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Since its independence, India has been the world’s second largest country and largest democracy, but a poor country as well. However, as India celebrates its 75th anniversary of independence, its population is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country during 2023, with a sixth of the world’s population. And while India is likely to emerge as the third largest economy by the end of this decade, riding on the back of nearly four decades of middling-to-strong economic growth, its democracy is increasingly stressed. But India faces many challenges. While some are chronic, others are growing. Many of these – political, economic and institutional – are internal and have been shaped by India’s multiple social cleavages, inequalities and policy choices. Others are more external, stemming from the geopolitics of its neighborhood or the long-term challenges of climate change. The devastation wrought by COVID has further exacerbated some of these challenges. The seminar will examine the principal challenges facing India—political and institutional; democracy and nationalism; economic growth; poverty and inequality; urbanization; natural resources and climate change; and geopolitical—and policy options to address them.