Economist and Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz believes India has much to do to improve its “image” abroad.

Mr. Stiglitz is in Bangalore to deliver a talk on “Global inequality: Causes and Consequences” along with economist Branko Milanivic.

During a media interaction on Wednesday, Mr. Stiglitz said the crackdown on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and “harassment” of students - particularly the slapping of sedition charges against students of Jawaharlal Nehru University - had put India in a small club of authoritarian countries.

“India should be aware that it has an image problem. There are very few governments that have made it difficult for NGOs to operate or engage in harassment of universities. These events have had a strong effect on public opinion abroad. It puts the country in the club of countries such as Egypt, Russia and Turkey. Most people in India will not want to be in this group,” he said.

He believed that with India growing in an open global economy, it was “important for India to do a better job of explaining”.

With India showing growing inequality, Mr. Stiglitz warned that a situation, where the rich one per cent see tremendous growth while the rest see stagnating incomes, will eventually lead to leaders such as (Republican Presidential candidate) Donald Trump thriving.

To tackle economic inequality, he said there needs to be high growth, with lesser focus on inflation, and continuation and strengthening of welfare programmes such as NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) in India.