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Rapidly Growing Asian Economies and the Himalayan Waters

Rapidly Growing Asian Economies and the Himalayan Waters

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Event Title
Rapidly Growing Asian Economies and the Himalayan Waters
Event Details
<strong>Centre for Studies in Science Policy School of Social Sciences, JNU</strong> a Talk on <strong>Rapidly Growing Asian Economies and the Himalayan Waters</strong> By <strong>Prof. Jayanta Bandyopadhyay</strong> Visiting Professor, Centre for Studies in Science Policy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Date: <strong>Thursday, 29th October 2015</strong> <strong>Abstract:</strong> In the period since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, the importance of the world's mountains as provider of most of the water used by the human societies and economies has come to take the centre-stage of global environmental discourse. The talk goes into the details of the role of the Himalaya as 'Water Tower of Asia' on which life and livelihood of about 3 billion people depend. It further examines the future water scenario of two Asian economies, of China and India, and policy interventions these countries are considering or have made. The potential impacts of global warming and climate change is very important in the making of such future scenarios as the Himalayan region is expected to be impacted very strongly by global climate change and alter the hydrological features of the rivers originating in the Himalaya.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.