Speaker: Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Strategy Unit, Harvard Business School; Director, The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University
Discussant: Alisha Holland, Chair, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Business and Government. Associate Professor, Department of Government, Harvard University
Chair: Erez Manela, Acting Center Director (2022–2023); Director, Graduate Student Programs. Professor of History, Department of History, Harvard University.

How do societies identify and promote merit? Enabling all people to fulfill their potential, and ensuring the selection of competent and capable leaders are central challenges for any society. These are not new concerns. Scholars, educators, and political and economic elites in China and India have been pondering them for centuries and continue to do so today, with enormously high stakes.