The LSESU India Forum (LIF) is an annual India-focused conference that brings together leading professionals, academics and students to promote vibrant discussions on India's evolution into a prominent global superpower.
This year was the 6th year of the conference, with prominent speakers from across the country engaging in business, media, politics and sports speaking. The theme for the year was ‘Disrupting the status quo’ which was inspired by LSE’s motto of knowing the causes of things. The aim was to know the causes behind India’s current state and how to put India on the path to glory.
The conference kicked off with Ananth Narayanan and Swati Bhargava on the business panel talking about the future of the Indian Start up scene along with Professor Alnoor Bhimani. Swati (an LSE Alum herself), talked to students about her journey and how to make the most of LSE and make it big back in India. Ananth talked about his transition from being a consultant to becoming the CEO of the largest commerce company in the country.
The discussion ranged from the emerging importance of data to women entrepreneurs. Both saw immense potential and opportunity in the upcoming generation as well as the growth of Indian markets in the coming decade.
While the business panel had an optimistic view of the future,, the politics panel was quite the contrary. Sudhanshu Mittal from the ruling party, Prithviraj Chavan from the opposition and media expert Abhigyan Prakash gave their predictions for the upcoming election.
While the two party spokespersons defended their actions respectively, Abhigyan played the role of the middleman and tried to be objective. Dr Ruth Kattumari chaired the panel and allowed the discussion to range from elections and employment to demonetisation and corruption.
Both the business and politics panel were not complete without talking about the importance of media in their industries. So it was fitting to have a robust discussion around the future of media in the Indian context. Sudhanshu Vats, Tarun Katial and Vivek Krishnani from the three biggest media houses in the country the discussed digitisation in India as well as issues of access and quality content.
The audience was fuelled with questions about the future and what is in store for traditional media houses. An audience member, said “I quite enjoyed the diversity of view points at the LIF. Being a media student, I particularly enjoyed the media panel for the sheer range of topics it covered and the nuance of the arguments.”
Following this was the sports panel, which was probably the most anticipated part of the event, with national cricketing stars joining the discussion. Sunil Gavaskar, Jhulan Goswami, Professor Boria Majumdar, Isha Guha and Gurav Bahirvani were part of the discussion around the evolution and future of sport in India.
Sunil’s nostalgic anecdotes from the field, and Jhulan’s struggles of making it as a woman’s sportsperson was sure to have inspired everyone in the audience. Professor Boria, playing the role of a true academic, led the discussion to the issues faced by the industry and how a change is needed.
As the UK’s largest student-run conference of its kind, the India Forum is a unique platform for students to engage with top leaders from the country and talk about things that matter and that are disrupting the status quo. At the end, with satisfied speakers and students the weeks of hard work by the committee paid off and the 2019 conference has surely set the bar for all the future forums.
Words and photos by LSE Social Media Ambassador Yashi Jain