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Latest News |
| 16th
Sep 2010 / Times of India / Mumbai Edition |
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IITs to keep an eye on key nations
COMPETITION WATCH
Mumbai: It was the ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu
who spoke of the importance of knowing ones enemy.India
has evidently decided to take a cue from that principle
: it will now keep a keen eye on its competitors on the
global stage. And it will do this through its best centres
of excellencethe Indian Institutes of Technology.
Each IIT, which is free to pick the country it wants to
study, will establish an observatory and study the developments
of nations strategic to India. IIT-Madras, which mooted
the proposal, is setting up a centre that will follow Chinaright
from Mao Tse Tungs revolution and Deng Xiopings reforms
to every step that the dragon takes today. The idea was
approved by HRD minister Kapil Sibal.
A centre of studies on a foreign country may be established
with a view to developing expertise on countries of strategic
importance, says the note shared in the meeting with Sibal.
Each IIT may concentrate on a particular country. As in
the US, such centres will be able to advise the government,
especially in terms of strategic negotiations... Such
centres will necessarily have advisory boards of former
foreign secretaries and ambassadors.
The idea of such centres is borrowed from the West. Asias
upward surge recently saw several American and British
universities starting observatories that most commonly
watched India and China. No longer are neighbours and nations
just that;enmeshed among countries are multiple complex
ties, making foreign policy a frontal issue.
Experts say that observatories are as much international
watchdogs as they are vehicles for turbo-charging bi-lateral
relations.
In its pitch, IIT-Madras stated: China has been and will
continue to be important in geo-political terms. China
and India also compete on the world stage for the leadership
of the developing world, providing competing models of
economic growth and politics. The two are also in the race
for securing energy resources for their expanding economies. An
engaged study of policy would provide a sound basis for
creating an interpretative framework within which China
may be understood.
Each IIT director is now slated to take up the proposal
with the respective board of governors and firm up plans
on the country to concentrate on.
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