14th of November, 2013, Brussels
South Asia Democratic Forum (SADF) organised a conference hosted by Geoffrey Van Orden MEP, Chairman of the Delegation for Relations with India. The event took place in the European Parliament and focused in the regarding the new Indian Government six months after the election of Prime Minister Modi.
The conference was introduced by two addresses from the host, Geoffrey Van Orden MEP, and the Ambassador Manjeev Singh Puri of the Embassy of India to Belgium, Luxembourg and the EU.
The first panel focused on the Prime Minister Modi’s economic and social policy, moderated by Dr. Siegfried O. Wolf, Director of Research of the SADF and Lecturer at Heidelberg University. Russel Hiebert, Member of the Canadian Parliament, expressed his views from a Canadian outlook, Professor Li Tao, Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies (University of Sichuan), gave us a Chinese perspective and Professor Gulshan Sachdeva, Jawaharlal Nehru University gave us an insider perspective.
The second panel was dedicated to the new role of India in the World and was moderated by Professor Subrata Mitra, Professor Emeritus at the University of Heidelberg and Chairman of the Board of Advisors of SADF. For the discussion, the focus was on external broad perspectives of the home countries of were presented by Dr. Li Li, China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, Dr. David Brewster, Australian National University and Dr. Christine Fair, Georgetown University, United States.
Closing the conference, Paulo Casaca, SADF Executive Director, concluded the election of Prime Minister Modi in India is now widely perceived across the globe as a global game changer. It reinvigorated the perspectives for development and democratic stability in India and for a stronger partnership in the framework of a new World Order set on a more balanced and humane set of principles.
