Governing Council

Sreemati Chakrabarti, Chairperson of the Institute of Chinese Studies, is former Professor of Chinese Studies at the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Delhi. She has also been Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Delhi; Head of the Department of East Asian Studies for three terms and Director of the Institute of Chinese Studies (2009-2012). Currently she is also an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi. She was a Visiting Faculty at Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China in 2018. She has a Master’s degree in Regional Studies- East Asia from Harvard University and holds a Doctorate in Political Science from Columbia University. She has authored three books: China and the Naxalites, Mao, China’s Intellectuals and the Cultural Revolution and a National Book Trust volume titled China.

Dr. Hemant Adlakha is Vice-Chairperson and Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies, and Associate Professor at the Centre for Chinese and South East Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Dr. Adlakha’s areas of research include political and foreign policy discourse in the PRC and modern Chinese Literature and Culture. He is a member of the International Editorial Committee, International Society for Lu Xun Studies, Seoul, Republic of Korea. His articles have appeared in China Report, The Diplomat, Japan Times, Encyclopaedia of Race and Racism 2nd Edition, The Washington Post etc. His co-translation of Lu Xun’s prose poetry collection from Chinese into Hindi was published by the NBT in November 2019.

Santosh Pai, has been offering legal services to clients in the India-China corridor since 2010. His areas of interest include Chinese investments in India, India-China comparative law and policy, cross-cultural negotiations and board governance. He holds a B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) degree from NLSIU, Bangalore, LL.M. (Chinese law) from Tsinghua University, Beijing and an MBA from Vlerick University, Belgium (Peking University campus). His manuscript "Practical Guide on Investing in India for Chinese investors" has been translated into Chinese and published by China Law Press. Santosh is currently a partner at Link Legal, an Indian law firm. He is a member of CII's Core Group on China, teaches two courses on India-China business at IIM Shillong and volunteers at NGOs in his free time.

Patricia Uberoi is currently an Emeritus Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS), Delhi. She served as the Chairperson of the Institute of Chinese Studies from 2015-2021. A sociologist by training, Dr Uberoi has taught Sociology at the University of Delhi and the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and retired as Professor of Social Change and Development at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi. Her research interests centre on aspects of family, kinship, gender, popular culture and social policy in respect to both India and China.

Amb. Shyam Saran is former Foreign Secretary of India and has served as Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Nuclear Affairs and Climate Change. He is currently Member of the Governing Council of the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS) and of the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), a Trustee at the World Wildlife Fund (India), Life Trustee of India International Centre (IIC) and Member of the Executive Council of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). He has headed the Research and Information System (RIS) for Developing Countries, a prestigious think tank focusing on economic issues (2011-2017) and was Chairman of the National Security Advisory Board under the National Security Council (2013-15). He has recently published a book, How India Sees the World. Amb. Saran was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award, in 2011 for his contributions to civil service. In May 2019, he was conferred the Spring Order Gold and Silver Star by the Emperor of Japan for promoting India- Japan relations.

Prof. Alka Acharya is Honorary Director of the ICS and Chairperson at the Centre for East Asian Studies, SIS, Jawaharlal Nehru University. She has been teaching courses on Chinese Foreign Policy and Political Economy to the Masters and M.Phil students and guiding doctoral research since 1993. She is the joint editor of the book Crossing a Bridge of Dreams: 50 years of India-China and has contributed chapters to many books and journals. She has authored a book China & India: Politics of Incremental Engagement, published in 2008 and most recently edited a volume titled Boundaries and Borderlands: A Century after the 1914 Simla Convention (Routledge, New York 2023). She was nominated by the Indian government as a member of the India-China Eminent Persons Group (2006-2008) and member of the National Security Advisory Board of the Government of India for two terms (2006-2008) and (2011-2012).

Sabaree Mitra has been teaching Chinese Language, Literature and Culture in Jawaharlal Nehru University, since 1990. Her basic training has been in Chinese Language and Literature and her research interest includes contemporary Chinese literature, criticism and cultural history. Her books include Purbadiganter Kabita: Samakaleen tin china kabir ek jhalak (2002), a collection of contemporary Chinese poetry translated into Bengali, Literature and Politics in 20^th century China: Issues and Themes (2005), and, Chinese Women Writers and Gender Discourse (1976-1996) (2008). 

Mr Ashok K. Kantha is an Honorary Fellow and former Director (2017- 22) of the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi; a Distinguished Fellow at Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi; and Chair of the Core Group on China of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

A career diplomat, Kantha was Ambassador of India to China until January 2016. Prior to this, he was Secretary (East) at Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi with responsibility for about 65 countries in India’s extended neighbourhood.

Manoranjan Mohanty was a Professor of Political Science and Director of, Developing Countries Research Centre at the University of Delhi where he taught Comparative Politics, Chinese Politics and Research Methodology. Currently, he is a Distinguished Professor at the Council for Social Development, New Delhi, where until recently he edited the CSD-Sage journal Social Change. He is a social scientist, China scholar and a peace and human rights activist with research interest in the study of the Political Economy of China, India and global transformation. He is an Emeritus Fellow of the Institute of Chinese Studies, its founding member and former Chairperson. He is also the Emeritus Chairperson, Development Research Institute, Bhubaneswar, the research wing of Gabeshana Chakra of which he was the founder-president. He has had academic assignments in many institutions abroad including in California, Beijing, Moscow, Lagos, Copenhagen and Oxford.