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Panel 1: "Information Technology: The Global
Indian Experience"
Panel 2: "Water, Culture, and
Environmental Sustainability"
Panel 3: "Cultural Diversity in
India"
Panel 4: "India and Global
Security"
Panel 5: "The Indian Elephant
in the Global Marketplace"
Panel 6: "One Billion Human
Beings"
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Panel 1: "Information Technology: The Global Indian
Experience"
This panel looks at the profound affects Information
Technology has had on India,
and vice versa. Panel members will elucidate both sides of this dynamic
phenomenon: how the IT boom has transformed India's
economic and cultural landscape and brought India
into the twenty first century, and how Indian entrepreneurs in both the U.S. and India have shaped the global
software industry. Panelists will speak from their experiences in research
and entrepreneurial roles that have been affected by, and contributed to, the
IT boom.
Coordinators:
Ravishankar K. Iyer/Narendra Ahuja, Coordinated Science Laboratory and the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Speakers: R. Chandrasekhar
(Joint Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Indian Government)
K.M.M. Rao (Deputy Director,National Remote Sensing Agency, India) , Krishna
Subramanian (Sun Microsystems), M. P. Ravindra, Senior Vice President and
Head of Education and Research, Infosys India).
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Panel 2: "Water,
Culture, and Environmental Sustainability"
This panel will explore emerging scientific, social, and
cultural dimensions of sustainable water management in India. India is one of the world's great laboratories
of water science, engineering, and management; and the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
likewise has a distinguished record of water research (some of it in India ). Both
regions will face pressing water problems in the decades ahead, the panel
will survey the broad range of creative research on water, culture, and
sustainability in India
and Illinois
while exploring the frontiers of water science, examining the social bases of
sustainable water management, and reflecting upon the cultural meanings of
water.
Coordinators:
James Wescoat/Amita Sinha, Landscape Architecture, and Prasanta Kalita, College of Agriculture, Consumer and
Environmental Sciences (ACES).
Speakers: Ramesh
Kanwar (Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University), R.
Maria Saleth (International Water Management Institute), Prasanta Kumar
Kalita (Agricultural Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign),
Amita Sinha (Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign).
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Panel 3: "Cultural Diversity in India"
Recognition and negotiation of India's cultural, linguistic and
religious diversity constitutes an integral part of Indian socio-cultural and
political thought. This panel will discuss Indian diversity, in its many
aspects, and the ways in which it has been managed, mostly successfully, but
sadly punctuated by tragic failures, using Indian and Western notions of
civil society. Additionally, panel members will discuss the need to foster
greater understanding and methods of educating for democratic citizenship in
the US and India, while paying particular attention to different conceptions
of the good life that exist in these polities as well as their relationship
within the international system. Hopefully, the exchange will broaden
appreciation for, and knowledge of, continuing democratic efforts within India and the US, and develop possibilities for
a robust joint research agenda.
Coordinator:
Pradeep A. Dhillon, Educational Policy Studies.
Speakers:
Roma Chatterji (Delhi University), Dipankar Gupta (Jawahar Lal Nehru
University), James Anderson (Educational Policy Studies, University of
Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Rajeshwari Pandharipande (Religious Studies,
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign).
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Panel 4: "India and Global Security"
This panel will explore the dynamics impacting India's
current place within regional and international security frameworks, and how
the country is seeking to shape its foreign policy directions. Of particular
importance is the U.S.-India nuclear agreement signed in July 2005. The panel
will examine the implications of the deal, including the challenges it poses
to global nonproliferation efforts. This panel will also address topics such
as the tense relations between nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan and their attempts to
resolve contentious issues through an ongoing comprehensive peace process.
Finally, it will provide analysis of future competition and cooperation
between rising "Asian giants" India
and China.
Coordinator:
Matthew Rosenstein, Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International
Security, (ACDIS).
Speakers: Anupam
Srivastava (Director of Asia Program. CITS,
University of Georgia), Pervez Hoodbhoy (Quaid-e-Azam University), Cliff
Singer (Nuclear Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign),
Rajmohan Gandhi (Political Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign).
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Panel 5: "The Indian
Elephant in the Global Marketplace"
The panel will address the impact of India's growing economy on the world; the
impact of globalization on the Indian economy; and the emerging triangular
economic relationship between India,
China and the United States.
India has been maligned
recently in the U.S.
media as the source of substantial American job loss, the result of
outsourcing, particularly in the technology field. This discussion will
address the economic costs and benefits of technology outsourcing and also
draw lessons for economic global relationships. Extending beyond the
technology sector, the panelists will more broadly investigate the challenges
and benefits of globalization for different socio-economic segments in India.
Additionally, while examining the economic role of the above nations in the
regional Asian and the world economies, the discussion will explore the
relational dynamics between and among India,
China and the U.S. with regard to the implications of India forming
a strategic economic partnership with either nation over the other.
Coordinator:
Anju Seth, Business Administration.
Speakers:
Nick Shyamani (Motorola), Anup Sinha (IIM Calcutta
and Washington University),
Jagdish Sheth (Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing, Emory University),
TN Srinivasan (Samuel C. Park, Jr. Professor of Economics, Yale University)
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Panel 6: "One Billion Human Beings"
Focusing on the human dimension of India's
current story, this panel will address the realities behind headlines that
proclaim India's
successes. A country with women in powerful political positions daily loses
numerous baby girls. While Indians provide IT services to America and
the world, two-fifths of them are not literate. Indian doctors abound in the
West, but many of India's
villages do not see a doctor. Such paradoxes will be addressed by this panel
which will look at questions of education, nutrition, health care, and human
rights in India,
and at the nation's grass-roots movements.
Coordinator:
Rajmohan Gandhi, Program in South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.
Speakers:
Urvashi Butalia (Delhi University), Balakrishnan Rajagopal (MIT Program on
Human Rights & Justice) , Smitu Kothari (Visiting Professor at the Tata
Institute of Social Sciences), Paul McNamara (Nutritional Sciences,
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign).
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University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
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