The Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India is happy to invite you to the panel discussion on "Can water conflicts in India be resolved by putting water in Concurrent list, particularly in the context of impact of climate change on hydrological cycle?" to be held on 16 November from 5 to 8 pm at Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi. A provisional programme is given below.

The Forum has also moved into activities that can help in resolving conflicts or making them more tractable through scientific studies and dialogue amongst the conflicting parties. As part of this, the Forum has set up two groups of experts to work on two important issues related to water conflicts in the country, namely, 1) water allocations for livelihood needs and ecosystem needs; and 2) the legal-institutional framework for conflict resolution with the objective of initiating wider discussion and building a certain degree of social consensus around these two critical issues.

The main objective of the panel discussion that we have organized is aimed at one issue that has come up again and again, that of shifting water from the state list to concurrent list on the background of the impact of climate change on the water cycles in the world and whether and how this will help to resolve the water conflicts in India.

Prof. Ramaswamy Iyer, will initiate the panel discussion with a lead presentation and the panelists shall follow with their own presentations. The panel discussion will be followed by an open session in which panelists could respond to the questions and comments from the floor.
We are sure that you will grace us with your presence and participation in this important meeting

Kindly confirm your participation to Ms. Shruti Vispute (Tel: 020-25880786/25886542; 9850260360, Email: waterconflictforum@gmail.com).

Warm regards,

K. J. Joy | Suhas Paranjape

Provisional Programme

Venue of the meeting: Indian National Science Academy, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg,
New Delhi - 110 002

5 pm to 8 pm; 16 November 2009

Welcome and introduction

Lead Presentation
Prof. Ramaswamy Iyer, Ex-Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India and presently with the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi

Proposed Panel Discussion (Some of the panelists are yet to be confirmed)

*Biksham Gujja, Policy Advisor of the Living Water Programme at WWF International, Gland, Switzerland and also Team Leader of WWF-ICRISAT Project on Water Productivity in Agriculture

*M. K. Prasad, Executive Chairman and Director, Information Kerala Mission & former president of KSSP, Trivandrum

*M. K. Ramesh, National Law School, Bangalore

*Medha Patkar, Narmada Bacho Andolan and National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements (NAPM), Mumbai

*Mihir Shah, Member, Planning Commission, Government of India, New Delhi

*N K Premachandran, Minister for Water Resources, Government of Kerala

*Navroz Dubhash, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi

*Pawan Kumar Bansal, Minister of Water Resources, Government of India, New Delhi

*Prashant Bhushan, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India, New Delhi

Open discussion
Vote of thanks
Tea