Last October 20^th, the IE Humanities Center hosted the first lecture of the Cycle of Conferences “India: Present and Future”, which focused on Economy. This year, the series of lectures will revolve around the largest democracy on earth, studying it from different angles: politically, culturally, socially, etc. Seven activities will be held to fulfil that goal on both campuses, Madrid and Segovia.

The cycle of conferences began with an institutional speech by the director of the cycle, Professor Susana Torres, who explained the reasons behind its organization and took the opportunity to thank everyone that has made it possible. The audience was composed by a mix of students from Madrid and Segovia, faculty, directors, future lecturers and external guests, including India’s Embassy Economic Secretary Mr. Saravanan Balasubramanian.

The opening lecture, “Economy: The Emergence of a New Player”, was chaired by MIM’s Vice Dean Kiron Ravindran who moderated the conversation with Economic Environment Professor Patricia Gabaldón and CaixaBank India Chief Pradeep Bhargava.

For more than one hour the three members of the panel analysed the challenges that India will have to face during the coming decade, as well as the big leap forward that India has done in the past 25 years. All agreed that education and technology will play the key factor, as production costs are rising. Professor Gabaldón stressed the role of women, which in some cases are being left behind, since when they get married they become a member of their in-law family, thus causing parents lack of investment in a daughter’s education. This led to an interesting point, which for sure is going to be covered in more lectures in the future, namely, how to cope with tradition and social development.

Once the lecture was over all attendees were invited to a cocktail just outside the classroom where students, faculty, staff and guests chatted lively about the present and coming events.

Next conference will be on Politics and be held on November 24th. If you wish to attend please register here