BASIC with Marshall Bouton
Mumbai, 12 April, 2016- Asia Society India Centre in collaboration with UTI hosted Marshall Bouton, Senior Fellow for India with the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) for a discussion on the US elections and its significance for India. The programme started with brief comments by Bouton followed by a discussion between Bouton and Leo Puri, Managing Director of UTI Asset Management Co. Ltd. This discussion was then followed by an interactive session with the audience.
Bouton commenced the discussion by stating that the US elections are in an unpredictable space with lots of movement and speculation. What earlier looked like a competition between Jeff Bush and Hillary Clinton, now looks completely different. There is a lot of ire amongst the Americans especially the youth of the country. They feel that the nation is on the wrong track and the belief of the population in the trademark “American Dream” is absent. The American dream is the hope that the future generation will see a much better America than the current one. There is dissipating trust for Public institutions. There are three main reasons for this general dissatisfaction. Firstly the economic reasons, with the financial crisis and the after effects still prevalent. Second is the changing face of America which has been due to the large immigrant population especially the South American migration. This has led to severe issues like racism. Lastly, terrorism that has been an important issue facing the US. Bouton pointed out that the next government will have a huge responsibility of restoring public cooperation and wellbeing with as much focus on domestic policies as much as on foreign policy.
As from the India perspective, Bouton maintained that irrespective of a republican or democratic government, US has always coaxed India to take a stand in Asian affairs and encouraged them to lead from the front which will continue after the elections.
Reported by: Karishma Talwar, Programme Officer, Asia Society India Centre. This discussion is a part of Asia Society's BASIC series.
The BASIC series presents intimate, invitation-only breakfast round tables that bring together eminent speakers from the fields of Asian business and policy. This represents the kind of informed forum, nuanced insight and new connections that Asia Society aims to bring to bear around key topics of relevance today
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