[vimeo:64532787]
On 17 April the Lowy Institute and the Australia India Institute launched a groundbreaking poll looking at Indian perceptions of Australia (the link includes the poll in full and a short video interview with report author, Rory Medcalf), gaining insight into what Indians really think of our governance, education, ban on uranium sales, shared Indian Ocean security, and of course the Australian cricket team.
The poll was quickly picked up by domestic and international media, with pieces in The Australian, The Times of India, SBS, Radio National, to name a few, as well as a tweet and a press release from Foreign Minister Bob Carr welcoming the poll.
The launch of the poll that evening, hosted by our corporate partner PwC Australia at their Darling Harbour offices, involved a fascinating panel discussion with Christopher Kremmer (Australia India Institute), Neville Roach (Australia India Institute) and Mark Laurie (Partner, PwC Australia). Chaired by the ABC's Geraldine Doogue, the panel discussion delved into what Australia and India could do with such rich data as well as discussing some of the surprising results. A podcast of the event is now available, and coming soon will be a short video. [fold]
We also caught up with some attendees after the launch to record their views on the poll and what it means for Australia-India relations (see above). Featuring Christopher Kremmer (0:11), Ruchir Punjabi (Australia-India Youth Dialogue; 0:51), Dipen Rughani (Australia India Business Council; 1:42), and Anupam Sharma (film maker; 2:19), the video highlights how important the poll is to a wide range of stakeholder interested in seeing improved Australia-India ties.
The second part of this project, an opinion poll looking at Indian attitudes to domestic policy questions and the world more broadly, will be released in May.