Ep. 29 - The World's Largest Democratic Exercise with Irfan Yar and Constantino Xavier

In this episode of Pod Bless Canada, MLI counterterrorism analyst and research intern Irfan Yar is joined by Constantino Xavier, a leading expert on Indian political institutions, decision-making processes, and security relationships with other Indo-Pacific nations. This discussion continues MLI’s examination of India’s ongoing general elections, the world’s largest democratic exercise. Mr. Xavier shares his expertise on leading election issues, such as economic growth, infrastructural modernization, and bureaucratic reforms. The two also discuss the electoral implications of hacking and misinformation, growing global populism and extremism, large-scale data governance, and relations with other Indo-Pacific nations—particularly China. Constantino Xavier is a Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at Brookings India in New Delhi and the Brookings Institution in Washington DC. He previously worked as an advisor to the Embassy of Portugal in New Delhi, held fellowships at the Institution for Defence Studies and Analyses and Observer Research Foundation, and received awards from the United States Fulbright program and Indian Council for Cultural Relations. Mr. Xavier holds a Ph.D in South Asian studies from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.