Conference examines India under Modi

ATTENTION: Reporters covering India, South Asia and international affairs

WHAT: “India under Modi: A look back on two years of Bharatiya Janata Party rule,” an international conference examining conditions in India since Narendra Modi’s May 2014 election as the country’s prime minister.

Live in India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the topic of a March 11-12 symposium.

Modi, known for his tech-savvy image, is the second most followed politician on social media after U.S. President Barack Obama. He has launched a number of initiatives aimed at boosting India’s manufacturing, infrastructure, economy and educational system.

The goal of the conference is to understand these and other transformations in India, placing them in a context enabling serious reflection across political and ideological lines.

The conference is sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute for South Asia Studies, the Institute of International Studies and the Sarah Kailath Chair of India Studies.

WHEN: 8:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Friday, March 11, and 9 a.m.-12:15 p.m., Saturday, March 12.

WHERE: UC Berkeley’s Faculty Club. A campus map is online.

WHO: Business, science and political thought leaders as well as academic experts from India and UC Berkeley will evaluate the current state of Indian business and industry; education; digital governance; health, development and poverty; law, justice and minority rights, as well as culture and the future of media in India.

The keynote speaker on Friday evening will be Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a public intellectual and the head of the Center for Policy Research, a leading Indian think tank.

Information about the panels and speaker bios are available online.

DETAILS: India is the second most populous country in the world, with more than 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy. Its economy is the world’s seventh largest by nominal Gross Domestic Product. India, which has nuclear weapons, has the third largest army in the world.

The Institute for South Asia Studies will host other speakers of note in coming weeks. They include Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen on March 13, transgender activist Akkai Padmashali on March 14, and legal expert and activist Lawrence Liang on March 16.