Indian Century Roundtable

"If there is to be a leader of the free world in 50 or 100 years time, it's likely to be India."

-- Australia's former prime Minister Tony Abbott, speaking at the Raisina Dialogue, 2022

India is the world's most extraordinarily successful democracy. "Extraordinarily," because India is not an ordinary democracy. In a world of failed states, India is the only major Third World country to have remained a democracy throughout its entire postcolonial history. Inspired by the August 2022 paper from Salvatore Babones, Indian Democracy at 75: Who Are the Barbarians at the Gate?, the Indian Century Roundtable is dedicated to providing detailed, fact-based research on India and its liberal democratic institutions.

Research Papers

March 2023 launch paper:

The problems with V-Dem do not derive from its statistical methodology, but from its idiosyncratic choice of indicators, inexplicable scaling decisions, and vulnerability to expert biases. In short, the problem isn't in the models; it's in the data. Or as the computer scientists say, "garbage in, garbage out." Click the link above to download the full report.

August 2023 paper on economic reform:

The Aadhaar ('Foundation') number is India's national identification system and the world's largest national biometric ID card initiative, with nearly 1.377 billion unique ID numbers issued as of mid-2023. The introduction of Aadhaar has transformed India's Public Distribution System (PDS) into a much more efficient, transparent and reliable welfare system.

November 2023 paper on Calfornia's SB 403:

A coalition of Muslim, Sikh, and Dalit civil society organizations is campaigning for laws to explicitly ban caste-based discrimination in the United States. These campaigns have been used to generate publicity that inappropriately links discrimination with Hindus and the Hindu faith, turning caste into a weapon in a South Asian diaspora culture war.

Understanding Indian Democracy

As India grows in economic and strategic importance, the world needs objective information on India, its institutions, and its democracy. Everyone knows that India is the world's largest democracy. Few realize that it is by far the world's poorest country (and the only major postcolonial society) to have remained a democracy throughout its entire history. The Indian Century Roundtable is dedicated to providing detailed, fact-based research on India and its liberal democratic institutions.

Research Areas

Democracy

Analyses of India's international democracy rankings

[[File:India National Level Parties symbols.svg|India_National_Level_Parties_symbols]]

Freedom

Research into press freedom and religious freedom in India

[[File:Indian Newspapers.jpg|Indian_Newspapers]]

Reform

Research into economic and institutional reform

[[File:The Secretariat Building in New Delhi, India.jpg|The_Secretariat_Building_in_New_Delhi,_India]]

Security

Objective information on internal security and military affairs

[[File:Zero bridge Srinagar.jpg|Zero_bridge_Srinagar]]

Aims and Objectives

Everyone knows that India is the world's largest democracy. Few realize that it is by far the world's poorest well-institutionalized democracy — and the only post-colonial country to have remained a democracy throughout its entire history. India should be a model for how democracy can work in the developing world.

Yet many Western journalists, parliamentarians, and business leaders have an impression of India that is 100 years out of date, if it was ever correct at all. Indian democracy is routinely tarred with labels like "authoritarian" and "fascist." These allegations are wildly inaccurate, but they are nonetheless influential.

As India grows in economic and strategic importance, the world needs objective information on India and its democratic model. We intend to provide that information on a "facts not feelings" basis. The Indian Century Roundtable is dedicated to providing detailed, objective research on India and its liberal democratic institutions that is free from political leanings or ideological interference. We aspire to be the world's most trusted source of information about India.

Executive Director

Salvatore Babones is an associate professor at the University of Sydney. He is a quantitative comparative sociologist whose current research focuses on the political sociology of democracy. In the past he has also published on economic development in post-socialist transition economies and quantitative methods for cross-national comparisons. He is the author or editor of fourteen books and several dozen academic research articles. He earned his MS (statistics) and PhD (sociology) from the Johns Hopkins University. Salvatore is currently researching a book on Indian democracy.

salvatore@indiancentury.org

Associate Director

Pranav Aggarwal is a Sydney-based Australian-Indian with a strong interest in advocacy, public policy, and politics. Pranav has lived and worked in the USA, Canada, India, and Japan. At the Indian Century Roundtable, Pranav volunteers to run the organizational machinery, from fundraising to finance to administration.

pranav@indiancentury.org

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https://www.gofundme.com/f/indian-century-roundtable