Bangalore, Feb 25 : At a time when US President Joe Biden is known to have a China plan in which India has a role, and a clutch of Indian American have been named to key positions in the new administration, renowned journalist and commentator Edward Luce, who was the New Delhi-based South Asia Bureau Chief of Financial Times and has written a seminal book on India, will be heard with eager attention when he delivers the Girish Karnad Memorial Lecture 2021 on 'US Politics: Why Here, and Where from Here? here on March 12. "Edward Luce, who is one of the most highly regarded commentators on US politics in the world, will talk about the dynamics of US politics, and the impact of the newly elected US government on the world, especially on India," the New India Foundation, which is organising the virtual event, said. Edward Luce is the US national editor and columnist at the Financial Times. Before that he was the FT's Washington Bureau chief. Other roles have included South Asia bureau chief, Capital Markets editor, and Philippines Correspondent. Luce was previously the speechwriter for the US Treasury Secretary, Lawrence H. Summers, in the Clinton administration. He is the author of three highly acclaimed books, "The Retreat of Western Liberalism" (2017), "Time to Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent" (2012), and "In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India "(2007). He appears regularly on CNN, NPR, MSNBC's Morning Joe, and the BBC. On his part, Biden "has long been a champion of stronger ties with India. I saw this firsthand, I started working for him in 2002 on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Then, of course, the Obama-Biden administration and his years as Vice-President", Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has stated. "But if you go back 15 years, Joe Biden had a vision for the future of US-India relations. In 2006, he said, my dream is that in 2020, the two closest nations in the world will be India an the United States," Blinken added. This will be the fourteenth NIF Annual Lecture, which was renamed in 2019 to the 'Girish Karnad Memorial Lecture' in honour of the late multi-lingual scholar and playwright. One of the leading and most prestigious events on the calendar, the New India Foundation Annual Lecture has facilitated debate on important social issues, with talks featuring renowned scholars and thinkers including eminent scientist Dr Sowmya Swaminanthan, economist Jean Dreze, historian and political theorist Sunil Khilnani, political scientist Yogendra Yadav, social activist Ela Bhatt, distinguished sociologist Professor Andre Beteille, eminent economists such as Professor Raghuram Rajan, Dr Arvind Subramanian and Professor Esther Duflo, noted Architect Professor Rahul Mehrotra, economist and historian Professor Sunil Amrith. Based in Bengaluru, the core activity of the New India Foundation is the New India Fellowships which have been awarded to scholars and writers for over a decade and a half now. Aimed at enabling and supporting high-quality research on an extraordinary range of topics on post-Independence India, the NIF Fellowships have resulted in the publication of an eclectic and vibrant collection of twenty-two books published by prestigious publishing houses. Instituted in 2018, the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize, for the best non-fiction book on modern/contemporary India, has further built on its mission of sponsoring high-quality research and writings on the world's largest democracy. Ramachandra Guha, Niraja Gopal Jayal, Nandan Nilekani, Srinath Raghavan and Manish Sabharwal are the Trustees of the New India Foundation. /IANS