The South Asia Centre hosted the first ever ‘LSE India Summit 2016’ at the Cidade de Goa on 28-30 January 2016. The Summit was sponsored in full by Difficult Dialogues LLP.
More than 300 people attended it over 3 days – including people from the media (local, national and international), academics, thinkers, intellectuals, students, members of the business community, diplomats, and LSE alumni. It comprised 2 special lectures, an exhibition of rare documents from the archives of the Reserve Bank of India, short, byte-sized conversations with (or between) participants on topics of relevance or interest, and of course -- 4 panel discussions showcasing LSE’s strengths. Speaking at the inauguration, Professor Craig Calhoun, President & Director of LSE described the South Asia Centre as being ‘at the centre of LSE’s effort to advance knowledge and dialogue about the region’.
There are more detail about the panels and speakers here.
You can view the full report here or download the pdf. Working papers summarising the discussions and recommendations from each of the panels were also produced.
Podcasts
Throughout the conference panelists took part in a series of additional conversations and interviews to build on and develop ideas that were touched on in the panels.
These included:
Sam Pitroda, telecom inventor, entrepreneur, development thinker and policymaker, speaks to Mukti Jain Campion about his vision for a new world economic order about his vision for a new world economic order
LSE alumnusSiddharth Varadarajan, journalist and founding editor of The Wire, speaks to Mukti Jain Campion about his career, the Indian media environment and establishing The Wire as an alternative media model
Sharon Memis and Manjula Rao from the British Council in India speak to Sonali Campion about what UK and Indian educational institutions can learn from each other.
At a pause in the Summit Srdja Popović and Yogendra Yadav met to discuss political theory and the practicalities of fostering non-violent mass movements in the 21st Century. Srdja Popović is a Serbian political activist. He was a leader of the student movement Otpor! that helped topple Serbian dictator Slobodan Milošević. He is founder and Executive Director of Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS). Yogendra Yadav is Professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi. He was a founding member of the Aam Aadmi Party and is now a founder-member and ideologue for the Swaraj Abhiyan and the Jai Kisan Andolan.
Additional the Summit featured an exhibition of rare documents from the archives of the Reserve Bank of India.Chief Archivist Dr R L Sahoo talked about the RBI's collection and the process of curating the LSE exhibition.
Some of the speakers were invited to record short video clips to speak obout topics from the Summit, highlight specifice aspects of their work, or reflect on their experiences at the LSE.
Click here to see CEO of Pratham, Rukmini Banerjee's video
Click here to see founder of CGNet Swara Shubranshu Choudhary's video
Click here to see founding member of the Women, Media and News Trust and Khabar Lahariya journalist, Meera Devi's video
Click here to see European business and finance correspondent for The Economist Adam Roberts' video