The French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC) and the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macao organise the following conference:

Speaker: Jean-Joseph Boillot (Institut des Relations Internationales et Stratégiques (IRIS) for India)

Jean Joseph Boillot holds a degree in social sciences and a doctorate in economics. He has specialized on India with a comparative view on China since the early 1980s when the two giants liberalized and opened up. For some fifteen years, he was then an advisor to the Ministry of Finance, working in the world’s major emerging zones, including emerging Asia from Hong Kong at the time of the 1997 crisis, then New Delhi at the time of the Indian economy’s tangible take-off. Today, he is an advisor at the Institut des Relations Internationales et Stratégiques (IRIS) for India but also the emerging world. He is the author of some twenty books, including “Chindiafrique, la Chine l’Inde et l’Afrique feront le monde de demain”, published by Odile Jacob.

Abstract:

The Indian economy have ended 2023 on a high note, with a growth rate in excess of 7% and now constantly higher than that of China. This is fuelling speculation about a serious competitor or even a substitute to Beijing, both economically and geopolitically. All the more so as New Delhi is now pursuing a “multi-alignment” strategy, hoping to reap the dividends of catching up with China’s power.

While India’s strengths are undeniable, there are also major weaknesses, notably a country that has been torn apart since the Hindu nationalists came to power. The persistence of mass poverty and high unemployment among young graduates are undermining the country’s demographic window of opportunity, which is expected to last until 2047.

What are the realistic short- and medium-term prospects for the Indian economy? And what are the consequences, both for China and for our view of this emerging superpower?

ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME!

This seminar will be held in English.
Benjamin Taunay, Director of the CEFC, will chair the session.