PROGRAMMES

SPONSORED ONGOING PROJECTS

1. Assessment of the Current Status of Rural Health in India and facilitating improvement in access to Health Services: A Case Example (Sponsored by Central Bank of India)

2. Identity Construction through Textual representations: A Study of Narratives in Bangladesh School Textbooks (Sponsored by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata)

3. Process and System View of the Public Health Care System in Urban India (Sponsored by Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi)

4.The Mekong-Ganga Co-operation Initiative: Institutionalizing a Co-operation Regime (Sponsored by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata)

PROJECTS AND PROGRAMMES IN PROGRESS

The following projects and programmes represent the current focus of the foundation. The foundation welcomes collaborative research programmes with reputed institutions in India and abroad.

India's Foreign Policy- Exploration in a World of Contestation

The project attempts to analyse the different aspects of Indian foreign policy from decision making to implementation; from basic principles to contemporary challenges. It is an attempt to understand how far India's global emergence can be cooperative or competitive or more rationally a combination of the two. The essential linkage between India and the global playing field is its foreign policy with specific economic, political and strategic objectives. The project seeks to make a qualitative contribution to this linkage so that national interest can be realised while contributing to international stability.

India's Look-East Policy: The Next Steps

The project on India's Look East Policy aims to determine the content, rationale, progression and determinants of the renewed emphasis on the east by the country. The project would build up on the series of pro active policies and measures undertaken in recent years to this end and proposes to examine these and the interlinkages involved. Necessarily, different components - economic, political and security - would be delved into and analysed with reference to the bilateral and regional context of the undertaking. A special emphasis would be on the many different and still evolving frameworks of bilateral and multilateral cooperative endeavours. The place and role of the North Eastern region of the country in the making and success of the Look East Policy would also be examined. Still another component of the project would be to establish and institutionalise Track II interaction with credible and reputed institutions and organisations in all the countries to the east of India. Look East Policy as a vital adjunct to India's emerging strategic policy would be analysed.

SAARC in the 21st Century: Shared Opportunity, Shared Responsibility

The logic of neighbourhood existence and largely common historical links among the countries of South Asian Region provide beneficial conditions for cooperation in the region. Piecemeal cooperation in specific sectors at the regional level however has fallen short of much-preferred receptivity of these positive impulses. Cooperation in the region on the contrary faces numerous challenges. States of South Asia are placed in a historically unique situation, where the processes of state formation, industrialisation, democratisation and interdependence have synchronised and instead of greater collaboration have made problems of adjustment and adaptation difficult. The dilemmas and contradictions inherent in South Asian cooperation have resulted from the simultaneous impact of the transformative forces independently pursued by the states.

Given India’s regional profile, the country is expected to shoulder important responsibilities for fostering cooperation in South Asia. The 14th SAARC Summit is historic in more than one way. For the first time the group has expanded its membership, to include Afghanistan as a permanent member and five other countries as Observers. The Summit Declaration made at Dhaka emphasised that the Organisation had now entered the ‘implementation phase’. India’s chairmanship of SAARC assumes a critical connotation given the expansion of the Organisation’s agenda and membership.

In an attempt to give expression to these multiple concerns the Global India Foundation in seeks to provide a platform for open discussion and interaction among the major stakeholders in the process of regional cooperation in South Asia. The project also seeks to work out the benefits of various regional projects and prioritise programmes so that policy makers can take more informed decisions. Such professional interaction and research can help create the required public opinion, and convince the skeptics, so that Governments are better empowered in pursuing new initiatives.

Track II Diplomacy - Concepts and Issues

Track II surmises all informal interaction among influential actors that go in to support and supplement regular Track I initiatives at confidence building and assist official leaders to compensate the constraints imposed by Track I negotiations. This project delves into the conceptual dualities within the premise of Track II and the broad parameters within which it can operate, while sustaining respectful dialogues between Tracks I and II. The project seeks to suggest institutionalised mechanisms through which insights of Track II can be fed into Track I with greater effectiveness and integrity. Studies would be undertaken for exploring the potential of Track II in India's bilateral relations with regard to specific countries in the neighbourhood and the East Asian region.

Oil Diplomacy

India, with its rapidly expanding economy, is expected to emerge as the fourth largest energy consumer by 2010. The need for hydrocarbon resources is therefore only going to grow. In a world where these resources are becoming increasingly scarce, India faces serious challenges, particularly from other booming economies. In its quest for adequate energy security, India has forged strategic alliances with supplier countries like Iran, Sudan, Venezuela and Myanmar, some of which do not meet international human rights or non-proliferation standards. The present project plans to delve into the politics of oil, oil diplomacy and its long and short term implications for India.

‘Peaceful Rise of China’- An Analysis of Ramification

The project on 'Peaceful Rise of China' aims to build on several components of China's emergence as a global power, propelled by consistently higher growth rate and underlined by widespread international engagements by the country. While modernisation and economic development of the People's Republic of China involves a complex process of state-driven pro-market policies, the changing international relations of PRC in the regional and world arena demands a thorough enquiry of the basis, manifestations and import of China's changing bilateral and multilateral foreign relations.

Indian Diaspora - Refurbishing Linkages

Engaging the diasporic community has, specifically in the last 5 years or so, become a substantive concern of the Indian government. This particular project attempts a study of the reasons for the heightened momentum of today. Establishing the essential heterogeneity of the Indian diasporic community, it traces the issues facing them and explores the proposals for enhancing the linkages to the benefit of both the community as well as India itself.

Global Commons

Global Commons are not within the domestic jurisdiction of states, but inherited by the human race as a whole and consequently equally shared by all states. The common physical spaces of the world such as the deep sea bed, the outer space, the Antarctic are incorporated within the fold of global commons. This project attempts to draw up a general understanding of the global commons and politics of states in ensuring relative gains. The project aims at widening the peripheries of global commons and accommodating other vital issues relating to the humane aspects of life. The broader objective is to analyse how India could provide a leading role in redefining and protecting Global Commons in order to ensure inter-generational equity and common benefit for all states.

Terrorism in the New Millennium: Countering the Menace

Terrorism is a malaise towards governments and the civil society at large. In recent times, the phenomenon of terrorism has graduated from adopting both conventional methods (political assassinations, kidnappings, hijackings) and weapons to a more serious and unpredictable nature; that of terrorists using weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical, biological and data weapons) against the civil society.

This project proposes to study the nature of terrorism as it has emerged in the new millennium. The project will analyse not only the unpredictable and volatile nature of this new form of terrorism, but will also look into the political, religious, social and economic ramifications of the same. A special investigation into the religious fanaticism that pervades within this form of terrorism, an attempt at understanding the psyche of the terrorist who wishes to employ weapons of mass destruction, as well as an endeavour to predict the reasons, the necessity, and the mode of attack will be made. Further, the numerous questions facing the international community today regarding methods of containing terrorism will be addressed. These questions include preventing terrorists from launching their subsequent strikes, as well as ensuring the safety and security of stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction all over the world.

It is only when the world community at large is equipped with the knowledge of containing; preventing and properly responding to such terrorism can nations around the world aim at providing security and peace for their citizens.

Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies

Conflicts, violence, use of force are consistent themes of international relations. The desire for peace runs parallel to the occurrence of conflicts. The project attempts to evaluate the theoretical premises of various peace approaches and contextualise these with regard to contemporary conflict realities. Various issues relating to durable peace building-negotiation, dialogue, re-entry of separatist elements into the mainstream - would be studied and current realities will be analysed to suggest practical and applicable peace modalities.

Cross-Culture Issues and Conflict Resolution

Ole Holsti asserted that “international conflict frequently is not between states, but rather between distorted images of states.” The image distortion in contemporary times is aggravated through socio-cultural variables. Interestingly, cultural differentiation is creating problems not only between states but also within states. Political, economic and strategic variables that emerge as immediate sources of conflict are found to be rooted in the alleged divergence of cultural perceptions. Hence a viable approach to conflict resolution should seek to explore the linkage between cross-cultural issues and durable peace.
The prime objective of Global India Foundation is to strengthen national resilience and promote international interdependence. The elusive peace around the globe is the most pressing challenge of contemporary times. As efforts at managing conflict through military means have failed, an inclusive, balanced and diplomatic handling of such sensitive concerns is essential. Since the Indian state policy exhibits these features, GIF aims to facilitate India’s leadership in addressing global cross-cultural concerns. The Foundation aspires to undertake this project to analyse the specific contributions that India can make through its visionary leadership.
The objectives of the project is to explore the linkage between cultural differences and conflict through theoretical references and empirical case studies; examine the emerging themes of multiple identities, pluralism and specific cultural demands; elucidate on the theme of culture beyond the state; overlapping cross-cultural links, cultural agenda of non-state actors, to discuss the credentials of India as a ‘soft power’ and finally the role of India in contributing to the cultural dialogue across the globe and involvement in specific cases of conflict resolution.

Digital Divide: Issues and Implications

Colonial rule and underdevelopment characterised India in the twentieth century. The gradual opening up of the economy and the more distributive aspects of the globalisation processes in the last about 15 years have helped consolidate the positives and promises of the country's service sector. An important role in the process has been played by the Information and Communication Technology sector. The growth of this sector has helped propel forward movement of the country in number of ways and directions. However, modest economic growth has coexisted with zones of poverty and backwardness, sustaining and reinforcing inequities and socio-economic divides. Access to digital information and instruments has been expanding but still hopelessly limited. These have implications not only for the sustenance of the growth rate but also for the larger issue of equity, social and economic development and political stability.

India’s Public Health Policy: Problems and Challenges

Although there has been a remarkable improvement in life expectancy at birth, birth and death rate and infant mortality rate since independence, public health care in India leaves much to be desired. The ignored areas are women's health, child health, medical education to meet the needs of primary care, to name a few. There is a great discrepancy also between the rural and urban sectors. A major criticism if India’s National Health Policy is that it lacks specific measures to achieve broad stated goals. Particular problems include the failure to integrate health services with wider economic and social development, the lack of nutritional support and sanitation, and poor participatory involvement at the local level. The objective of the present project is to make a macro-level study of India’s public health policy, with a view to suggest desirable alterations to improve the public health situation in the country.

Energy Sustainability and Security: Focusing on Wind Energy

The basic impetus for conducting research and analysis on the issue of integrated energy is the insufficient availability of conventional sources of energy and the untapped potential of alternative energy resources. The present research project by GIF is an attempt to explore the avenues whereby the alternative sources of energy can be actually integrated from their current peripheral contribution to national energy sources.
The primary sources of energy available in India are coal, oil, natural gas, hydro and nuclear power. However, India is relatively poorly endowed in terms of commercial energy resources, with 6 per cent of the world's coal reserves, 0.59 per cent of oil, and 0.59 per cent of natural gas. India is relatively rich in terms of coal and hydropower, but their exploitation is constrained by factors such as the poor quality of coal, environmental concerns, interstate water disputes (in the case of hydropower), and the lack of financial resources. Persistent shortages of coal and power during the recent past have led to substantial increases in the consumption of petroleum products. This can be attributed to the relative ease of importing oil and other petroleum products. Natural gas is a relatively new entrant in India's energy sector and could make a significant contribution as a source of fuel and feedstock in a number of consuming sectors.
The worsening power situation and the various environmental problems of large-scale power generation have led to increased appreciation of the potential of electricity generation from non-conventional sources. The importance of renewables in contributing to the supply of power in a sustainable manner was recognised as far back as 1974, when the Fuel Policy Committee Report suggested that 'non-conventional energy sources, namely solar, geo-thermal and tidal energy should be developed, with priority assigned to solar energy and biogas'. Of the various forms of renewable sources of energy, solar and wind energy are found to be ideally suited for India. Among the various available renewable sources of energy, the potential of wind power is highly promising. The project aims to focus official and public attention on the potential of wind energy to address energy sustainability and security.

Locating Africa in India’s Foreign Policy

The significance of framing a comprehensive yet dynamic foreign policy in the national security matrix of a country like India cannot be over-emphasized. The reality of rapidly growing economic, political and socio-cultural interdependence among nations in the age of globalization has rendered the development of strategic ties inevitable. India has sought to establish strong foreign relations on the basis of shared historical and socio-cultural identities, congruence in political goals, military security and the potential for substantial economic benefits.
It is in this context that the African nations have gained ascending significance in India’s foreign policy calculations. But the potential benefit from the continent is oddly juxtaposed with the reality of its deep-rooted ethnic and non-ethnic conflicts which indicate failing governance threaten to jeopardize political, economic and social stability.
In the light of these developments, the project proposes to:
. Discern the prevailing patterns of conflict in the countries of Africa and identify factors underlining such patterns.
. Analyze the approach of the African Union towards problem-solving and conflict resolution, with certain specific cases serving as pointers.
. Identify the approach of the African Union towards the United Nations with regard to the regions of conflict and the methods and strategies for resolution.
.Tracing the course of India-Africa relations in the recent times and exploring the emerging avenues and future potential of their cooperative endeavours in business and foreign policy.

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