor M.S. Swaminathan

27 April 2004

Title: India: On the growth turnpike

Lecturer: Dr Vijay Kelkar, Adviser to the Minister of Finance Government of India

25 March 2003

Title: Political Economy and Governance Issues in Indian Economic Reform

Lecturer: Professor Pranab Bardhan, Department of Economics, University of California at Berkeley.

5 December 2002

Title: Democracy and Development: India 1947-2002

Lecturer: Lord Meghnad Desai, Professor of Economics at London School of Economics (LSE) and Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, LSE.

16 August 2001

Title: Monetary Policy in a Developing country: The Case of India

Lecturer: Dr C. Rangarajan, Governor of Andhra Pradesh, India

2 October 1999

Title: Stronger Branches, Deeper Roots: The Democratisation of India's Economic Reforms

Lecturer: Mr P. Chidambaram, Former Finance Minister, Government of India.

28 July 1996

Title: India: Retrospect and Prospect

Lecturer: Professor Jagdish Bhagwati, Arthur Lehman Professor of Economics and Political Science, Columbia University, New York.

14 September 1995

Title: Space Technology for Sustainable Development in Asia

Lecturer: Professor U. R. Rao, member, Space Commission and Dr Vikram Sarabhai Distinguished Professor.

23 June 1994

Title: Reforming the Tax Base for Economic Development

Lecturer: Dr Raja J Chelliah, Minister of State and Fiscal Adviser to the Government of India.