Lent Term 2018

Integrated Development Impact through Partnerships and Innovation 

Wednesday 4 April 2018

The ‘Colombo Development Dialogues’ is a collaborative initiative by the South Asia Centre and the United Nations Development Programme in Sri Lanka, which brings together a diverse group of development thinkers, practitioners and policy-makers from the public and private sector to discuss relevant issues pertaining to current national / regional priorities in light of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030. This first Dialogue explores explore the importance of incorporating human-centred design processes when creating citizen-centric and organic solutions to the country’s development issues.

Watch the video on YouTube here.

Shri Guru Gobind Singh Ji: Understanding the Sacred Word

22 March 2018

Opening Remarks: H.E. Mr Y K Sinha, High Commissioner of India

Speakers

Professor James Hegarty, Cardiff University

Mr Prab Seyan, Noted Speaker & Former President, Watford Sikh Association

Professor Pritam Singh, Oxford Brookes University

Professor M P S Bedi, Chairman, P C Pirthi Bedi Foundation UK

This unique event brings together academic and community leaders to discuss the importance and relevance of The Shri Guru Granth Sahib, and the life of Shri Guru Gobind Singh ji, to conclude the celebrations marking the 350th Prakash Parv of the Guru.   

Click here to access the podcasts of this event, and download the document here. 

The Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis: Bangladesh's Response

15 March 2018

Speaker: Mr Md. Shahidul Haque Hon'ble Foreign Secretary, Government of Bangladesh

Introductory Remarks: H.E. Mr Md. Nazmul Quanine, High Commissioner of Bangladesh to the UK

Chair: Dr Nilanjan Sarkar

Bangladesh’s response to the Rohingya humanitarian crisis has been iconic. Despite a severe strain on its material and administrative resources, the government of Bangladesh has responded with incalculable effort, matched only by its generosity.Over the last few months, Bangladesh has received over a million refugees fleeing Myanmar, and continues to welcome more each day.

This public lecture is a rare opportunity to hear first-hand the government’s incredibly humanitarian response to a tragedy triggered by others, but whose financial costs are being borne by Bangladesh. 

Listen to the podcast here.

The Broken Ladder: The Paradox and Potential of India's One-Billion

14 March 2018

Discussants: Professor Anirudh Krishna, Professor Maitreesh Ghatak and Dr Sohini Kar

Chair: Dr Mukulika Banerjee

Join us for a discussion on Prof Anirudh Krishna's latest book, The Broken Ladder (2017). The book brings to the fore India's economic contradictions between spectacular GDP growth and the continuation of a sizeable population living under the poverty line. This discussion will delve into the huge challenges present in India's potential growth. 

Anirudh Krishna is Edgar T. Thompson Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at Duke University. 

Maitreesh Ghatak is Professor of Economics at LSE and is a member of the Faculty Advisory Group of the South Asia Centre.

Sohini Kar is Assistant Professor of International Development at LSE. 

Mukulika Banerjee is Director of the South Asia Centre and Associate Professor of Anthropology at LSE.

Listen to the podcast here.

South Asia Summit 2018

Saturday, 10 March 2018

The South Asia Centre hosted the South Asia Summit in London, on 10 March 2018. Read more about the Summit here.

Challenges to Press Freedom in a Democracy

Friday, 9 March 2018

Speaker: Mr Siddharth Varadarajan

Chair: Dr Mukulika Banerjee

The chequered history of press freedom in South Asia tells its own story about the state of democracy in the region. Constraints of political economy and law have been constant but populism, hyper-nationalism and 'national security' are laying down new boundaries for the media. This lecture will explore the challenges and potential of the press in the region.

Siddharth Varadarajan is Founding Editor of The Wire, a digital news portal. He was earlier Editor of The Hindu and is a recipient of the Ramnath Goenka Award for Journalist of the Year. He has taught Economics at New York University, and Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. He is an alumnus of LSE (BSc Economics 1985).

Mukulika Banerjee is Director of the South Asia Centre and Associate Professor of Anthropology at LSE.

Democracy and Defiance in the Supreme Court of India

In collaboration with the Department of Law (LSE).

9 February 2018

Speaker: Dr Aditya Sondhi

Chair: Dr Siva Thambisetty

Four Senior Justices of the Supreme Court of India held an unprecedented Press Conference on 12 January 2018, where they publicised their concerns about the lack of formal accountability in the allocation of cases amongst judges in the Supreme Court of India. This lecture will discuss whether or not this act of defiance is a red flag, heralding a politicisation of India's judiciary, and what this means for the democratic future of India.

Dr Aditya Sondhi is Additional Advocate General of Karnataka, and Senior Counsel at the High Court in Bengaluru. He is Visiting Faculty at the National Law School of India, Bangalore.

Dr Siva Thambisetty is Associate Professor of Law, (LSE).

Listen to the podcast here.

Privacy and Law in India

7 February 2018

Discussants: Dr Chintan Chandrachud, Ms Sarah George Kotak and Dr Mayur Suresh

Chair: Dr Nilanjan Sarkar

This panel discusses the development of the right to privacy in the Indian judicial context, examine the Privacy Judgement (August 2017) and its implications on the Aadhaar mandate issued by the Government of India, and potential implications on the challenge to IPC Section 377 to decriminalise homosexuality. The topic is also of relevance because of the impending hearing of the issue of privacy at the Supreme Court of India on 17 January 2018. 

Ms Sarah George Kotak studied law at the National Law School, Bangalore, and is an alumnus of LSE.

Dr Mayur Suresh is Lecturer in Law at SOAS

Dr Chintan Chandrachud is an associate at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP. He is the author of Balanced Constitutionalism: Courts and Legislatures in India and the United Kingdom (2017).

Dr Nilanjan Sarkar is Deputy Director of the South Asia Centre. 

Listen to the podcast here.