Transcript
MARTIN INDYK: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for joining us on, finally, a beautiful spring day.
I’m Martin Indyk, the vice president and director of Foreign Policy at Brookings. I’m very glad to have an opportunity to bring to you another event in our India and South Asia Initiative, which is a joint endeavor of the Foreign Policy program at Brookings and our Global Economy and Development Program.
Unfortunately, Kemal Dervis, who is my counterpart in Global Economy and Development, is abroad at the moment, and so I have the honor of hosting the Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma. We’re very glad to have you here, Mr. Minister, and grateful to you for, coming to Brookings to speak about the Asian saga -- economic saga and Indian perspective.
Ambassador Sharma has a distinguished political career in India. He was born and educated in Shimla. He has been a prominent leader of the student and youth movement in India. He worked closely with late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. First elected to Parliament in 1994 at the age of 31, he’s been a prominent public face of the Indian National Congress and was chief spokesman of the party for six years. He was elevated to the Union Council of Ministers with responsibility for foreign affairs in January of 2006. He also has held the responsibility of Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting from October 2008. And in May 2009, he was appointed minister of Industry and Commerce -- or I should say Commerce and Industry, the post that he currently holds.
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