October 7, 2007
Yale Starts Leadership Program
for Indian MPs by Arun
Kumar
Washington
Yale University has launched a leadership programme for Indian MPs,
opening a window to discussions on policy issues with leading
thinkers away from the public eye.
The inaugural session of the India-Yale Parliamentary Leadership
Programme will begin Oct 9 at the university campus in New Haven,
Connecticut.
The five-day programme with the faculty at Yale - an Ivy League
institution - will be complemented by a three-day programme of
meetings, discussions and interactions with the US government and
business officials in Washington D.C.
Members of the faculty for the programme are drawn from among
experts at Yale, as well as research institutes, government offices
and the private sector. Besides curricular activities, there will be
lectures, discussions and private meetings with renowned
practitioners in their areas.
"It gives them a chance to talk about policy issues off the record
outside the legislative arena," said Yale president Richard C.
Levin. "No one even remembers what one said to make a commitment.
There is no posturing.
"It's really a useful thing to have people deep in politics and just
talk about issues in a neutral environment," he said.
The participants are a mix of parliamentarians drawn from both the
Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha and from various parties. Yale has
also striven to attract regional variety representing both rural and
urban constituencies.
"Our programme also sought younger, progressive politicians who will
likely remain in public service for the foreseeable future and would
benefit from the experience of studying at Yale," said George
Joseph, the university's assistant secretary for international
affairs.
The 13 participating MPs are: Raashid Alvi, Deepender Singh Hooda,
Naveen Jindal and Madhu Goud Yaskhi (Congress), Tapir Gao,
Dharmendra Pradhan, Dushyant Singh (Bharatiya Janata Party), Robert
Kharshiing (Nationalist Congress Party), Chandan Mitra (Nominated);
Baijayant Panda (Biju Janata Dal), R.C.S. Reddy (Telugu Desam
Party), Shahid Siddiqui (Samajwadi Party) and Tiruchi Siva (Dravida
Munnetra Kazagham).
The topics covered in the inaugural programme include: economic and
social development in India, democracy and the secular state,
India-China economic relations, affirmative action, climate change
and sustainable development, foreign direct investment in India,
strategy, negotiation and game theory for the politician, strategic
thinking for the politician and energy security.
The programme reflects the belief that exposure to new fields and
ideas can offer insight, perspective and new ways of thinking for
one's own work, according to Joseph.
It gives the parliamentarians an opportunity to interact and have
discussions with some of the leading thinkers in their fields and
also to explore policy considerations off the record.
It has been launched in collaboration with the Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the India-US Forum of
Parliamentarians.
The programme is similar to those that Yale is doing for China,
Japan, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates. Each programme is
however unique and customised to the group, so there is only some
overlap in the content of the programmes, he said.
Asked what prompted Yale to select Indian parliamentarians for this
programme, Joseph said for years the varsity has explored ways to
engage the next generation of India's political and business
leaders.
"Several programmes organised by the government of India are already
in place for civil service bureaucrats, but we recognised that there
existed an absence of such programmes for elected officials.
"Given Yale's distinguished records of educating political leaders
in the United States for more than 300 years, we decided to partner
with the existing activities of the India-US Forum of
Parliamentarians to create the India-Yale Parliamentary Leadership
Programme."
It's Yale's hope that the programme will be a regular annual event,
Joseph said.
The MPs will be accompanied by Ramesh Chandran, executive director,
India-US Forum of Parliamentarians, and Ranjana Khanna, assistant
secretary general-Americas, FICCI.
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