India, now the world’s 3rd largest economy (PPP) and the world’s largest democracy, is a key focus of IIEP. India’s rapid growth, poverty reduction, growing inequalities, and impact on climate change as well as the increasing importance of U.S.-India economic and strategic relations make its future development and challenges an area of great interest at IIEP.
IIEP has hosted two major India conferences, in 2015 and 2016, with an array of well-known speakers from India and the U.S. These conferences brought together top academic researchers, officials from the IMF, World Bank, OECD, and the UN, and current and former high-level policymakers in the U.S. and Indian governments. These conferences were organized along with the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC) and the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP). The conferences addressed questions of poverty reduction, job creation, ramped-up growth, market reform, competitiveness, regional and global partnerships, sustainable growth, infrastructure, and urbanization. Keynote speakers included Arun Kumar, former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, and Arvind Subramanian, Former Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India.
IIEP has since organized a variety of high-level discussions featuring distinguished policymakers from India and the U.S. These included a fireside chat with H.E. Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Ambassador of India to the U.S. in 2019 discussing “India and USA: Shared Prosperity, Opportunities, and Challenges.” IIEP also hosts a virtual series, organized with the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, called Envisioning India which has featured over 15 webinars, distinguished former and serving policymakers from India and the U.S., as well as well-known Indian and American academics from leading universities in the U.S. and India. Topics have included the impacts of the pandemic on India’s environment, finances, and trade.
IIEP, its faculty, and its visiting scholars regularly publish articles, op-eds, books, and working papers focused on India’s economy and U.S.-India economic relations. This includes Ajay Chhibber, an IIEP Distinguished Visiting Scholar, who published Unshackling India: Hard Truths and Clear Choices for Economic Revival (2021) with Salman Anees Soz. Unshackling India was featured in an Elliott School Book Launch Series and IIEP Envisioning India event.
