Monday
12th of May 6:00pm - 7:00pm
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has emerged as the central figure of
India's general election. A controversial politician who has his share of fanatical devotees and blind critics,
Modi has turned many of the assumptions governing
Indian politics on its head. In this lecture,
Swapan Dasgupta, surveys the political and economic lanscape that has contributed to Modi's appeal in different parts of
India. If Modi wins the election on May 16, will public life in India be unalterably changed? What does a Modi-led India mean for the outside world?
Swapan Dasgupta (58) is a political columnist and public policy analyst with 30 years experience based in
New Delhi (India). His columns on contemporary India are published in
The Telegraph,
Sunday Times of India,
Asian Age,
Deccan Chronicle,
Pioneer, Jagran and
Free Press Journal. In addition, he is a regular commentator on politics on
Indian TV news channels, viz.
NDTV,
CNN-IBN,
Times Now and
Headlines Today. He has participated in roadshows on India's political economy hosted by
Deutsche Bank Equities,
India Infoline, Prabhudas Liladhar Ltd and
CLSA in
Mumbai,
Singapore and
Hong Kong. He has also been a keynote speaker at conferences organised by
KPMG and other industry bodies.
Educated at
La Martiniere College (
Kolkata) and
St Stephen's College (Delhi), Swapan Dasgupta was awarded a
Ph.D by the
School of
Oriental and
African Studies (
London) in
1980. Subsequently he was elected a
Research Fellow at
Nuffield College,
University of Oxford from
1982 to
1985.
Swapan Dasgupta has occupied important editorial positions in major
Indian newspapers and weeklies including
Times of India,
Telegraph,
Indian Express and
India Today. He was the London correspondent of Indian Express from
1995 to
1996. He was
Managing Editor of India Today until
2003. In addition, he has been published in
Wall Street Journal, Tehelka,
Khaleej Times,
Hindu,
The Times (
London), Guardian and
New Statesman.
A specialist in Indian politics, Dasgupta has been on TV panels in every general election since
1998. In 2011-12, he co-hosted the show
Politically Incorrect which ran for 35 weeks on NDTV. He was appointed by the
Prime Minister as a member of the India-UK
Round Table dialogue from 1998 to 2004. He has presented papers on Indian politics at academic seminars hosted by the Australia-India
Institute (
University of Melbourne),
Chatham House (
London), King's
College (London),
Reuters Foundation (
Oxford) and
South Asia Institute (Oxford)
- published: 14 May 2014
- views: 10902