Introduction

Dr Narayan Lakshman is an Senior Associate Editor at The Hindu, one of India’s largest English-language daily newspapers. As a member of the senior editorial management of the newspaper, Dr Lakshman co-edits its opinion pages, writes editorial and opinion articles, and has curated special editorial projects, including article series on India’s water and healthcare crises and investigative features. He has written over 2,000 articles to date. He regularly appears on news television channels as an expert political commentator. From February 2010, Dr Lakshman served for six years as The Hindu’s United States (US) correspondent based in Washington DC, sending dispatches on a wide range of subjects, from strategic issues in India-US politics to healthcare reform and immigration controversies. Prior to this role, Dr Lakshman worked in the Tamil Nadu bureau at The Hindu’s Chennai headquarters, where he wrote on rural poverty and development.

Dr Lakshman’s doctoral research at the Development Studies Institute, London School of Economics, focused on the political economy of poverty alleviation in India. His research was synthesised into a book titled Patrons of the Poor: Caste Politics and Policymaking in India, published by Oxford University Press (India) in March 2011. He also served as a consultant at the Asian Development Bank, where he authored a Working Paper on ‘The Political Economy of Good Governance for Poverty Alleviation Policies’. He also worked as a research analyst at a London-based hedge fund.

Dr Lakshman has a BA in Economics from St. Stephen’s College at Delhi University, an MA in Economics from Cambridge University, and an MSc (with Distinction) and PhD in Development Studies from the London School of Economics. He is a Kamalnayan Bajaj Fellow at the Ananta Aspen Centre, New Delhi, India, and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

His Twitter handle is @narlak.

Areas of Interest and Expertise

• Indian Political Economy
• State Politics and Policy
• Economic Growth and Development
• US-India Politics
• US Domestic Politics
• India’s Foreign Policy
• Asian Geopolitics