Page 5 - ICWA NewsletterOctober- December 2020

INDIAN COUNCIL
OF WORLD AFFAIRS SAPRU HOUSE

has brought out the best and the worst in countries, Shri Naidu said, “while most have reacted
in a spirit of collaborative cooperation, some have retreated into a shell in pursuit of their
narrow interests”.
Noting that the Council has been focusing on the study and analysis of the regional and global
impact of the pandemic, its repercussions on matters such as international relations, Shri Naidu
said that “these monumental changes and shifts over the past eight months have added new
dimensions to the Council’s research work”.
The Vice President expressed happiness that ICWA has made full use of digital platforms during
pandemic and held more than 50 online programmes and events, including national and
international seminars and conferences, track II dialogue meetings with foreign counterparts,
participation in regional and global meetings, and virtual signing of MoUs with Indian and global
partners. This has helped the Council in maintaining and strengthening its position as one of the
premier foreign affairs think tanks in India, he added.
He expressed satisfaction over two-day consultation held virtually with a number of policy makers
and scholars from African countries recently in line with his suggestion made last year during the
National Consultations on Africa.

He commended ICWA for raising awareness among both experts and the general public through
its activities and praised the Ministry of External Affairs for providing guidance to the Council.

At the meeting, External Affairs Minister and Vice President, ICWA Dr S Jaishankar called for
renewed focus and attention on the development of Area Studies in Indian Universities. He
emphasized that strengthened Indian scholarly understanding of socio-political, economic,
historical and cultural contours of different countries and geographic regions is essential not
only for knowledge creation on international affairs and foreign policy but also for robust policy
formulation. Dr Rajiv Kumar, VC, Niti Aayog and Vice-President, ICWA agreed with EAM and
suggested that ICWA may convene a meeting of all concerned viz., Niti Aayog, MEA, M/o HRD,
UGC and present a report to a Special Meeting of the GB/GC. Hon’ble Vice President approved the
proposal and asked ICWA to move ahead.
This was the third Council meeting of Shri Naidu as the President of ICWA. Earlier in the day he
also chaired the 19th meeting of the Governing Body of ICWA.
The virtual meeting was attended by the three Vice-Presidents of the Council – Dr S. Jaishankar,
the External Affairs Minister, Shri P.P. Chaudhary, the Chairman, Standing Committee on External
Affairs, and Dr Rajiv Kumar, the Vice Chairman of Niti Aayog. Secretary to the Vice President, Shri
I.V. Subbarao, DG, ICWA, Dr. T.C.A. Raghvan also joined the meeting alongwith the members of
Governing Council which included several Members of the Parliament as well.

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ISSUE : 23 | OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2020 5