ICS Update
May 2017

Dear Friend,

The onset of summer is generally the lean season for events in Delhi but the ICS calendar has remained hectic with events and delegation visits.

Events and Activities

A notable addition to our calendar is a series of Special Lectures. Prof. Shen Dingli of Fudan University and a member of the ICS journal China Report’s Editorial Board spoke about China’s Foreign Policy and its Regional Impact (Youtube link here). Other lectures covered recent developments in the Korean Peninsula as well as a discussion on the changing patterns of Chinese civil society.

In our regular Wednesday Seminars, the themes were wide-ranging including conversion of a rural county into an urban district in Yunnan as well as Xi Jinping’s consolidation of his powers in the run-up to the 19th Party Congress.

The ICS has started hosting its Wednesday Seminars at Sapru House twice a month and we had two very important and interesting roundtables on select defence and security issues in China as well as on recent developments in Arunachal Pradesh.

China Report and Other Publications

The latest issue of the China Report – Vol. 53, No. 2, was released online and in print this month. This is a special issue on India and China in Asia, guest-edited by ICS Emeritus Fellow Amb. Kishan S. Rana and carrying essays by a host of luminaries including ICS Governing Council Member and former Indian Foreign Secretary Amb. Shyam Saran and ICS Advisory Board Chairman and former Indian NSA, Amb. Shivshankar Menon. This special issue is now available freely online for a brief period.  

There were two ICS Analysis issues in May on the prospects of border trade at Jelep La by Ms. Diki Sherpa and on India-China cooperation in health security at the regional and sub-regional level by Dr. Madhurima Nundy.

Meanwhile, the ICS Blog covered such issues as the impact of Chinese public opinion on China’s foreign policy towards North Korea and China's use of technology to scale up its manufacturing.

In the Media

ICS faculty were widely published in the Indian and international media. How India might shape its policies towards China was a theme discussed by both ICS Honorary Fellow, Mr. Ravi Bhoothalingam in the Business Standard and Amb. Saran in The Indian Express and in The Wire.

Another theme that was much discussed was of India’s concerns with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and of its participation in the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing. I addressed these issues in South China Morning Post and Deccan Herald while former ICS Director Prof. Alka Acharya stressed the economic side of the bilateral relationship in the Outlook.

As part of the ICS’ collaboration with Business Standard in India and Di Yi Caijing, China’s top business newspaper, articles on issues in urbanization in China and on the Goods and Services Tax and its impact on doing business in India were published in the respective newspapers.

On television, ICS Assistant Director, Dr. Aravind Yelery addressed Moody's downgrade of the Chinese economy while both I and ICS Fellow Dr. Jabin T Jacob were on WION, Rajya Sabha TV and Al Jazeera, among others talking about India’s issues with China’s BRI and about its non-participation in the Beijing forum.

Faculty Update

Dr. Yelery conducted an immersion programme for the IIM Shillong’s PGPEx batch in Shanghai from 22-30 May in partnership with Fudan University. Associate Fellow Dr. Nundy also commenced a major two-year long project with the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) on the commercialization of elderly care in India and China, using Delhi and Shanghai as case studies. Associate Fellow Dr. Tshering Chonzom Bhutia is presently on a month-long Visiting Fellowship at the South West Nationalities University of China in Chengdu, Sichuan.

The All India Conference on China Studies (AICCS), which will be held this year at Goa on 13-14 December in partnership with Goa University received an unprecedented level of attention with some 150 abstracts received by closing date. The selected abstracts will be announced later in June.

You will find much more on our website. Do follow us on Facebook and Twitter and sign up to receive the latest information on our events and publications. I would also invite you to revisit our events on the ICS’ Youtube channel and on Soundcloud. Let me take this moment to thank you for your support to the ICS and hope we will continue to receive such support and encouragement in the future.

 

Warm regards,

Ashok K. Kantha
Director
Institute of Chinese Studies

Previous Updates : March - April 2017

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