Against the backdrop of India’s presidency of the G20, and UK-India negotiations on a free trade agreement, King’s India Institute will host India’s High Commissioner to the UK, His Excellency Vikram K Doraiswami for a lecture on the theme of India’s Foreign Policy and Trade Relations. Following the lecture, a Question and Answer session will be led by Dr Kamini Gupta (Lecturer, King’s Business School) and Dr Walter Ladwig (Senior Lecturer in International Relations, Department of War Studies). The lecture will be introduced by King’s Principal and President, Professor Shitij Kapur.

The event is hosted in conjunction with the Economic and Social Research Council and Indian Council of Social Science Research funded grant Enablers and Obstacles for UK-India Trade: Banks and Diasporas (UKIT- Enob). UKIT-Enob aims to understand key enablers and obstacles to UK-India trade from the perspective of small export-oriented firms in India. The project is led by Dr Sunil Mitra Kumar (King’s India Institute) and Dr Kamini Gupta (King’s Business School) in collaboration with Dr Prateek Gupta (IIM, Bangalore) and Dr Param Shah (FICCI, UK).

About the speakers

Chair: Louise Tillin

Professor Louise Tillin is Director, King’s India Institute and Professor of Politics. Louise’s research interests span federalism, democracy and territorial politics in India, and the history and politics of social policy design and implementation. Louise is a regular commentator on Indian politics in UK, Indian and international media. She is an editor of the journal Regional and Federal Studies, and an editorial board member of Pacific Affairs.

 

Introduction: Shitij Kapur

Professor Shitij Kapur is the President & Principal of King’s College London. Professor Kapur is recognised worldwide for his own research on understanding psychosis and antipsychotic treatment – with over 300 papers, numerous presentations and an H-index of over a hundred. He has received many awards and honorary fellowships including the honours of Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (UK), Fellow of the Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (Australia) and Fellow of King's College London.

 

Q&A: Kamini Gupta and Walter Ladwig III 

Dr Kamini Gupta is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at King’s Business School and holds a PhD from London Business School. Her research explores how organisations simultaneously pursue multiple and conflicting goals, focusing especially on the domain at the intersection of business and society. She has won several prestigious grants, including the ESRC-UKRI-ICSSR grant on strengthening UK-India trade as part of which she is studying social network inequalities among trade relationships.

 

Dr Walter C Ladwig III is a political scientist specialising in US foreign policy, South Asian security, irregular warfare, and the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific. His teaching primarily concentrates on the conduct of statecraft and Cold War history. Walter is a Senior Fellow with the South Asia program at the EastWest Institute in New York and an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London.