Forthcoming Lecture: Dr M Satish Kumar, Queen's Academy India

Details: 20 May 2014, 4pm, Room QG22, DCU Business School

Title: Dance of the Elephants in a Global Safari: Challenges to India’s Economic Sustainability

Speaker:  Dr. M. Satish Kumar FRGS, RCS, FHEA, Director, Queen’s Academy India, School of Geography, Archaeology & Palaeoecology, Queen’s University Belfast, Email: s.kumar@qub.ac.uk

This talk attempts to trace the emergence of India from a subject nation to that of a self-governing, economic miracle. It traces the key contribution that India made to the colonial economy and how nascent aspirations were articulated. The major material progress, which was, established leading up to India’s Independence provided a framework for the democratisation of the civil society. Fast forward, the talk then focuses on emerging India as an economic power, the role of its diaspora. Finally beyond the gloss and ‘shinning India’ are major challenges that continue to confront India today. These need to be acknowledged in order for the country to sustain their economic, social and political sustainability. 

Dr. M. Satish Kumar

 As a specialist on India, Dr. Kumar’s research focuses on Colonial/ Postcolonial Geographies and economic development of South Asia. He has more than twenty-six years experience in the field of higher education, having taught previously at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and the University of Cambridge, UK. He was awarded the Bhoovigyan (Earth Scientist) National Leadership Award for his contributions to Population, Environment & Development Studies. India (2002).

He is a Fellow of Royal Geographical Society and Higher Education Academy and Member of the Royal Commonwealth Society (UK). He is a Member of Expert Panel for the Selection of International Development Awards, Stormont Assembly Northern Ireland since 2012.  He is the Chair of the Board of Directors of ArtsEkta, Northern Ireland’s leading Intercultural Ethnic Arts Group. Member India Stakeholders Group Advisory Group, Belfast City Council. He is an External Board Member on South Asian Initiative Trinity College Dublin and Member, Irish Association for Cultural, Economic and Social Relations. He has contributed to national and international academic books and journals in India, UK and Japan.

 His key publications among others are:

Colonial and Postcolonial Geographies of India, (eds.) Saraswati Raju, M. Satish Kumar and Stuart Corbridge. Sage. 2006 and Globalisation

North East India: Some Developmental Issues (eds.) A. Dubey, M. Satish Kumar, N. Srivastava, and Eugene Thomas (Standard Press, New Delhi) 2007.