Luiss Guido Carli

Until recently in Italy, India was largely thought to be a country marked by poverty, spirituality, holy cows and marabouts.
Lately another view has arisen which, while not totally supplanting the former one,  has pushed it into the background. India is now seen as a country of  fast and amazing economic growth, which boasts a multitude of cutting-edge technologies and is home to an  "attentive and educated" capitalist class which is able to "innovate by turning its millenary culture into entrepreneurship".  
In truth, these views are both caricatures and as such actual features become exaggerated or oversimplified or in any case distorted with an end result which, despite some vague resemblance to the original, is definitely misleading.
The purpose of this seminar is to go beyond such stereotypical and mystifying views through an authoritative analysis by some of the leading academic experts on contemporary India in Italian universities combined with input from  entrepreneurs who are familiar with the Indian economic framework.
The seminar will thus examine the development of the political, economic and social system in independent India, with an emphasis on the last twenty years. Therefore, the clear and stunning progress which India has achieved will be reviewed taking account of the many problems that are still ongoing and which, in some cases, are getting even worse.
It goes without saying that in light of how large and populous India is and in view  of the country's political and economic complexity, the presentations will necessary be  just outlines. Yet they will reasonably pursue the ambition of paving the way for a first understanding, which will enable one to go beyond the aprioristic and reductive views now prevailing in Italy and gain an insight into the true reality of present-day India.