Impressions from Kapil Sibal’s Talk at CSAS, UC Berkeley

Defending the official policies (or the lack of it) while interacting with an audience in the U.S. can be challenging for a Minister of the Indian Government. Kapil Sibal, India’s Minister of Human Resource Development and Education, needs to be given credit for putting up a great show as a representative of the Government of India. I had the opportunity to attend his talk on September organised by the Center for South Asia Studies (CSAS) at UC Berkeley campus. He did a great job in defending (rather than enunciating) the government’s education policy. However, it seemed that Mr. Sibal was still disturbed by critical comments made during the panel discussion hosted a day prior to his UC Berkeley interaction by Yale University, the U.S. India Business Council and the American India Foundation. At the panel discussion in New York, Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi challenged Mr. Sibal on what “action” his government was taking and Fareed Zakaria questioned him on how to benchmark India’s progress with that of China. The mood at Berkeley during the initial interactions was somewhat sober. Graduate students of Indian origin were keen to know about possibilities and opportunities available in India.

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