A presentation by Professor Ramaswamy R. Iyer, India’s Centre for Policy Research with discussant Lopamudra Banerjee, Assistant Professor of Economics, The New School.

Limited seating on a first come basis.

The Himalayas feeds nine of the largest rivers in the region on which more than 1.5 billion people depend upon downstream. Over the years these water systems have also been one of the more sensitive political subjects in the region. Today there is a bidding war for controlling these water ways for various reasons including large hydro power plants and India is actively negotiating new as well as old treaties with its neighbors.

Professor Ramaswamy R. Iyer is currently a member of the High Level Expert Panel on Water and Disaster, an adjunct to the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation. He was formerly the Secretary of Water Resources in the Government of India. After his retirement from the Government, he was Research Professor at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) , New Delhi, where he worked on water-related issues, and in particular on cooperation on river waters by India, Nepal and Bangladesh. He continues with CPR in an honorary capacity. Professor Iyer will discuss India’s inter-country water relations with Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. He will address both transboundary river water systems as well as looking beyond river waters, governments and big projects to outline other possibilities of cooperation between India and these countries.