"India at 75", a Conversation with Prof. Marie Lall

On 28 September 2022, UNU will host "India at 75", a conversation with Prof. Marie Lall, Professor of Education and South Asian Studies at the UCL Institute of Education. This event will start at 18:30 in the 2F Reception Hall at UNU Headquarters in Tokyo.

On 15 August, India celebrated its 75^th anniversary of independence. Soon, India will be the world’s most populated country and its political development and foreign policy will shape the world of the 21^st century. This conversation will review India’s impressive domestic development leap from its Nehruvian roots to becoming a major global market driven by an ever-growing middle class.

Despite its increasingly neoliberal economic policies, the Modi government has run a large number of development and anti-poverty programmes. India’s GDP growth also means that it is no longer seen as a developing country, but rather as a power in its own right. This is underpinned by India’s foreign policy, where the country has become a key pillar in the Free and Open Indo-Pacific.

Prof. Marie Lall will join UNU Rector David Malone to explore what these changes mean for Indians and the wider world, and to ask what the challenges will be for the next 75 years.

The UNU Conversation Series aims to foster audience participation; you are encouraged to engage with the speakers during the conversation and at the reception that will follow, where all audience members are invited to enjoy snacks and non-alcoholic drinks while exchanging ideas and making new contacts.

Please note that this event will be in English. Advance registration (by 26 September) is required. 

About the speaker

Marie Lall is a Professor of Education and South Asian Studies at the UCL Institute of Education. She served as UCL’s Pro-Vice-Provost for South Asia (including Myanmar) until November 2018.

Professor Lall is a South Asia expert (India, Pakistan, and Myanmar) with almost 30 years of experience in the region, with research interests focusing on domestic politics, political economy, migration and diaspora politics, citizenship, ethnic peace and conflict issues. She also works on education policy in India, Pakistan and Myanmar with regard to gender, ethnicity and social exclusion. She has written widely on these topics, authoring/editing 12 books.

Prof. Lall has provided thought leadership to development agencies, policymakers and governments, and has worked with the World Bank, UNICEF, the British Council, AUSAID, South Asian philanthropic bodies and various government ministries.

Prof. Lall completed her B.Sc. in Economics and PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE) and her MPhil from Cambridge University.