Two colleagues in India’s influential thinkers list


Posted on January 2, 2015  /  1 Comments

Forbes India has just published a list of 24 influentials, in no particular order, according the author. We were pleased to see two colleagues with whom we interact a lot, Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Sunil Abraham featured in the “top ten.” Our congratulations to this well-deserved honor and our wishes for more strength in the New Year in improving the quality of policy discourse in India, perhaps the most important and challenging of the countries we work in. Our congratulations also to Ajay Shah and Nachiket Mor with whom we have had limited interactions. We look forward to getting to know the others on the list.

Pratap Bhanu Mehta
For a consummate New Delhi insider, he has emerged as the most respected political commentator in India with his habitually centrist perceptive views from his perch as president of Centre for Policy Research.

Ajay Shah
One of the most influential policy economists of a new generation in India. A sharp mind, but one that comes with a combative style that gets him about as many enemies as fans.

Jay Panda
Representing a regional party, Jay is the new face of Indian politics: Young, articulate, liberal and quite vocal about policy issues, ranging from parliamentary reform to campaign finance, and a clear voice of the youth in India.

Niranjan Rajadhyaksha
Lucid, analytical, sparse writing on economics and policy that challenges you to engage with facts and empirical assertions than ideology and conventional wisdom. A must-read.

Meena Kandasamy
A radical, feminist poetess who speaks for Dalits, her writings are more introspective, yet give a good sense of the new thinking in India’s oppressed castes.

Nachiket Mor
Gave up one of the best banking jobs to pursue his passion for rural development. Knows more about the changing face of rural India and financial inclusion than most contemporaries.

Ram Madhav
An RSS intellectual who has become very influential in the new BJP regime, he represents the more thoughtful wing of the Hindutva movement. He is ready and willing to engage with ideological opponents.

Jayprakash Narayan
A failed politician, yet perhaps the most thoughtful one in contemporary India. Ignore his electoral debacles, but pay attention to some of the best thinking and speaking on political reform.

Nitin Pai
Runs The Takshashila Institution, a new think tank. One of the new generation’s must-read foreign policy thinkers in India, whether you agree with his right-of-centre views or not.

Sunil Abraham
Executive director of The Centre for Internet and Society. Has deep insights into India’s rapidly growing digital culture as well as the threats to it from misguided government regulation.

Read more: http://forbesindia.com/article/special/minds-that-%28should%29-matter/39289/0#ixzz3NevhgLBL

Read more: http://forbesindia.com/article/special/minds-that-%28should%29-matter/39289/0#ixzz3NevITiTD

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