After the Games

The International Conference on Applications of Game Theory in Policies and Decisions which was being convened over the last two days was concluded today. This conference was in honor of world renowned Indian statistician, Prof. C.R. Rao who is a humble mammoth in this area. He is currently Professor Emeritus at Penn State University, Pennsylvania, USA. This successful gathering of some of the finest minds in the world was the result of the effort put in by Institute of Public Enterprise, Central University of Rajasthan, University of Hyderabad and CR Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science. The guests invited for the inaugural were all colossal in their own right, all of them sharing a common interest in the topic. Chief among them was Dr. Nitish Sengupta(Chairman, Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises). The conference consisted of seven technical sessions each of which was chaired by eminent personalities from the world of statistics. The passion shared by them was both and inspiring infectious. The themes for the technical sessions included Stochastic Games, Cooperative Games, Applications of Game Theory, Supply Chain Management and Game Theory and Finance. The speakers were from all over the world and took great pain to travel to India, contributing immensely to the success of this conference. The effort put in was duly acknowledged. The audience consisted of representatives both from the industry and the world of academia. There was never a dull face all throughout the event, for which part of the credit goes to the hospitality extended by the Hotel Marriott & Convention Center and their tireless staff members. The conference came to a close after a couple of insightful days and was addressed by yet another colossus, Dr. V Raghunathan (CEO, GMR Varalaxmi Foundation). He brought game theory to real life and to our pleasant surprise made us really think how often and indeed, often we Indians use the concepts of game theory through his special lecture, Applications of Game Theory to Social Behavior. Heads of the coordinating institutions shared with their thoughts with the audience contributing to the lasting memory this event will become for all those involved.