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IIMC Students to represent India
at Copenhagen Consensus Forum 2004

Students from IIM Calcutta have been selected as part of the Indian contingent to represent India at the Copenhagen Consensus Youth Forum 2004. Ayan Nandy, Rajanish Dass & Sethuraman, all doing their fellow program in management along with Ms. Shama Perveen, Junior Research Fellow, CDEP, have been selected to participate in the forum. The forum is organized by the Environment Assessment Institute, Denmark. The event is being sponsored by Danish Environment Ministry and other foundations. The Economist is co-sponsoring the event.

The world is faced with countless number of challenges and given that resources are limited, policy makers are often faced with the question of prioritisation as to what should come first? At the Copenhagen Consensus (CC), ten challenges representing some of the world's biggest concerns like conflicts, climate change, education, corruption, financial instability, hunger, population, sanitation, water issues etc. have been identified for discussion. The CC takes a new and critical-analytical approach to prioritize opportunities for solving these challenges. During the week of 23-28 May 2004 thus, the Environmental Assessment Institute is hosting roundtable discussions by nine outstanding acknowledged economic experts, including four Nobel Prize winners. Acting as the 'expert panel', this group will discuss, analyze and rank the opportunities corresponding to each challenge. The basis of each discussion will be a challenge paper prepared for each of the challenges by an economic expert who will provide the expert panel with the best and most recent information. The ranking (of the opportunities) that would result therein is meant to serve as a guideline for decision-makers all over the world.

Copenhagen Consensus Youth Forum is a corresponding conference to Copenhagen Consensus. The purpose of the Youth Forum is to set the question of prioritization on the global agenda and spread out the message from the Copenhagen Consensus. The Youth Forum will discuss the same topics as the actual Copenhagen Consensus, but the participants will be students, not economic experts. Up to 99 university students from 20 countries will be invited to the Youth Forum. Together, these countries represent more than 70 percent of the world's population. It is a lifetime opportunity for young people to come to Copenhagen in Denmark and meet other students from all over the world.

As the actual Copenhagen Consensus, the Youth Forum will go through 10 sessions. In each session the Youth Forum will address one global challenge, e.g., hunger or financial instability. Two specialists will speak to the Youth Forum on the opportunities for solving the challenge. After this a group in the Youth Forum questions the facts in the presentations. During the sessions every participant builds an individual ranking list of opportunities. Finally, a secretary determines the average ranking list of the Youth Forum.

The Danish Environment Minister will officially open the Youth Forum on Sunday 23 May 2004. The chairman of the Youth Forum will present the ranking list on a press conference. All sessions are open for public and media access and they are streamed live to the Web. Copenhagen Consensus Youth Forum is sponsored by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Contributed by: -
Avik Barat & Sumeet Arora,
External Relations Cell,
IIM Calcutta.

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