1) What sector are you involved in? In what way did you get in touch with the reality of the other country? What degree of importance and role has the Indian experience had on your professional experience?

I’m a journalist working for the Financial Times in Mumbai. My love-affair with India is a long standing one. Sparked by a hippy granny I once met in Italy. However, when I first came here in 2002 I realised that what fascinated me most wasn’t the esoteric India, but rather the industrial and urban side of this incredible country. Through my passion for journalism I got to know India better, although I’m convinced that it is impossible to fully understand such a complex and intertwined nation. What I learnt here is that it’s better to narrate what you see and what you experience rather than reach conclusion about the world.

Professionally India means a lot to me. It is here that my career as journalist started and it  is here that I’m building the foundations of my future career as a foreign correspondent.

2) In what way, in your experience, have you got in touch with the stereotypes tied up to the figure of your country? How much, instead, have you really met “global” environments?

India is often seen as an esoteric land, composed of turbans and elephants. Many will tell you: “The real India is in the villages”. When people say this to me I usually answer saying: “Well, I guess Mumbai’s 20m inhabitants are fake, made of plastic”.

India, more than other countries, is a land made of constant contradictions, where global and local live side by side. In the subcontinent you have the richest billionaires of the world and the poorest. You have data cards that give you super fast internet and then swathes of land lack basic amenities.

The India I have experienced is one that blends a billion and one stories and realities. In many ways India is a functional anarchy and a fairly dysfunctional democracy. Everything that comes is absorbed and re-invented in an Indian way.

3) How do you consider the issue of India being a global giant and the feverish enthusiasm that nowadays animates the Indian society? Is it really like that or it is a partial or twisted reading? According to your point of view, what are the problems of India, its positive sides, the things to improve under the sociopolitical and economic profile?

India is a global giant and a local dwarf. A country with 1.2bn people and an economic growth of 6 per cent during the global financial crisis and 9 per cent during the “good days” can’t be neglected from the global platforms. On the other hand, there is a tendency to blow things up. The media, of which I am a member, are partially responsible for this exaggeration. The way I see things is that India is going through a multi-layered development. There are examples of excellence, see India’s information technology sector – worth more than $60bn – which produces more than call centres. However, when it comes to the manufacturing sector, India seems to lag its peers in terms of quality and standards. Furthermore, working conditions and industrial relations are often conflictual and violent.

What is worth mentioning is that India is developing in its own way, independent from the west and china, but at the same time in co-operation with the west and china. The solution isn’t ready yet, but is being studied.

4) How do you consider the issue of the undervaluation of India as a strategic important actor for the Italy-system? In case you share this opinion, how do you think it is possible to remedy? According to you, how much do the theme of networks and bilateral nets between countries count, especially thinking to the role of the young generations in building these relations? During your stay did you have the possibility to get opportunities and useful contacts for your career?

India would be a great partner for Italy. For a number of reason. One, there is a long-standing  relationship between the two countries; FIAT has been working here for years. We have strong cultural ties and a strong mutual understanding. However, in recent years the terms of this relation have been tarnished by petty politics. Without going into the details of the problems (Italian business leaders being denied visas and Indian academics being kicked out of Italy without any good reason) it would take very little to revert the current state of affairs. Italy should have the courage to open itself to India, trying to build an open relationship with an emerging democratic nation, rather than foster better ties with a dictatorships such as China. Italy, being a western power that is loosing its glorious lustre, should try to make the first step to improve the diplomatic relations with India. Why? Simply because in the long run Italy will need India more than the other way round. Being a journalist, building contacts is my bread and butter. Indians love Italians, one of the country’s leaders ended up marrying one, Sonia Gandhi, who today runs the nation behind the scenes. As I said earlier, it would take little to make things work.