Giridharadas will give a presentation titled “The Rise of India and What It Means for the World” at 3 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5, in the Key West Ballroom of the Student Union. The event is free and open to the public.
Giridharadas became The New York Times’ first Bombay-based correspondent in the modern era in 2005. He reported for four years on India’s transformation, Bollywood, corporate takeovers, terrorism, outsourcing, poverty and democracy.
He was appointed a columnist in 2008, writing the “Letter from India” series. He is among the newspaper’s youngest columnists to date and is penning the twice-monthly column “Currents,” which focuses on new ideas, global culture and the social implications of technology.
Giridharadas first interned for The New York Times at 17, writing two articles on money and politics. After college in 2003, he moved to Bombay to work as a management consultant where he advised the local government on urban development, a pharmaceutical company on organizational redesign and leadership development, and Indian and Chinese businesses on their internationalization strategies.
His first book, “India Calling,” is due out in early 2011. It is a work of narrative nonfiction about his return to the India his parents left.
Sponsors of Giridharadas’ presentation include the UCF Global Perspectives Office; The India Program at UCF; The Anil and Chitra Deshpande India Program Endowed Fund; Lawrence J. Chastang and the Chastang Foundation; Orlando Area Committee on Foreign Relations; UCF Political Science Department; UCF Nicholson School of Communication; UCF International Services Center; UCF LIFE; and the Global Connections Foundation.