MUMBAI: The Emerging Giants season on BBC World is a themed series of news reports and programmes exploring two of the world?s most dynamic countries, India and China. The series will run globally from Monday 22 May to Sunday 28 May on the channel.

The highlights of the season will include "hard-hitting" news reports and analytical programming to reflect where the economies of the two emerging countries are headed over the course of the next 20 years, and their potential impact on the rest of the world, states an official release.

The season will present an overview and bring an international perspective on what the world?s opinion leaders foresee as the real picture regarding the state of the economies of the two nations.

Presenter Nisha Pillai, Delhi-based correspondent Sanjeev Srivastava, Mumbai business correspondent Karishma Vaswani, and South Asia correspondent Navdip Dhariwal will be conducting interviews and reports from India for Asia Today, Asia Business Report, World Business Report and News bulletins. There will also be packages produced by Washington reporter Jonathan Beale, correspondent Humphrey Hawksley, and Shanghai-based business reporter Quentin Sommerville among others. There will be two extended World Business Reports every weekday at 4 pm and 7 pm, which will include live reports from the London, New York and Singapore studios.

Four special editions of HARDtalk presented by Stephen Sackur will be recorded in India. The line-up of guests include: Praful Patel, Civil Aviation Minister; Joakim Arputham of Mumbai Slum Dwellers Association; Dr Vandana Shiva, Environmental Activist and well-known industrialist Rahul Bajaj. HARDtalk extra, presented by Noel Thompson, will also be interviewing Shabana Azmi, actress, Manmohan Shetty filmmaker and producer and Javed Akhtar, writer and lyricist.

In addition, BBC World?s US-based business reporter Tanya Beckett will front The World Debate from New York to offer the US perspective. Panellists include: Paul O? Neill, former US Treasury Secretary, Rob Blackwell, Chief Economist, AFL-CIO, Brian O?Shaughnessy, CEO, Revere Copper and Robert Peston, BBC Business Editor.

As per the release, BBC World has also commissioned its biggest ever poll for the launch of the Emerging Giants season. It has asked 10,000 respondents across 10 of the world?s largest economies what they think of the rise of India and China. Throughout the season, the results of the poll will be discussed on the various programmes. Viewers are encouraged to tell us what they think about the results at bbcnews.com/haveyoursay.