During a special event on "South Asia and the World" at the School of Public Policy at Central European University on December 2, CEU/HESP Research Excellence Fellow and Professor at National Institute of Advanced Studies, India, Carol Upadhya launched her book Reengineering India: Work, Capital, and Class in an Offshore Economy. This was followed immediately by a roundtable discussion on India's promise and challenges as an emerging world power moderated by SPP Associate Professor Sahana Udupa. "We want to bring South Asian experiences to the forefront of global policy discussions," Udupa said.
Introducing Upadhya's book, Zsuzsanna Arendas, a research fellow at the Center for Policy Studies, noted, "The success of the IT industry in India, which marked the country's entry onto the global stage, has had wider consequences for society." Upadhya traced the growth of the Indian IT industry in Bangalore and how the industry projects itself in the global market. "The image of India's IT industry has impacted global representations of the entire country," she explained.
Upadhya also explored the social and economic conditions that have shaped the IT industry. "The IT industry's growth in India is not just a response to globalization, but built on pre-existing conditions in India," she asserted. "India and its workforce have been responsible for creating the offshore model that characterizes the global IT industry today." Upadhya highlighted that globalization is a complex story in which jobs do not just go to the global south, but move in the other direction as well. "Indian companies like Infosys are now setting up offices in the global north and hiring local employees," she explained.
During the roundtable, Udupa opened a wider discussion on India's image. Indian Ambassador to Hungary Rahul Chhabra highlighted India's strategic, scientific, and economic developments in recent decades. Chhabra said that achievements including membership in many international organizations, successful space missions, and strong economic growth with a rapidly expanding workforce were evidence of India's promise on the global stage.
Udupa spoke about the role of news media in constructing the contested image of "New India". She described how in the years of economic reforms leading commercial newspapers started to articulate "New India" through real estate stories, page 3 journalism and campaigns to advocate corporate sector leadership for civic politics. She discussed the concept of "mediated desire" from her book to capture this phenomenon and its consequences for urban development.
Center for Media, Data and Society Research Fellow Ian Cook described a concrete example of India's global dreams: global investor "meets" in India. "Global investor meets show the people's 'mediated desire'," said Cook. These meets provide foreign investors and local people with certain images of India. Cook explained how investor brochures portray Indian states with little regulation and large amounts of land, "throwing bright lights over the violent process of taking land from people."
Analyzing the image of India from another perspective, South Asian Research Group Convener and Academic Writing Instructor Sanjay Kumar discussed the representation of the Indian diaspora in popular cinema. "Non-resident Indians (NRIs) have been at the center of recent cinematic representations," he noted. He traced the figure of the NRI evolving in Bollywood cinema from the earliest days to current times, observing that this has influenced global representations of the Indian diaspora.
Carol Upadhya also spoke about the role of the Indian diaspora in representing India to the wider world, noting that migrants retain strong connections with their home regions and towns. "The diaspora is highly diverse, and India should capitalize on these connections," she suggested.
Global Challenges Senior Fellow and Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, Happymon Jacob rounded out the discussion by looking at the role of Indian subnational states in foreign policy and diplomacy. "Subnational aspirations in India cannot be ignored," he stated, emphasizing the role of states within India at shaping foreign policy environment. "As global understanding moves past ideas of Westphalian sovereignty, we need greater Indian subnational – or regional – diplomacy," he concluded.