Riding the Elephant

The picture of an auto-rickshaw has been cropped from a larger painting by Mohd. Feroz Khan, a young artist based in Delhi.

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Riding the Elephant began in April 2007 as a twice-weekly column on Fortune magazine’s website – http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/ . The aim was to expand the on-site coverage of India before Fortune’s big Global Forum conference in Delhi that October. After the Forum, I wrote posts about once a week till the end of July 2008 when, following budget cuts at Fortune.com, the blog began its independent existence here.

I aim to write about India, and occasionally its neighbours, once or twice a week, focussing on issues that seem to me to be interesting and important – hoping that they stimulate interest and comment. I also plan to use subjects in the blog as the basis for a book.

Most of the blog’s posts appear on the Financial Times’ FT.com India page. The latest posts are also listed on the home page of Hong Kong-based Asia Sentinel, where they sometimes appear in full, and the most recent one always appears on US-based Global Post’s India page. I also have a link on Tina Brown’s US-based The Daily Beast. See Blogroll for links to these and other useful sites.

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I’m a British journalist and have been in South Asia for a total of 19 years, writing initially for the Financial Times and, since the mid-1990s, mostly for Fortune magazine, The Economist, and the New Statesman.

Here’s some career details:

Financial Times’ first South Asia correspondent (1983-88), following several years in London as the FT’s labour editor and industrial editor.

In 1988 moved to Hong Kong as the FT’s correspondent for the territory, southern China, and Taiwan. In 1991, left the FT and spent just over three years in the Hong Kong Government as public affairs adviser to the Chief Secretary, then returned to India in 1995.

Past President of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia (2007-09) and of the International Association of Press Clubs (2008-09).

Publications:

“Foreign Correspondent – 50 years of Reporting South Asia” – Editor, with Bernard Imhasley and Simon Denyer. Penguin India (Delhi 2008) http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/Bookdetail.aspx?bookId=3599                         

“India and China – Asia’s New Giants: Stepping Stones to Prosperity”, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies (Delhi 1995).

“Conflict or Co-operation: The Growth of Industrial Democracy”, Kogan Page (London 1977/1983).