Dr. Shrikant Dash, an alumnus of the Department of Political Science (MA, 1986), delivered a talk on the “Formal and Institutional Approaches to Political Economy” in the School of Economics on May 1st, 2023.
Prof R V Ramana Murthy, Dean of the School of Economics, chaired the session. Shrikant obtained his PhD in Political Economy from Rochester University in 1994. and is currently a strategic advisor to several companies, including Brewer Lane Ventures and Tech4th Solutions. He was most recently Chief Lending Officer at Alliant Credit Union. Before that, he was Chief Analytics Officer and Head of Marketing Technology & Operations for the Global Consumer Bank at Citigroup and a member of the GCB executive committee. Before Citi, Shrikant held several functional, operating, and P&L leadership roles at General Electric, Morgan Stanley, and Discover Financial Services.
In the talk, Shrikant touched upon applying theoretical frameworks and empirical methods in solving problems in industry, including banking and financial markets. He cited cases of the 2008 crisis and the most recent Silicon Valley Bank collapse to explain how students of Economics could employ their classroom learning in analysing the crisis and suggesting solutions to such problems. The question-and-answer session followed with active participation from students, faculty, Deputy Registrar, Mr. Abhishek Kumar, and Registrar Dr. Devesh Nigam.
The MA students, Rudra Akshay, Venisa, and Naval Kishore presented a compilation of issues of the publication, “Econverse” to Dr Shrikant. The Placement Cell coordinators also interacted with Dr Shrikant and took his advice on building industry linkages. Earlier in the day, Dr. Shrikant spoke at the Centre for Integrated Studies class (PS251: Political Ideologies) on the significance of measuring ideological dispositions rigorously to aid public policy. Dr Shrikant also met the Chair and Convenor of the Alumni Cell and advised them on possible alumni engagement models to strengthen the alumni relations.
Prof. Nagaraju, Dean of Students’ Welfare (DSW), also joined the event and complimented Dr Shrikant on behalf of the office of DSW.