The Centre for Social and Economic Progress hosted the seminar on Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on Wednesday, December 6, 2023 from 3:30-5:30 pm. Attendees joinED in person at the CSEP Auditorium (6 Jose P Rizal Marg, 2nd Floor, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi – 110021) or via Zoom. The seminar was also streamed live on YouTube.

About the event

The rollout of EU’s CBAM is likely to have a significant impact on India’s exporting sector. It is possible that other countries and groupings may also implement their own version of CBAM, which will further intensify the impact on India’s manufacturing exports and potential. Research is showing that CBAM will significantly impact costs, exports and profits on specific sectors, and the economy in general. At the same time, there is evidence of how countries and firms across the world are taking actions to better prepare for this new form of trade barrier designed to accelerate the movement towards a low-carbon economy.

The seminar will have participants from large, medium and small industry, policymakers, as well as researchers in the CBAM space. This interaction will contribute to the creation of an ecosystem that can better inform the key participants on how best to address the impending challenge.

Welcome Address

• Laveesh Bhandari is President and a Senior Fellow at CSEP. He has been leading climate change and sustainability research at CSEP, and has published widely on subjects related to sustainable livelihoods, industrial, economic and social reforms in India, economic geography and financial inclusion. He has taught economics at Boston University and IIT Delhi. He has been the managing editor of the Journal of Emerging Market Finance and worked at the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), New Delhi.

Moderator

• Sanjay Kathuria is a Visiting Senior Fellow in the Growth Finance and Development vertical at CSEP. He has a vast experience of more than 40 years, with specialisation in high-level policy dialogue, South Asia, globalisation, trade and regional integration, economic growth, macroeconomic policy, technology development, industrial policy and competitiveness, gender equity.He is also Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies in the National University of Singapore. He also teaches in both the US and India, as Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University, and Visiting Faculty, Ashoka University. He is also a Global Fellow at the Wilson Centre in Washington, D.C.Earlier, he was Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. He was a Lead Economist at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., where he spent 27 years working on South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe, including field assignments in New Delhi and Dhaka. Before joining the World Bank, he was a Fellow at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations in New Delhi, from 1982 to 1992.He holds a PhD in Economics from Oxford University as an Inlaks Scholar. He graduated from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and completed his Master’s at the Delhi School of Economics. He is currently working on a new book on The Future of South Asia.

• V Anantha Nageswaran is the Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India. He has been a writer, author, teacher and consultant. He has written a weekly Mint column for fifteen years on Tuesdays, since 2007. He has co-authored four books – The Rise of Finance – Causes, Consequences and Cures; Derivatives; Can India Grow?; and The Economics of Derivatives. He has taught at several business schools and institutes of management in India and Singapore. He was the Dean of the IFMR Graduate School of Business and a distinguished Visiting Professor of Economics at Krea University. He was one of the founders of the Aavishkaar Venture Capital Fund and the Takshashila Institution. He has served on the Academic Advisory Board of DAV Schools in Tamil Nadu and the Indian School of Public Policy. He was a part-time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India from 2019 to 2021. In his corporate career spanning seventeen years from 1994 to 2011, he was a Currency Economist at the Union Bank of Switzerland, Head of Research and Investment Consulting in Credit Suisse Private Banking in Asia, Head of Asia Research and Global Chief Investment Officer at Bank Julius Baer. He was an independent Director on the Boards of TVS Supply Chain Solutions, Sundaram Fasteners, TVS Sri Chakra Tyres, Delphi TVS and Aparajitha Corporate Services. In 1985, he received a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He earned his doctoral degree from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in 1994 for his work on exchange rate behaviour.

• Montek Singh Ahluwalia is an economist, and civil servant, was former Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Government of India. He joined the Government in 1979 as Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance, after which he held a series of positions including Special Secretary to the Prime Minister; Commerce Secretary; Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs; Finance Secretary in the Ministry of Finance; Member of the Planning Commission and Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. In 2001, he was appointed as the first Director of the newly created Independent Evaluation Office of the International Monetary Fund. He resigned from that position in 2004 to take up the position of Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission which he held from 2004 to 2014.He has been a key figure in Indian economic policy. He writes on various aspects of development economics and has been published in prominent Indian and international journals and books. He co-authored Re-distribution with Growth: An Approach to Policy, which, published in 1975, was a path-breaking book on income distribution. In February 2020, he published his book, Backstage: The Story Behind India’s High Growth Years, an insider’s account of policymaking from 1985 to 2014.For his outstanding contribution to economic policy and public service, he was conferred the prestigious ‘Padma Vibhushan’ in 2011, India’s 2nd highest civilian award for exceptional and distinguished service. Mr Ahluwalia graduated from Delhi University and holds an MA and an MPhil in Economics from Oxford University. He is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College Oxford.

• Renu Kohli is an economist with research and practitioner experience on macroeconomic policies and issues. She has previously worked with the RBI, the IMF and think tanks, including ICRIER and the Institute of Economic Growth. Her work has focused on financial sector liberalisation, capital flows and exchange rate management in emerging markets with a special India focus, international macroeconomic coordination, and recently, the macroeconomic impact of decarbonisation in India. She has been published in refereed journals such as the Review of  Development Economics, Journal of Development Studies, Journal of Asian Economics, Oxford University Press, IMF Working Papers, RBI Staff papers, and contributed to edited volumes. She has exposure to multilateral surveillance including Article IV missions; as a short-term expert with the IMF Institute, her training missions include courses on financial programming & policies and macroeconomic diagnostics. Dr Kohli has wider engagement with the private financial sector and investors through talks, presentations and consultation on Indian macroeconomic policies. She also serves as an independent director on the board of NCML Ltd and NFIN.
• Kritima Bhapta is a Research Analyst in the macroeconomics segment of the Growth, Finance and Development vertical. Prior to joining CSEP, she worked as a Young Professional at the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, where she conducted macroeconomic and policy research related to the International Monetary Fund and India. She also participated in the 2022 Article IV Consultations between the IMF and the Government of India. She holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from NTU Singapore and a Bachelor’s Degree from University of Delhi. Her research interests lie in macroeconomics, international economic relations and public policy.

• Aradhna Aggarwal, professor at Copenhagen Business School Denmark has had a long association with the University of Delhi and premier policy think tanks in India including ICRIER, NCAER and IEG. She has published in multiple media outlets on international trade and business and served as a senior editor of the International Journal of Emerging Markets.  Her research focus includes the political economy of trade, special economic zones, FDI,  technology transfers and innovations, and GVCs and structural transformation of emerging economies. She has served as an international expert in research and training projects with  UNIDO, UNDP, UNESCAP, UNCTAD, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, German Development Institute and the Ministries of Commerce and Information Technology in India. She participates in international expert panel discussions and policy forums, and has delivered invited talks at various platforms across several countries. She is a Board member of the India-Danish Chamber of Commerce.
• Atul Sharma is a co-founder at Sarvada Legal specialising in international trade and customs law. He has extensive experience in WTO litigation and has assisted the Government of India in 7 WTO Disputes. He has assisted governments, government agencies and private clients in the areas of WTO law, trade policy and negotiations, trade and environment, customs issues, export controls (USA, EU and India), and various regulatory laws. Atul co-founded Sarvada Legal in the year 2017. He has been a speaker and panellist at various prestigious platforms such as the Advanced Thematic Course on WTO Dispute Settlement organised by the Legal Affairs Division and the Appellate Body Secretariat, World Trade Organization and the Annual WTO Conference by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law.
• Anil Bhardwaj is Secretary General of the Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME), New Delhi. He is a Private Sector Develop and Trade Professional. He holds a Masters in International Trade. His specialisations include industrial and trade policy issues and framework conditions of promotional and regulatory environments for SMEs and Market Access issues of MSMEs Multilateral Trade Negotiations (such as WTO) and at Regional Trade Agreements. He has advised and worked on several SME development projects supported by Govt. of India, ILO, UNCTAD, UNIDO, UNDP, UNESCAP, ITC & UNCTAD (Geneva), UNDP, ADB, Asian Productivity Council (Tokyo), EU, DFID and GIZ among others. He has authored books and guides for SMEs. He writes regularly on Indian MSME issues. He is a Governing Board member of  the Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI), Ahmedabad.

• Rajat Verma specialises in Input-Output/SAM Modelling and ecological taxation. He recently published a book titled Fiscal Control of Pollution: Application of Ecotaxes in India, wherein he critically examined the theoretical and pragmatic application of optimal rates of ecotaxation and their distributional impacts on households in India. In addition to his interest in Public Finance, he has also published innovative research papers on environmental taxes and international trade. He received a PhD in Economics with a specialisation in Environmental Economics from the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore which is affiliated with the University of Mysore.

Media

As India threatens retaliation, European Commission says preventing carbon leakage sole aim of CBAM – Deccan Herald

As India threatens retaliation, European Commission says preventing carbon leakage sole aim of CBAM – PTI

All content reflects the individual views of the speakers. The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) does not hold an institutional view on any subject.