By Arun Kumar, IANS
Washington : Yale University, one of the Ivy League Universities in the United States, has joined hands with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to celebrate “Incredible India@60” with an eye on expanded exchanges and partnerships with an emergent India.
Reflecting the growing American interest in India’s emergence, the two organisations will present panels on “India 2050: A Grand Strategy for India Rising” and “Women and Global Leadership” in New York City Sep 24-25.
Featuring luminaries such as PepsiCo chairperson and CEO Indra Nooyi and Infosys co-chairman Nandan Nilekani, the panels will examine the challenges and opportunities that India will face in the coming decades and the rise of women leaders in all facets of India and its global diaspora.
“Yale University’s collaboration with CII signals the growing interest that India’s emergence holds for all Americans,” said Richard C. Levin, president of the institution that has produced four of the last six American presidents and a host of other luminaries.
“The study of India and South Asia has blossomed at Yale during the last decade, and we expect expanded exchanges and partnerships with India in the years to come.
“The topics of the panel discussions in New York City reflect the values of critical engagement, leadership, and public service that Yale has long sought to instil in our students,” he said Wednesday in New Haven, Connecticut.
“The two panels are meant to address India’s future,” university spokesman D. George Joseph told IANS, noting, “India has enjoyed six decades of being an independent, democratic nation, and more recently, it has enjoyed rapid economic growth and development.
“Those of us at Yale University felt it would be a critical moment to consider what the future might hold for India: how will it leverage its opportunities; how will it overcome its challenges and problems; and importantly, who will serve as its next generation of leaders.”
The themes for these events are at the heart of what Yale University seeks to instil in all of its students: an engagement with the world around them, an aspiration to leadership, and a commitment to use one’s talents in public service.
“Culturally, economically, and politically, Americans have to appreciate that the emergence of India on the world stage and the implications that it holds for all Americans,” Joseph said when asked what impact the events would have in US and India.
“Indians meanwhile have to appreciate the role that American culture, economy, and politics still exert in the world.
“Although only one small component, events such as those being hosted by Yale University and CII are a start to bringing Americans and Indians in contact with each other and promoting the cultural understanding between the US and India which will be critical to their futures,” he said.
Yale University, with a number of programmes already in place to connect it to India, hopes to expand the opportunities that its students have to study about and in India and similarly for Indian students to study at Yale.
“We also hope to increase our faculty teaching and research activities on India and South Asia in the years ahead to reflect the growing importance that India and the entire South Asian region holds for our future,” Joseph said.
Yale University’s collaboration with CII underscores the enormous interest about India in the teaching, research, and service activities of Yale’s faculty, students, and scholars, he said noting nearly two dozen of its faculty teach or do research on India.
Every year, a large number of students study India in a Yale classroom. The place of India in the Yale curriculum has continued to grow sharply since Jan 2005. During Summer 2007, more than fifty Yale students were in India undertaking internships, research, language study, and social service.
In May 2007, the faculty of Yale College approved the creation of a new degree with concentration in South Asian Studies that takes advantage of its faculty strength and student interest in the region. Extensive programmes are also in place in public health, environmental studies, and management.
The more than 300 students and scholars from India constitute the third largest segment of the international community at Yale, and complement the large number of students, faculty, and scholars of Indian ancestry also at the university, Joseph said.
The “India 2050: A Grand Strategy for India Rising” panel Sep 24 will share their vision of India in 2050 as they discuss what it must do to leverage its advantages to continue to meet its promise and what failures could prevent India from fulfilling its ambitions.
The panel on “Women and Global Leadership” Sep 25 brings together four of the most highly visible and influential women in the arts, the corporate world, and civil society to consider women’s leadership in India and globally.
It will feature Shabana Azmi, actress and social activist; Naina Lal Kidwai, CEO, HSBC India; Rohini Nilekani, chairperson Arghyam Trust and Akshara Foundation; and Indra Nooyi, chairperson and CEO PepsiCo.