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.
