Auditorium Ivan Pictet A, Maison de la paix, Geneva
The results of the Indian elections will be announced on May 23rd. This public debate will discuss them and engage with some key questions that have been raised during the political campaign, and more broadly, by India’s economic development and its challenges. James Crabtree, author of the bestseller “The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India's New Gilded Age” and former Mumbai bureau chief of the Financial Times, will have a conversation with Shaila Seshia Galvin from the Graduate Institute. In view of India’s most pressing issues, such as unemployment and ongoing agrarian crisis, they will analyse the new political phase ushered in by the country's 17th general election since independence. What do the election results mean for India with regard to its capacity to tackle pressing social, political, economic, and environmental challenges, including challenges to the democratic process itself? How can economic growth be maintained at a high level and how can it be more inclusive?
James Crabtree is a Singapore-based author and journalist, and an Associate Professor of Practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He is a columnist for Nikkei Asian Review and a non-resident fellow at the Asia-Pacific programme at Chatham House. Between 2011 and 2016, James Crabtree was Mumbai bureau chief for the Financial Times leading coverage of Indian business. Before joining the FT, he was a senior editor at Prospect, Britain’s leading monthly magazine of politics and ideas. He has written for a range of global publications, including the New York Times, the Economist, and Foreign Policy. Before working as a journalist, James was a senior policy advisor in the UK Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit under Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Shaila Seshia Galvin is Assistant Professor in anthropology and sociology at the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at the Graduate Institute. She conducts research at the intersection of environmental, political, and economic anthropology. Shaila Seshia Galvin holds a PhD in Anthropology and Forestry and Environmental Studies from Yale University. Her recent research focuses on processes of agrarian change, particularly in India, and has addressed issues related to sustainable agriculture as well as agricultural biodiversity and intellectual property. Shaila Seshia Galvin is currently completing a book manuscript, based on her doctoral research in northern India, which explores the rise of commercial organic agriculture, and along with it third-party certification, standardisation processes, and contract farming, in the first decades of the 21st century.
The entrance is free. To register for the event please use the form provided by our partner Asia Society Switzerland:
This event is organised in partnership with the Asia Society Switzerland and in collaboration with the Association Genève Asie and the Swiss-Indian Chamber of Commerce:
