Brookings Plans to Launch India Centers in US, India

Former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk is vice president and foreign policy director at the Brookings Institute in Washington, DC.

SANTA CLARA: Acknowledging the increased geopolitical importance of India, the Washington, DC based Brookings Institute, widely thought of as the leading US think tank on international relations, has launched a Brookings India Initiative and hopes to raise funds to establish an India center in Washington and a staffed Brookings India Center in New Delhi.
Former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, vice president and foreign policy director at Brookings, told India-West at the recent TiE conference here in May that the 96-year-old institute hopes to highlight India's emergence as a major power and "raise the profile of India in Washington."
Indyk served as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs and special assistant to the president, and senior director for Near East and South Asia at the National Security Council during the Clinton administration.
His latest book is "Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peacemaking Diplomacy in the Middle East."
"We hope to bring our scholars to Delhi to help India (in areas) like health, education and (modernization of) metro areas," Indyk said, adding that the BIC would aim to become a platform for cutting-edge, independent research and analysis.
Only China, among the other Asian countries, currently has a similar dual center program at Brookings. The Brookings-Tsinhua Center for Public Policy was established in 2006 in Beijing.
Other programs sponsored under the Brookings India Initiative would include conferences in Washington and India, India-focused publications and an India Initiative home page on the Brookings Web site.
Brookings' India Initiative is concentrating on three areas: global diplomacy, regional security and U.S.-India strategic relations; world trade and finance; and economic development.
Initiative scholars will include Brookings president and former U.S. deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott, and senior fellows Stephen P. Cohen (who has just published "Arming without Aiming: Indian Military Modernization"), Eswar Prasad, Bruce Riedel, Barry Bosworth, Charles Ebinger and Michael O'Hanlon, as well as nonresident senior fellows Arvind Panagariya and Urjit Patel.
Brookings said in a project summary that it would staff the center with Indian nationals and "help train a new generation of Indian scholars in the methodology of independent policy research."
Brookings has also formed an advisory council for the initiative composed of prominent Indian and U.S. business and community leaders. The council hopes to leverage networks to increase the impact of the initiative in both countries.
In a recent appointment, Brooking has added Rajan Mittal, vice chairman and managing director of Bharti Enterprises, to its board of trustees. He is the only Indian on Brookings' governing board.
"I am delighted to join the distinguished ranks of the Brookings board of trustees at a time when it is looking at globalizing its work and strengthening presence in India," Mittal said in a statement.
A graduate of the Harvard Business School, Mittal is a former president of Indian trade organization FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry).
Mittal "represents the best standards and values of the private sector in this increasingly globalized world," Talbott said. "In addition to his acumen and energy as a businessman, he has demonstrated an admirable commitment to the public good and to philanthropy."
"We've already spent considerable time in India talking with the private sector to form a founders' group to provide seed funding for the Initiative," Indyk told India-West on the sidelines at TiE.
He added that Brookings officials have had a favorable reaction from high levels of Indian government leaders for the weight Brookings plans to commit to US-India relations.