MUMBAI: BBC World Service asks the question Who Runs Your World?. This is patr of a season of programmes that turn the spotlight on power: who has it, who wants it, how it's used and how it's changing.    
The two-week season which has kicked off aims to challenge and inform listeners, creating a global forum for debate among the 190 million people who tune into the BBC's international news services on radio, television and online every week. BBC World Service director Nigel Chapman says, "Who Runs Your World? is the most ambitious themed season ever attempted by the Global News division of the BBC. It will provide an unprecedented global forum for debating issues of power in the 21st century. It aims to push the boundaries of interactivity, asking audiences to help define the season early on, via a dedicated website at bbcnews.com/yourworld. Audiences will be telling us, and each other, their stories and views, as well as engaging in a global conversation in three special live debates in Washington, Delhi and Cairo about who runs their world."

The season examines who runs the worlds of business, sport, science, religion, entertainment, art, culture and crime – and explores the power these worlds wield over our everyday lives. It hears from people in power, people with no power, people who've had power and lost it, and those who are challenging the very basis of power structures.

Among the issues explored are: how much power politicians have within a given country; to what extent real power lies outside formal political structures; whether national governments a are being replaced by supra-national bodies; and what happens when formal power structures break down. Critically, it also assesses how much power and control individuals have over their own lives.