Guest Lecture with Professor Shubhashis Gangopadhyay on Policy Making in India

For the first time in three decades, one party has gone past the half-way mark in India’s Parliamentary elections last year (281 seats out of 542) and the coalition it heads has 336 seats. Its largest opposition group, the UPA, has only 59 seats. The 2014 election was held against a backdrop of various corruption scams and a general feeling of a lack of leadership in the outgoing government. The current government came up with the slogan of ‘better days ahead’ should they win. However, in the Rajya Sabha (or Upper House), the NDA is well short of a majority and since all bills must be passed by both houses, this may be a problem for the ruling coalition. Against this backdrop, it is interesting to look at how the major policy thrusts of the government match with the aspirations of the people, what needs to be done and the ability of the current ruling coalition to implement them.

 

Professor Shubhashis Gangopadhyay is currently the Research Director of India Development Foundation and the Director of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Shiv Nadar University. He has formerly served as advisor to the Finance Minister in the Government of India. He holds a PhD in Economics from Cornell University and has published widely on development economics.

 

Please sign up for the lecture at arc.int@cbs.dk