march 2019

Dear Friend,

The month of March remained productive for the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS), with wide range of events and activities, along with our research on China and East Asia.

EVENTS AND ACTIVITIEs

The ICS organized three major events this month. On 12-13 March, the ICS held a two-day conference on Arrangements for Elderly Care in India and China. The convenors of the conference were Prof. Rama V. Baru, Member, Governing Council, ICS and Professor, Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and Dr. Madhurima Nundy, Assistant Director and Associate Fellow, ICS.

On 15-16 March, we organized a two-day conference on the Centenary of the May Fourth Movement in China, in collaboration with the India International Centre, New Delhi. ICS Chairperson, Prof. Patricia Uberoi, delivered the keynote speech at the conference.

The third major event of the month was the Manipal Dialogue on India-China Relations, a closed-door, Track II Interaction, involving high-level delegations comprising experts, scholars and practitioners from India and China, on 25-26 March, at Manesar, Haryana. This high-level dialogue was organized by the ICS, in collaboration with the China Study Centre, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Sunday Guardian Foundation for Global Policy, and School of International Studies, China Center for South Asia, Sichuan University, Chengdu. The Indian delegation was headed by Amb. Shivshankar Menon, Chairman, ICS Advisory Board and former National Security Advisor, Government of India, and the Chinese delegation was led by Mr Dai Bingguo, former State Councillor and Special Representative for India-China boundary negotiations.

Three Wednesday Seminars were conducted this month – on China's Naval Shipbuilding Industry and Lessons for Indiaby Rear Admiral Monty Khanna; Bhutan's Representations to India during 1946-49 and the making of the Indian Republic by Ms. Swati Chawla; andChina’s Engagement at the World Trade Organisation by Dr. Priyanka Pandit.

We ended the month with a roundtable discussion on the Trump-Kim Summit at Hanoi on 29 March which featured Amb. Anil Wadhwa, Amb. Vishnu Prakash and Dr. Sandip Mishra.

PUBLICATIONS

We published three ICS Occasional Papers this month: China in the Arctic: Interests, Strategy and Implications by Ms. Rashmi B.R.; Science, Fiction and Politics: Chinese Science Fiction and its Socio-Political Engagements by Ms. Shruti Sonal; and Materials related to Republican-era China in the National Archives of India by Dr. Madhavi Thampi. The three papers emerge from presentations made at the 11th All India Conference on China Studies (AICCS) held in Bengaluru in November 2018. Amb. Anil Wadhwa penned an ICS Analysis titledMade in China 2025 – is it on Track?’.

IN THE MEDIA

Dr. Tshering Chonzom Bhutia, Associate Fellow, ICS, published a piece titled ‘Tibetan ‘returnees’ journey home’ in Firstpost. Research Associate, Dr. Veda Vaidyanathan, published a paper titled ‘Indian health diplomacy in East Africa: exploring the potential in pharmaceutical manufacturingin the South African Journal of International Affairs. Our Research Associate, Dr. Gunjan Singh penned two pieces - one for the Vivekananda International Foundation, on the Second Session of China's National People’s Congress and another for Science, Technology and Security Forum, on the 2nd Trump-Kim Summit; the latter was published in both English and Marathi. ICS Visiting Associate Fellow, Dr. Shamshad Ahmed Khan, wrote a piece for the Nikkei Asian Review on the Indian General Elections. Our Research Assistant Mr. Uday Khanapurkar wrote two pieces for The Diplomat – one on the re-emergence of economic stimulus in China and another on the futility of an Indian boycott of Chinese imports in its anti-terror campaign.

Faculty Updates

ICS Chairperson, Prof. Patricia Uberoi, served as a panelist during the release of the book Critical Themes in Indian Sociology (eds. Sanjay Srivastava, Yasmeen Arif, and Janaki Abraham), that was organized by the Institute of Economic Growth and Sage Publications (Delhi) on 2 March. She also chaired a session at a conference entitled ‘Postcolonial IR: Engaging with Public History in South Asia and Beyond’, organized by the Department of International Relations, South Asian University on 18 March.

Our Vice-Chairperson, Prof. Sreemati Chakrabarti, delivered a lecture at the JNU Academic Staff College (as part of the University Grants Commission Programme) titled "Cultural Revolution in China" on 11 March. She also represented ICS at the Boao Forum for Asia held in Hainan, People’s Republic of China (PRC) from 25-29 March.

Honorary Fellow, Dr. Madhavi Thampi was part of a panel discussion on the book Stray Birds on the Huangpu: A History of Indians in Shanghai (Mishi Saran and Zhang Ke, eds.) at the Hong Kong Asia Society Center on 4 March.

My engagements included a lecture at IIT Mumbai on higher education and innovation in China on 4 March.

Research Associate, Dr. Veda Vaidyanathan, presented a paper at the Harvard Asia-Africa Conference in Johannesburg on 18-20 March; she also participated in a panel discussion at the Yenching Global Symposium at Peking University on 29 March. Our Visiting Associate Fellow, Dr. Shamshad Ahmad Khan, participated as a panellist in All India Radio's Urdu Programme, Muzakara, on ‘Escalation of India Pakistan Tension: Response from China and America’, which was aired on 2 March.

The ICS Website, Facebook and Twitter accounts are among the several ways you can get the latest on our publications and activities. You can also subscribe our monthly newsletter to follow our events and publications as well as browse our YouTube and SoundCloud channels.

We look forward to seeing you at more of our events.

 
 
 

Best Regards,
ASHOK K. KANTHA
Director
Institute of Chinese Studies

 

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