event

Assessing the Progress and Promise of Economic Reform in India

Wed. December 9th, 2015
Virtual

In May 2014, the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office with an unprecedented electoral mandate and lofty expectations of rejuvenating India’s economy. Eighteen months into the government’s term, the macroeconomic picture is much improved, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) proclaiming India the fastest growing major economy in the world.

However, in the wake of recent setbacks in regional elections and amid the divisiveness of domestic politics, questions are being raised about the prospects for the government’s reform agenda. To discuss the government’s economic progress to date and its vision for the future, Carnegie hosted a special Google Hangout featuring Jayant Sinha, India’s union minister of state for finance and Lok Sabha member of Parliament. Pranjul Bhandari and Sadanand Dhume will serve as discussants. Carnegie’s Milan Vaishnav moderated.

This online discussion is also available here.

This event was co-sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute.

Jayant Sinha

Jayant Sinha is the union minister of state for finance in the government of India. He is a Lok Sabha member of Parliament, representing the Bharatiya Janata Party from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand. He has over twenty-five years of experience as an investor and strategy consultant, and works closely with Prime Minister Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on many of the government’s flagship economic initiatives involving the banking, finance, infrastructure, and insurance sectors.

Pranjul Bhandari

Pranjul Bhandari is chief India economist at HSBC in Mumbai. She served previously as Asia-Pacific economist at Goldman Sachs and economist at India’s Ministry of Finance.

Sadanand Dhume

Sadanand Dhume is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he writes about South Asian political economy, foreign policy, business, and society, with a focus on India and Pakistan. He is also a South Asia columnist for the Wall Street Journal.

Milan Vaishnav

Milan Vaishnav is an associate in the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he works on the political economy of India.

Carnegie India does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie India, its staff, or its trustees.
event speakers

Milan Vaishnav

Director and Senior Fellow, South Asia Program

Milan Vaishnav is a senior fellow and director of the South Asia Program and the host of the Grand Tamasha podcast at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His primary research focus is the political economy of India, and he examines issues such as corruption and governance, state capacity, distributive politics, and electoral behavior. He also conducts research on the Indian diaspora.

Sadanand Dhume

American Enterprise Institute

Jayant Sinha

Pranjul Bhandari

HSBC Securities & Capital Markets (India)