The Future of the U.S.-India Relationship

Ambassador R. Nicholas Burns is Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Atlantic Council, the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress and the Appeal of Conscience Foundation. In summer 2008, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington D.C. Ambassador Burns served in the United States Foreign Service for twenty-seven years until his retirement in April 2008.

Property in South Asia: History, Law, and Politics

Bringing together historians, political scientists, and scholars of religion and law, in this two-day conference will look at five key "moments" in the conceptualization of land control and the evolution of ideas and practices related to the disposition of land-based wealth in the South Asian subcontinent from the eras of early modern to the early post-colonial.

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Indian Americans: The Life and Work of a New Immigrant Community

PEOPLE OF INDIAN ORIGIN – whether they are Indian-born or U.S.-born – make up well less than one percent of the American population.  Despite its small size, this community has been called a "Model Minority" that has been unusually successful in pursuing the "American Dream" through careers in high-skill occupations and entrepreneurship.  The talk focuses on four major themes in the immigration literature – selection, assimilation, entrepreneurship, and clustering – to analyze the specific characteristics of this community.

Quiet Revolution: The Political Logic of India’s Anti-Poverty Programs

Aditya Dasgupta

In the last fifteen years, India has seen the adoption of an “alphabet soup” of ambitious national anti-poverty programs: a rural connectivity scheme (PMGSY), a universal primary schooling initiative (SSA), a rural health initiative (NRHM), a rural electrification scheme (RGGVY), a rural employment guarantee (NREGA), a food subsidy (Food Security Act), and a new digital infrastructure for transferring benefits directly to the poor (UID). Quietly, these programs are delivering genuine benefits on the ground and revolutionizing India’s anti-poverty policies.

India’s King of Crude Troubled by Oil Investments in Africa

Luke Patey

The outbreak of conflict in South Sudan last December led to the shut down of India’s multi-billion dollar oil project in the young country. The instability sent Indian diplomats scrambling to play damage control as ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL), the international arm of India’s national oil company, was forced to evacuate its personnel from the region. Competition from China is often regarded as the biggest challenge for India in acquiring global oil resources.

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