Category: Class Lecture/ Popular lecture

Title: Thinking: Beyond Traditional Statistics

Date: 10^th May 2025

Venue: Classroom 413

Resource Person: Ms Forum M Shah, Junior Research Fellow, Presidency University

• A Popular Lecture organized by the Department of Economics for the students, titled “Thinking: Beyond Traditional Statistics”, was delivered by respected Ms. Forum M Shah, Junior Research Fellow, Presidency University.
• The purpose of the lecture was to introduce students to the domain of spatial statistics that has recently gained prominence in the fields of logistics and other location-based services, requiring tools beyond traditional statistics of cross-sectional and time series analysis.
• The session started Dr. Anupa Ghosh, Department of Economics, introducing Ms. Forum M Shah to the students and commenting on her area of Ph.D. research that she is pursuing currently from the renowned Presidency University.
• Forum M Shah revealed before the students the need to go beyond traditional statistics in the current era of all-engulfing globalization where the specificity and spatiality of the local geography becomes crucial in establishing the links of value-chain and business across the globe.
• Rather than immersing in technical jargons, she readily came down to the level of undergraduate students raising topics familiar to them (like Coase theorem and externalities) so as to provide a scope before them regarding the usage and efficiency of spatial statistics.
• The students eagerly participated in discussions initiated by the speaker, clearing queries and sharing their own experiences in the matters of location-based services like Uber and Ola where applications of such spatial data collection, analysis and interpretation become crucial both from the point of view of business firms as well as consumers.
• The lecture ended with a small but smart video shared by Forum Madam in front of the students to shed light on the actual workings of GPS based applications via spatial statistics tools that she had discussed throughout the hour.
• The lecturer graciously accepted questions from the audience pertaining to her lecture, after her presentation ended. Questions were asked by both students and teachers which were answered very promptly by the lecturer.
• At the end of the lecture, Dr. Anupa Ghosh delivered her vote of thanks and felicitated her with a small token of thanks.

No. of participants: 24

No. of students (BESC): 20

No. of faculty (BESC): 04