About the event

Over 642 million voters in an election spread across six weeks in record breaking temperatures, India’s general elections were the biggest the world has ever seen and already, it is clear the impact isn’t just national but has global significance as well. In a year where almost half the world’s population is voting with elections in the United Kingdom and the USA coming up next, India’s Prime Minister and his coalition government in a third term have the democratic legitimacy of being backed by a majority larger than the population of many Western countries- an endorsement which is crucial in positioning India as a bridge between the world view of the West and the very different perspective of countries like Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the African Union to name a few.

As we witness tectonic geopolitical shifts in an unfolding new multipolar world order, is it now time for India to finally take its place at the global high table of power?

About the speaker

Sonia Singh

Sonia Singh is one of India’s first television journalists and anchors who went on to become the Editorial Director of a major news network, NDTV and is now Anchor of the NDTV Dialogues and a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge Judge Business School. Sonia has personally witnessed, reported, analysed and led the news coverage of all major events in India for the last 30 years, from the early years of liberalisation to at least 8 general elections,India’s sweeping economic and welfare reforms, changes in our diplomatic and defence strategy, the rise of nationalism and changing gender and caste identities. She describes herself as a Sutradhar or Narrator of the India Story.

Chair

Louise Tillin

Louise Tillin is a Professor of Politics in the King’s India Institute. Her research interests span federalism, democracy and territorial politics in India, and the history and politics of social policy design and implementation. Her books include Remapping India: New States and their Political Origins (Hurst & Co/Oxford University Press, 2013), Politics of Welfare: Comparisons across Indian States, edited with Rajeshwari Deshpande and KK Kailash (New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2015), Indian Federalism (New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2019) and The Politics of Poverty Reduction in India: The UPA Government, 2004 to 2014 (with James Chiriyankandath, Diego Maiorano and James Manor) (New Delhi, Orient Blackswan, 2020).

Her new book Making India Work: The Development of Welfare in a Multi-Level Democracy (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming) is a history of the development of social policy in India over the last century.