The Meet provides an opportunity for undergraduate students to write academic papers on topical issues in the region from the perspective of their home country and present the papers at the conference, share their experiences, and to learn from each other, while enhancing their knowledge on development and cooperation in the South Asian countries.  In addition, various competitive events like “Budding Economist of South Asia”, Inter-country Economics Quiz, Panel discussions are also organized in which students represent their country. The knowledge of regional economic issues, regional perspectives on similar problems and possible solutions are only some of the benefits that participants derive from the Meet. The Meet generates massive positive externalities in terms of understanding, comradeship and healthy competition it stimulates amongst the participants.

SAESM has through the annual meet provided young scholars at an early age to deliberate on economic issues that are important to their own economies and also in South Asian region. The deliberations on topics such as business environment, human capital formation, infrastructure, role of state, corporate governance, regional trade including SAFTA, microfinance, religious values and development, market relevance of Economics, corruption and economic reforms stand testimony to the our endeavour to provide the young scholars of the regions a platform to focus attention on issues crucial for the development of the region.

In short, SAESM has strived to share ideas for a better understanding of the South Asian region. It is a matter of great pride for us at SAESM that students from different South Asian colleges and universities, who participated at various Meets and now are a part of our alumni, are completing their further studies in some of the best universities across the world. Further, many of them have expressed a desire to return to their own country to play an active role in the country’s economic development – reflecting the achievement of SAESM objective.

The conference was conceived to be an annual event to be hosted in turn by each member country. Till date, since its inception in Delhi (2004), this annual meet has been a wonderful journey of sharing intellectual space and bonding amongst fellow South Asian Economics undergraduate students.

Year	Venue	Theme
2004	Delhi	Economic Developments in South Asia: Which Way Ahead
2005	Lahore	Issues for South Asian Development
2006	Dhaka	Sharing Ideas for a better understanding of South Asian Development
2007	Colombo	Economic Development and Regional cooperation in South Asia
2008	New Delhi	Economic Challenges to Make South Asia free from Poverty and Deprivation
2009	Dhaka	Young Economist’s for an Integrated South Asia
2010	Colombo	Economic Freedom and Poverty Reduction in South Asia
2011	Delhi	Development Alternatives in South Asia
2012	Kathmandu	Towards a Green South Asia
2013	Lahore	The Political Economy of South Asia
2014	Thimphu	South Asian Integration: Prospects and Challenges
2015	Colombo	South Asia in Asian century
2016	Kathmandu	One South Asia

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Eminent scholars who have contributed towards SAESM over the years

Dr Amartya Sen	Harvard University, Nobel Laureate
Professor Kaushik Basu	Cornell University and Chief Economist, World Bank
Mr N R Narayana Murthy	Infosys, Co-founder
Professor Muchkund Dubey	Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi
Professor Ira Gang	Rutgers University, USA
Professor Badal Mukherjee	Delhi School of Economics
(Late) Professor Suresh Tendulkar	Delhi School of Economics
Professor Charan Wadhwa	Centre for Policy Research, Delhi
Dr Subhasish Gangopadhyay	India Foundation, Delhi
Dr Surjit Bhalla	Oxus Investments, Delhi
Dr JV Meenakshi	Delhi School of Economics
Dr Sunil Kanwar	Delhi School of Economics
Dr Ramesh Chand	Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi
Dr Ashwini Deshpande	Delhi School of Economics
Dr Chandan Mitra	Chief Editor, Pioneer