BRICS Summit 2023: Outcomes and Future Prospects

The Peninsula Foundation (TPF) and Russian House, Chennai with the Indo-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry are organising a panel discussion on “BRICS Summit 2023: Outcomes and Future Prospects on 31st August, 2023.

About the Consul General:

Mr. Oleg Avdeev
Consul General, Russian Federation in South India

Mr. Oleg was born on June 12, 1959. He graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1983. He is fluent in Hindi and English. Mr. Oleg has been in diplomatic service since 1983. He worked in various positions in the central office of the Russian Foreign Ministry and abroad. He served as the Consul General of Russia in Chittagong, Bangladesh from 2005 – 2009. He then served as the Head of the Department in the Second Department of Asia of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia from 2010 – 2011. He was the Deputy Director of the Second Department of Asia of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia from 2011 – 2013. Mr.Oleg then served as the Consul General of Russia in Karachi, Islamic Republic of Pakistan from 2013 – 2017. He is the Consul General of Russia in Chennai, India since September 12, 2018.

About the Chair:

Air Marshal M Matheswaran AVSM VM PhD (Retd)
President, The Peninsula Foundation

Air Marshal M Matheswaran is an Indian Air Force veteran with 39 years of active service. He is the FounderPresident of The Peninsula Foundation, a policy research think-tank based in Chennai. He is a fighter pilot, an Experimental Test Pilot, and a Fighter Combat Leader, and has flown over 40 types of aircraft. He is an alumnus of IAF’s prestigious institutions, ASTE and TACDE where he was Commandant and Deputy Commandant respectively. The Air Marshal is also a graduate of the Defence Services College, Wellington and the National Defence College, New Delhi. He has held various operational and command appointments that include Senior Air Staff Officer of Eastern Air Command, Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Space), Air Officer Commanding (Maritime Air Operations), Principal Director (Air Staff Acquisition) and Director of Ops at the Strategic Forces Command.

The Air Marshal has a master’s in military science, M Phil, and a PhD in Defence and Strategic Studies from the University of Madras. He has a post-graduate diploma if financial management. He has done a Senior Fellowship in National and International Security from the Harvard Kennedy School of Governance, Harvard University. He has been an advisor to HAL, Cyient, and also as President, Aerospace Business in Reliance Defence. He continues to be involved in strategic consultancy in Defence and Aerospace.

About the Panelists:

N Ram
Director, THG Publishing Private Limited

N. Ram is the Director of THG Publishing Private Limited, The Hindu Group’s publishing company, and has been in the media field since 1966. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, Frontline, BusinessLine, and Sportstar of The Hindu group of publications, and the former Chairman of THG Publishing Private Limited. N. Ram led The Hindu’s investigation into the Bofors arms deal corruption scandal. His investigation, in association with Chitra Subramaniam and others in The Hindu, was recognized by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism during its centennial celebrations in 2012 as one of ‘50 Great Stories reported, investigated, produced, filmed, edited, photographed, anchored, and/or tweeted by Columbia journalists’ over the century.

His honours and awards include the Padma Bhushan (for journalism), 1990; the Asian Investigative Journalist of the Year Award from the Press Foundation of Asia (1990); the B.D. Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism (1989); the National Citizen’s Award (1995); XLRI’s First JRD Tata Award for Business Ethics (2002); and Sri Lanka Ratna, Sri Lanka’s highest National Honour conferred on non-nationals (2005). He is also a former member of the National Integration Council and of the India-China Eminent Persons Group.

Dr Alagu Perumal Ramasamy
Associate Professor, International Business, Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA)

Dr. Alagu Perumal Ramasamy holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Diplomacy, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan. His Ph.D. Dissertation was on “State and Information Technology Development in India and China – A Comparative Study”. He has a rich experience teaching Graduate/ Post Graduate students on International Relations, International Political Economy and International Business. At LIBA he teaches International Business, Mandarin and related courses.

He has several research articles and conference publications to his credit. His research interests are Food, Agriculture, Energy, Environment, India – China Issues, East Asia Affairs, Foreign Policy, International Relations and Ethics. He has a rich experience of Chinese culture and is proficient in the Chinese language. He has recently obtained a certification in Mandarin (HSK Intermediate) from the Chinese Testing International, Beijing, People’s Republic of China.

He visited Taiwan R.O.C., as part of the delegation of 2013 Taiwan Study Camp for Future Leaders from South Asia, Dec. 16 – Dec. 23, 2013. He was invited by the Government of the People’s Republic of China to attend the 2014 Seminar on Chinese Translation for BRICS Countries”, October 26th to December 20th 2014. He is a recipient of Taiwan Research Fellowship 2019.