OP Jindal Global University inaugurates think tank JII to promote country’s soft power

NEW DELHI: The OP Jindal Global University (JGU Sonipat) has launched Jindal India Institute (JII), a strategic think tank aiming at decolonising the study and depiction of India, and spread global awareness regarding the country’s accomplishments in the 21st century. The tagline of JII is “Propelling the Indian Century”.

The institutes focus will be on working toward fulfilling national objectives for the centenary of India’s independence in 2047, such as Viksit Bharat and to develop an roadmap for long-term strategising on how the country can be a world leader for the entire 21st century.

The JII will conduct research and studies on areas such as India’s democracy, economy, society, culture, spirituality, science and technology, entrepreneurship, inclusiveness, rule-of-law, human rights, education, healthcare provision, environmental conservation and foreign policy. The bulk of the JII’s intellectual output will come from JGU’s existing faculty members. The faculty members will be simultaneously accredited to JII as fellows and senior fellows. Foreign scholars-in-residence will also be selected to come to JGU under the aegis of a Global India Visiting Fellowship.

The university said until now, only international educational institutions such as King’s College London, the University of Birmingham, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pennsylvania have set up India Institutes or Centres that cover diverse aspects in their own ideological lenses. “It is ironic and lamentable that despite the existence of more than 1,000 universities and 50,000 higher education institutions in India, not one of them had so far ventured into anything akin to a JII that would comprehensively tell the remarkable India story to the world,” it added.

JGU VC president of JII

JII will be led by JGU vice-chancellor of JGU, C Raj Kumar, who is JII’s president, and the dean of the Jindal School of International Affairs, Sreeram Chaulia will be its director general.

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JGU VC C Raj Kumar said, “The task of offering the true picture of India to the world cannot be left to governments or public relations agencies. Only a top non-partisan private university like JGU with over 1,200 research-oriented faculty members from multiple disciplines can do justice to this cause. Higher educational institutions in India have a special responsibility to uphold the image and raise the stature of our country in the world. India’s aspirations for building a Viksit Bharat in 2047 is only possible when its own universities generate knowledge.”

The detailed set of activities that JII plans to undertake can be viewed from JII’s website here.