Biography:
Dr. Gopal Naik, served as a Professor in the Economics Area at IIM Bangalore for 20 years. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA. His focus areas have been agriculture and rural development. Many of his works facilitated policymaking at the government level. He has been coordinating the Unnat Bharath Abhiyan initiative by Govt. of India, which is inspired by the vision of transformational change in rural development processes by leveraging knowledge institutions. Led by Prof. Naik, IIMB’s Centre for Public Policy (CPP) has developed a tele-education project (Satellite & Advanced Multimedia Interactive Education (SAMIE) which was reaching nearly 200,000 school children in 1000 schools in rural backward regions in Karnataka. This project won the prestigious World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) 2015 Award of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations in Geneva for innovative applications. In 2022, Prof. Naik was appointed the Jal Jeevan Mission Chair in Utility Development & Water Economics.
Title : Is productivity a major constraint in India’s competitiveness in the global agricultural commodity market?