About Pallavi Aiyar

Pallavi Aiyar

Pallavi Aiyar is an award winning foreign correspondent and author. She writes a weekly newsletter on global travel and culture, The Global Jigsaw, at: https://pallaviaiyar.substack.com

Pallavi has reported from across China, Europe, Indonesia and Japan contributing to publications that include, The New York Times, Granta, The Monocle, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Noema Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph, The South China Morning Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Caravan, The Hindu, The Indian Express, Nikkei Asian Review, The Indian Quarterly, Mint, The Wire, Verve, Politica Exterior and El Pais.

She is currently Associate Editor of the online magazine, The Globalist.

Her most recent books are Orienting: An Indian in Japan and Jakarta Tails: The Continuing Adventures of Soyabean and Tofu.  She is also author of the 2008 China-memoir, Smoke and Mirrors, which won the Vodafone-Crossword Popular award.

Her 2011 novel, Chinese Whiskers, a modern fable set in Beijing, was published in the United States, Italy, Belgium and India. She was lead author of a special Lonely Planet guide to China for the Indian market.

Her book on contemporary Europe's crises, Punjabi Parmesan: Dispatches from a Europe in Crisis, was published in the United States as New Old World: An Indian Journalist Discovers the Changing Face of Europe. It was selected as one of 2016's best books on Europe, by Foreign Affairs magazine.

Other books include Babies and Bylines: Parenting on the Move, Choked, an in-depth look at the crisis of air pollution in New Delhi and Beijing and the anthology, A Thousand Cranes for India: Reclaiming Plurality Amid Hatred.

Pallavi was selected by the World Economic Forum as a 2014 Young Global Leader. She was also a member of the Forum’s Global Future Council on Information, Media and Entertainment between 2016-2018.

Pallavi was awarded the 2007 Prem Bhatia memorial prize for excellence in political reporting for her dispatches from China. She served as advisor to the Confederation of Indian Industry on China-related issues. In 2010 she was recognized by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao for her work in furthering Sino-Indian relations.

Pallavi has presented her works at literary festivals, universities, think tanks and foundations around the world including the Berlin, Jaipur, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Hay (Segovia) and Ubud literary festivals, The German Marshall Fund India Forum, the annual conference of the Association of Asian Studies, The Asia Society in New York and Mumbai, Columbia University, The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, NIIT University in Neemrana, The London School of Economics, The Indian Institute of Management (IIM), the Elcano Institute in Madrid and IMD in Lausanne.

Pallavi was a Reuters Fellow at Oxford University (2007). She was also a Brains Trust member of the IMD-based think tank, the Evian Institute.

Pallavi has first class degrees from Delhi University (St Stephens College), Oxford University, the London School of Economics and the University of Southern California. She has a 2016 executive education certificate in Public Leadership from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

She is currently based in Madrid, Spain.

She can be contacted at: pallavi.aiyar@gmail.com