The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were founded almost five decades ago with the objective of providing technological leadership to a new and resurgent India, driven by Nehru’s deep commitment to science-led development. Whether they provided technological leadership to India or not remains debatable given the large numbers of their (under) graduates who have migrated abroad or have shifted to non-technical careers.
Rahul Pandita is a Senior Editor with The Hindu, one of India's leading newspapers. He is a conflict writer, who has reported extensively from war zones, including Iraq and Sri Lanka. His vast experience in reporting on India's Maoist insurgency has resulted in two books: Hello, Bastar: The Untold Story of India's Maoist Movement and The Absent State. He is also the author of the best-selling memoir on Kashmir, Our Moon has Blood Clots. He is the recipient of the International Red Cross Award for conflict reporting. He lives in Delhi.
About the Speaker:
Sandipto Dasgupta is a Newton International Fellow of the Royal Society and British Academy. Trained both as a political scientist and a lawyer, his research interests lie at the intersection of legal and political theory. He is currently completing a book manuscript, provisionally titled Legalizing the Revolution, that reconstructs a distinct theory of constitutionalism through a detailed study of the Indian constitutional experience.
The drastic increase in trade volumes over the last few years is an impressive testament to the new Indian pivot to Sub-Saharan Africa; trade between India and Sub-Saharan Africa stood at $60 billion in 2012. Still, trade volumes in the same year were markedly eclipsed by those of the EU ($567.2 billion), the U.S. ($446.7 billion), and China ($220 billion). Nevertheless, India’s engagement shows a successful new focus on the region where it has implemented specific programs in the economic, political, and, especially, pan-African sphere.
Two months ago, India conducted the largest democratic exercise in history. The 2014 General Election, enacted in nine phases over a five-week period, witnessed 553.8 million voters cast ballots to constitute the 16th Lok Sabha. The resurgence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) captured headlines and, in effect, diverted attention from a disconcerting growth in gross electoral spending.
On the campaign trail, Chief Minister Narendra Modi touted muscular rhetoric and a “zero tolerance” policy towards Naxalism, but those expecting Prime Minister Modi’s government to overhaul the existing strategy – his plan to tinker at the margins notwithstanding – should not hold their breath. The Naxal insurgency was described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as India’s “single biggest internal-security challenge” and estimated to affect one-third of India’s districts.
The seasonal migrant labor population of India is estimated by some migration scholars to be as high as 100 million. Labor migrants face barriers in accessing social services and settling permanently in urban areas and often prefer to keep their link with the village, especially during the agricultural season. As a result, they “circulate” between their village and various “destination areas” for labor work, spending significant portions of the year away from home.
Anurag Mehra is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. He earned his Bachelor's degree from IIT Kanpur and his doctoral degree from the University of Mumbai. He has been on the IIT Bombay faculty for over two decades and has been a Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, in Spring 2007, Fall 2013, and Spring 2014. He has also spent a year-long sabbatical and several summers as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.