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EVENT DESCRIPTION
TITLE: “KNOWLEDGE AND GLOBAL INEQUALITY” Interrogating the Present as History"
DATE: 22nd February 2025
ABSTRACT:
This lecture explored the historical dynamics of the global capitalist economy over the past 200 years, focusing on how monopolization and the exclusion of valuable knowledge have shaped global income trends—initially diverging, but more recently showing signs of convergence. Adopting a Southern perspective, the speaker emphasized the role of knowledge creation and its mastery in understanding and potentially overcoming the middle-income trap. A key theme was the concept of intellectual monopoly capitalism, wherein a small number of powerful entities control intellectual property through patents and copyrights. This concentration restricts access to innovation, hinders competition, and contributes to rising global inequality. By offering a novel framework centered on the creation, control, and exclusion of knowledge, the lecture deepened students’ understanding of the historical roots of global inequality and their relevance to current economic challenges and development economics.
About the Speaker
About the Speaker
Prof. (Dr.) Dev Nathan
Prof. (Dr.) Dev Nathan
Prof. Dev Nathan is a distinguished economist and development expert, specializing in rural poverty, global value chains, and indigenous peoples. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Bombay and has had a prominent academic and research career.
Currently Professor at Institute for Human Development (IHD) and Visiting Fellow at the Southern Centre Inequality Studies, WITS University and GenDev Centre for Research and Innovation. He has held visiting positions at the New School for Social Research, Duke University, Kalinga Institute of Technology, the Institute of Ethnology of the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences. He has held Fellowships with the ICSSR, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library and the Indian Institute of Advanced Study.
He has served as a lead researcher for several high-profile projects, including the Scheduled Tribes Human Development Report for the Government of India and has contributed significantly to global development initiatives, such as studies on poverty, gender, food security, and indigenous peoples across Asia.
Prof. Nathan has held senior research positions at international organizations, such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the International Labour Organization (ILO), and has worked in multiple countries. He has published extensively, contributing columns and research to various academic and policy journals.
Words by the Head of the Department
Dr. Marcus Barla
It gives me immense joy to announce that the faculty and students of the Department of Economics, St. Xavier’s College Ranchi, are organizing a Lecture Series- II under the banner of XAVIER ECONOMIC SOCIETY (XES) & IQAC with the collaboration of IHD (ERC), Ranchi on 22nd February 2025.
The topic of the lecture is “KNOWLEDGE AND GLOBAL INEQUALITY SINCE 1800” Interrogating the Present as History, which is relevant for the students and faculty of St Xavier’s College, Ranchi.
The author of this book and the speaker of the topic is Prof. Dev Nathan, from the Institute of Human Development (IHD), New Delhi, a renowned international scholar and distinguished economist and development expert specializing in rural poverty, global value chains and Indigenous people.
On behalf of the faculty and students of the Department of Economics, I extend my hearty welcome to Prof. (Dr.) Dev Nathan at St. Xavier’s College, Ranchi. I hope the faculty and the students of St. Xavier’s College Ranchi will benefit and enrich themselves by gaining knowledge from the lecture. All the best.
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