Singapore Min to address first ‘Arun Jaitley Memorial Lecture’ in Delhi; PM Modi to attend

In a key development, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, a senior minister of the Singapore administration will deliver the keynote address on ‘Growth through inclusivity, inclusivity through growth’ at the first ‘Arun Jaitley Memorial Lecture’ (AJML) in New Delhi on Friday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also attend the first ‘Arun Jaitley Memorial Lecture’ (AJML) at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi today. He will also interact with the delegates partaking in the Kautilya Economic Conclave (KEC), a three-day event being organised from 8th to 10th July.

Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance has organised the first ‘Arun Jaitley Memorial Lecture’ in recognition of Shri Arun Jaitley’s invaluable contribution to the nation.

PM Modi to interact with eminent economists

Eminent economists with whom the Prime Minister will interact include Anne Krueger of the John Hopkins University, Nicholas Stern of the London School of Economics, Robert Lawrence of the Harvard Kennedy School, John Lipsky, the former acting Managing director, IMF; Junaid Ahmed, the World Bank country director for India, among others.

The event will see a panel discussion involving OECD Secretary-General  Mathias Cormann and Arvind Panagariya, a Professor at Columbia University.  

KEC is being organised by the Institute of Economic Growth with support from the Ministry of Finance.

Arun Jaitley's political career

Arun Jaitley was one of the country's most eminent lawyers, a senior BJP leader and a former Union Defence, Law & Justice and Finance Minister. Born on 28 December 1952, Jaitely left for a heavenly abode on 13 August 2019, at AIIMS, New Delhi, after being on life-support for nearly eight days.

Known for two historical reforms to the Indian economy and judiciary - the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the introduction of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBS) - Jaitely, an eloquent orator in his political and professional career, held immense repute in his largely non-controversial life. Terminating his law practice in the year 2009, Jaitely served as BJP leader in the Rajya Sabha between 2009 -2014. 

Critics say that the GST implementation had undergone multiple revisions but Jaitely had 'manoeuvred' them efficiently. Notably, the enactment of IBC, with an objective to redress companies' and corporate issues to regulate bankruptcy, winding up and outlining the accountability of corporate key players, took the sector by storm and revamped it extensively. 

In 2020, Arun Jaitely was posthumously conferred the country's second-highest civilian honour, Padma Vibhushan. Arun Jaitely was under preventive detention for 19 months at the time of the Emergency and was a prominent face of the 1973 Bihar movement against corruption.