Innovation is not necessarily about Silicon Valley Hi-Tech startups. It can happen here and now. In particular, contrary to what we have been hearing from our liberal politicians, there is plenty of scope for innovation in Georgia’s agriculture!

Distinguished ISET graduate and recent recipient of a Doctorate of Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, Salome Baslandze has recently been awarded a tenure track professorship at the Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF) in Rome, Italy. There she will be teaching classes and continuing her research on growth, technological change, firm dynamics, and the dynamics of innovation.

Rati, Lasha, and Irakli are first-year engineering students at the Georgian Technical University (GTU). Rather unusual students, one should add. At 22-23, all three are very much alive. Yet, they never attend classes and are not taking exams. BSc in engineering would be their third educational degree, yet neither one of them has any intention of completing his studies at GTU. And one more interesting detail: their ‘studies’ at GTU are paid for by the Georgian taxpayers because engineering (as well as mathematics and natural sciences) is considered to be a priority subject by the Georgian government.

On November 24, the ISET Policy Institute hosted an ENPARD workshop representing all four consortia (CARE, OXFAM, Mercy Corps, and PIN). The workshop featured Michaela Garguláková from People In Need (PIN) who talked about the Monitoring and Evaluation system and gave a presentation about the monitoring indicators of the ENPARD project.

Georgian media is full of stories about nepotism and the funny justifications of those involved: When Irakli Garibashvili, still being Minister of the Interior, was confronted with nepotism allegations, he replied: “Don’t you know that a relative of your wife is not your relative?”