Invitation to UMISARC Auditorium Silver Jubilee Campus, Pondicherry University

UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Institute of South Asian Regional Cooperation (UMISARC) Pondicherry University

Cordially invites you to a talk on

“India and Bangladesh: Deeping of Ties for Peace and Development”

Professor Ambassador Veena Sikri, IFS
on February 10, 2012 (Friday) at 10:30 am to 11:30 am

About the Speaker: Professor Veena Sikri holds the Ford Foundation endowed Chair at the Academy of International Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia University (New Delhi), where she heads the Bangladesh Studies Programme. She is also Vice Chairman of the South Asia Foundation (India Chapter), a secular, non-profit and non- poltical organization with eight autonomous chapters across South Asia. She has just completed a three-year assignment as Visiting Senior Research Fellow with the Institute of South East Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore, which culminated in the book “India & Malaysia : Intertwined Strands”, currently under publication. She writes extensively and is active on the lecture and think-tank circuit, focusing on Bangladesh and South Asia.

Among other initiatives at Jamia Millia Islamia, Veena has conceptualized and is the Convener of the South Asia Women’s Network (SWAN). SWAN emerged from the Conference on “Women of South Asia: Partners in Development”, which was inaugurated in March 2009 by Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh. SWAN brings together women from nine South Asian countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Eight South Asia Women’s Networks (SWANs) have been established so that women working in similar sectors can exchange experiences and best practices, evolve joint projects, and so bond with each other in friendship and harmony. The eight SWANs cover the sectors of Arts and Literature; Crafts and Textiles; Education; Environment; Health, Nutrition and Food Security; Microcredit, Livelihood and Development; Women in Media; and Women in Peacemaking. The third annual Conference of SWAN was held in July 2011 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Before coming to the world of academia, Veena has had rich and distinguished experiences for more than three and a half decades as a career diplomat with the Indian Foreign Service. She has been India’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh, India’s High Commissioner to Malaysia, and India’s Consul General in Hong Kong. She has held several other challenging and prestigious assignments in the Indian Embassies in Moscow, Paris, Kathmandu and in the Permanent Mission of India to the UN in New York.

She has been closely involved in multilateral diplomacy and international conferences, including in the UN Security Council, ECOSOC, UNESCO, and Summit meetings of SAARC and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Veena was Director General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations for almost four years from 1989 to 1992. During these years she was intensively involved in the organization of Festivals of India abroad and with developing and strengthening all aspects of India’s cultural and educational ties with its neighbours and all other nations.

Veena firmly believes that the key to improving relationships among nations and spreading friendship lies in deepening people-to-people linkages. If people across borders understand and appreciate each other, the result can only be peace, stability and prosperity all around.

Venue: UMISARC Auditorium Silver Jubilee Campus Pondicherry University

Prof. N.K. Jha
Director, UMISARC & Dean, School of Social Sciences & International Studies

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