India in the 21st century
King’s were recently honoured to host Sir Michael Arthur, who came to give the annual Royal Society for Asian Affairs Lecture to coincide with the Shells Global Perspective Extended Essay.
Sir Michael Arthur is currently President of Boeing UK and is a former UK ambassador to Germany and High Commissioner to India. He spoke to a packed Clagett Auditorium at the Cathedral’s International Study Centre on ‘Will India Shape the 21st Century?’
His talk was a magisterial tour de force which was inspiring, challenging and instructive. Sir Michael’s opening line was ‘Everything you say about India is true, so is the opposite’. His Foreign Office pedigree was evident as he incisively made a broad and complicated topic accessible, breaking it down into three Cs (Complexity, Chaos and Colour), three Ds (Democracy, Demography and Diversity) and one S (Spirituality). Apart from giving a real sense of India’s vibrancy, diversity and its modern challenges, he emphasised the importance to Britain of its relationship with India and also how our young generation will be affected in their lifetimes by India.
Earlier in the evening Sir Michael also kindly spoke on ‘Boeing and Careers in Aerospace’ to STEM students from both King’s and also other local schools.
