Summary
The India Today Conclave has become the most anticipated annual event of arguments. It brings together the finest minds at work today, and this year was no exception. What follows is a clash of ideas, ideas that can make India a lot more different than what it is today, ideas that can reduce the divide between the many Indias that exist in global perception. After all, the Conclave is part of our project in, to use that problematic phrase, nation building. Rather, it is about reading the future from the contradictory texts of the present. And that happens to be the mission statement of India Today as well: "Making Sense of India".
I can't resist seeing a pattern, a kind of harmony between the text and the context, necessitated by history. The first Conclave was held in the frightening afterglow of 9/11, and the theme was: "Opportunities and Threats". In retrospect, it was as if history scripted the title. The next was "India Tomorrow: Global Giant or Pygmy?", and we discussed the possibilities of an ideal India as the war loomed over Iraq. History is a persistent interventionist-we have been reminded once more. The third Conclave was on "Building an Indian Century". The impending general elections provided the best possible backdrop to such an ambitious project.See the full content of this document
Extract
Overcoming the Indian Divide
Last year, the theme was "Perception Versus Reality", and when the last session was over, we were able to make the multiplicity of perceptions more compatible with reality. The Conclave was held in the aftermath of a spellbinder of an election. A new government led b...
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