Speakers:
Professor Kanta Murali, University of Toronto
Sanjay Ruparelia, Jarislowsky Democracy Chair, Ryerson University

Moderator:
Haroon Siddiqui, Editorial Page Editor Emeritus,
The Toronto Star and Distinguished Visiting Professor, Ryerson University

Kanta Murali is Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto. Her research interests include comparative political economy of development, Indian politics, politics of growth and economic policy, state-business relations, state capacity, inequality, and labor policy. Her publications include Caste, Class and Capital: The Social and Political Origins of Economic Policy in India (2017, Cambridge University Press) and Business and Politics in India (co-edited with Atul Kohli and Christophe Jaffrelot, published in 2019 by Oxford University Press). She received a Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University.

Sanjay Ruparelia is the author of Divided We Govern: coalition politics in modern India (Oxford University Press, 2015), and co-editor of Understanding India’s New Political Economy: a great transformation? (Routledge, 2011). He has also published articles, essays and op-eds on topics such as power-sharing in federal parliamentary democracies, growth and inequality, and rights-based social welfare. Prior to joining Ryerson, Sanjay taught at the New School for Social Research and Columbia University in New York, and consulted for the United Nations Development Programme (New York), United Nations Research Institute on Social Development (Geneva) and the Asia Foundation (Kabul). He currently serves as associate editor of the journal Pacific Affairs, as well as the forthcoming Oxford Encyclopedia for Asian Politics.

Haroon Siddiqui has reported or supervised coverage of Canada for 50 years, and written from nearly 50 countries, particularly across the Middle East and South Asia. He visits India frequently, and has covered several elections, including the 1977 defeat of Indira Gandhi and 2015 victory of Narendra Modi. He is a recipient of the Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario, the National Press Club’s UNESCO Award, four citations of the National Newspaper Awards, and numerous community honours. He is a former president of PEN Canada and an elected member of the board of PEN International.