The Raisina Dialogue is a multilateral conference held in New Delhi to address pressing geopolitics and geoeconomic challenges, and the goal of the Raisina Dialogue Policy Challenge organised as part of the conference is an initiative to engage future leaders in global governance discussions. The theme for this year’s challenge was “Building Bridges: Mitigating the North-South Divide”.
Students from 60 top schools of government and global affairs from around the globe participated in the 2025 challenge. As part of the challenge, students were assigned to one of 12 groups and assigned a case to prepare over four weeks and present at the conference.
Shruti Merin Lal’s case study focused on reforming the state of multilateralism, with the objective of presenting innovative solutions to address its challenges, under the broader theme of bridging the Global North–Global South divide.
Of the experience, Shruti Merin Lal said,
I was placed in a team with four other brilliant students from diverse geographical and disciplinary backgrounds, though none of us had practical experience in reforming multilateralism. Nevertheless, over the course of four weeks, we infused our aspirations for global governance into our policy report. This was the labour of an economist, a political scientist, a policy analyst, a diplomat in training and an anthropologist challenging each others’ biases and ideologies to converge on something meaningful. The concept of ‘inclusive multilateralism’ stood out for us, leading us to propose solutions centered on multi-stakeholdership, decentralised decision-making, and operationalising both bottom-up and top-down engagement. While these are not radically new solutions, our aim was not to dismantle the UN (no matter how tempting!) or reinvent the wheel, but rather to acknowledge its weakened foundations and work toward lasting solutions.
Shruti Merin Lal and her team presented and won their case in front of a high-level jury consisting of Tony Abbott, former Australian Prime Minister; Mohamed Nasheed, former President of the Maldives; Priyanka Chaturvedi, Member of the Indian Parliament; and Sarah Mosoetsa (PhD), CEO, HSRC (Human Sciences Research Council).
Honestly, winning the challenge was not nearly as fulfilling as brainstorming with four of the kindest and brightest teammates—who I can now call friends. From the get-go, I knew I had already won with them. In the midst of today’s entropic multilateralism, we weren’t losing hope; instead, we were willing to work with its reality and adapt to the times. The fulfilment of working with dedicated people with the humility to understand you is to be treasured. Of course, it was an honour to represent my department and institute, and winning this in Delhi as a South Indian was truly a full- circle moment.
