The Future of India: Perspectives From a Younger Generation
VIEW EVENT DETAILSSeason of India
As India braces for the upcoming general election in the spring of 2019, political parties are paying special attention to India’s young demography — 50 percent of its population are below the age of 25. Over 130 million first-time voters will be casting ballots this election, a staggering number for any campaign strategist. What do the young people of India consider to be their most urgent priorities? Are they optimistic about their future? What do they wish for — personally, professionally, and for their nation?
Join Ravi Agrawal, James Crabtree, and Arundhati Katju for a discussion with Somini Sengupta on how their generation perceives the future of India, and how they are contributing to creating an inclusive, democratic, tolerant, and prosperous India for all. Agrawal’s latest book, India Connected: How the Smartphone is Transforming the World’s Largest Democracy, Crabtree's The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India’s New Gilded Age, and Sengupta's The End of Karma: Hope and Fury Among India's Young, will be available at the event.
Speakers
Ravi Agrawal is Managing Editor of Foreign Policy (FP) magazine and member of Asia Society’s Asia 21 Young Leaders Initiative. Before joining FP, he worked at CNN for more than a decade, including his most recent position as the network’s New Delhi bureau chief and correspondent. Previously, he served as a senior producer in CNN’s New York and London bureaus, receiving a Peabody Award and three Emmy nominations for his work. He is the author of India Connected: How the Smartphone Is Transforming the World’s Largest Democracy.
James Crabtree (via video) is associate professor of practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, and a senior fellow at the school’s Centre on Asia and Globalisation. He is also a non-resident fellow at the Asia programme at Chatham House, writes a fortnightly column for Nikkei Asian Review, and is the author of The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India’s New Gilded Age. Prior to moving into academia, he worked for the Financial Times, leading the newspapers coverage of Indian business as Mumbai bureau chief between 2011 and 2016.
Arundhati Katju is an Indian lawyer, who most recently successfully represented the lead petitioners in the Indian Supreme Court’s historic judgment, where the Court struck down India’s 157-year-old sodomy law and upheld the rights of LGBT Indians to equality and dignity. Heading her own law offices since 2011, she regularly acts as a barrister for leading Indian law firms, having represented clients in India, Germany, Singapore and the U.S. She has prosecuted pollution complaints on behalf of the State pollution regulator and been appointed amicus curiae to assist the Delhi High Court on numerous occasions.
Somini Sengupta (moderator) is The New York Times’ international climate reporter and tells the stories of communities and landscapes most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. A George Polk Award-winning foreign correspondent, she has reported from a Congo River ferry, a Himalayan glacier, the streets of Baghdad and Mumbai and many places in between. She is the author of The End of Karma: Hope and Fury Among India's Young.
India Connected: How the Smartphone Is Transforming the World’s Largest Democracy by Ravi Agrawal can be purchased at the Asia Store or through the Asia Store website.
The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India’s New Gilded Age by James Crabtree can be purchased at the Asia Store or through the Asia Store website.
The End of Karma: Hope and Fury Among India's Young by Somini Sengupta can be purchased at the Asia Store or through the Asia Store website.
This program is made possible in coordination with the Asia 21 Young Leaders Initiative, and is part of the Season of India, a series of programs held in conjunction with the exhibition, The Progressive Revolution: Modern Art for a New India, on view at Asia Society Museum from September 14, 2018 to January 20, 2019.
Event Details
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