The Elephant, The Tiger, and the Cell Phone
NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2007 - Shashi Tharoor discusses The Elephant, The Tiger, and the Cell Phone: India, the Emerging 21st Century Power at Asia Society's Headquarters in New York.
Asia Society and the South Asia Journalists Association (SAJA) host the New York launch of Tharoor's new book. Tharoor shares his insight into the complex and intriguing culture of this rapidly evolving nation. The event includes excerpts from the book and a conversation with Pramit Pal Chaudhri, a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at Asia Society.
Over the past twenty-five years, India has moved from a largely impoverished, underdeveloped country to a bustling, innovative, fast-changing society. In his new book The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell Phone: India, the Emerging 21st-Century Power, celebrated author Shashi Tharoor discusses and demystifies the vast changes that have taken place in India to transform this once sleeping giant into an emerging world leader.
Shashi Tharoor
Shashi Tharoor is chairman of the Dubai-based Afras Ventures and former Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information at the United Nations. His UN career began in 1978, when he joined the staff of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He was also a senior adviser to the Secretary-General. He has written hundreds of articles, op-eds, and book reviews in a wide range of publications.
A contributing editor and occasional columnist for Newsweek International and a columnist for The Hindu and The Times of India, he is the author of nine books, including India: From Midnight to the Millennium, Nehru: The Invention of India, Bookless in Baghdad, The Great Indian Novel, Riot, and Show Business.
Pramit Pal Chaudhuri
Pramit Pal Chaudhuri is the Foreign Editor of The Hindustan Times and a leading figure in Indian policymaking circles. He was previously an editorial writer for The Telegraph and The Statesman of Calcutta.
Pramit has a BA in history from Cornell University. More recently, he was a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow at the University of Maryland - College Park; media fellow at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy; South Asia fellow at the Henry Stimson Centre in Washington DC, and a Visiting Fellow at Cornell University's South Asia department. He is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society, the Liberty Institute of New Delhi and the Aspen Institute Italia.
Pramit has written widely on India's foreign and international economic policies. He is a regular talking head on Asian television and radio stations. This year he has spoken at the Aspen Institute World Economy Conference, the Centre of Independent Studies annual consilium in Australia and at Singapore's Institute for Southeast Asian Studies.