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Sashi Tripathi and IDRC President, David Malone IDRC Photos: Tecklesphoto.com

 Listen to a clip from Tripathi’s talk

 Listen to Tripathi’s entire lecture

Watch Tripathi’s entire lecture on CPAC’s website

“Positive demographic trends and our rich human resource base make India a country of promising opportunity. With young India becoming more literate, more aware, more aspirational, and more articulate, there is hope that a fresh breeze of positive change will continue to blow across the land,” says Shashi Tripathi, member of the Union Public Service Commission of India.

During a public presentation at IDRC on June 19, 2009, Tripathi reflected on how Indians between the ages of 13 and 35 – who make up 54% of the country’s population – will affect India’s development.

“It is necessary to make this vibrant and strong resource… a valuable partner in the process of planning and development,” she says. “It is important that they are able to participate in the process of decision-making…Only then can they be important instruments of change.”

Tripathi’s appointment to India’s Union Public Service Commission followed a 37-year career in the Indian Foreign Service. In addition to postings in Canada, Nepal, Afghanistan, Germany, and Russia, Tripathi has held senior positions at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and in the Ministry of External Affairs of India. As Secretary (West) of the Indian Foreign Ministry from 2004 to 2006, she was responsible for relations with over 100 countries

The event was the 12th instalment in IDRC’s year-long series, The India Lectures, which marks the 25th anniversary of the opening of IDRC’s South Asia regional office in New Delhi. As part of the series, IDRC also hosted sinologist Alka Acharya, leading economist Isher Judge Ahluwalia , and journalist Anand Giridharadas, among others.

IDRC has supported research for development in India since its founding, nearly 40 years ago.

The opinions expressed here reflect those of the speaker alone, and not necessarily those of the International Development Research Centre.

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