Jindal School of International Affairs Wins Prestigious Grants awarded by US & Australian Governments

The Jindal School of International Affairs (JSIA) of OP Jindal Global University (JGU) has been awarded two significant grants from the governments of the United States of America and Australia to further training and research that enhance India’s strategic partnerships.

In February 2021, JSIA successfully bid and won a competitive and prestigious Grant from the US State Department for delivering a high-quality Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) on ‘Understanding US Foreign Policy and US-India Relations’.

The MOOC will draw upon the expertise of faculty at JSIA and other schools of JGU where there are specialists on various aspects related to political, economic and cultural ties between the US and India. JSIA will produce and deliver the MOOC and also liaise with colleges and universities across north India to enroll students in this course.

OP Jindal Global University campus is now physically open for students

Under the terms of this Grant, the MOOC which will be designed and produced by JGU, will be enrolling at least 100 college students in the age group of 20-24 from educational institutions spread across the six states and one Union Territory of north India– Chandigarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

The MOOC, for which video lectures and assignments are being prepared in the coming months, is expected to be hosted on the Coursera platform and epitomises the larger goals of JGU to raise the stature of online learning in India. This Grant is also a testament to the high quality of teaching and research on foreign policy issues that is being conducted by JSIA’s globally qualified faculty members.

A similar milestone was also traversed recently in February 2022, when JSIA and its Australian partner institution, the University of Wollongong, were awarded a sizeable financial Grant by the Government of Australia, under the ongoing Australia-India Indo-Pacific Ocean initiative, for analysing different aspects of Integrated Maritime Management and Security across the Indo-Pacific. Under this Grant, intensive joint research on ‘Integrated Maritime Management and Security across the Indo-Pacific: A Framework to Unify the Seven IPOI Pillars, with a Case Study to Reduce Plastic Debris in the Indian Ocean’, will commence in March 2022 and is slated to be completed before the end of June 2023.

This project would further enhance understanding between Indian and Australian academia and forge closer ties between the two friendly countries which boast of a ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’. In the context of these recent achievements, the Founding Vice Chancellor of O.P. Jindal Global University Prof. (Dr.) C. Raj Kumar said, “JSIA is our university’s core School for promoting research and training on matters concerning foreign policy and India’s strategic partnerships. We are honoured to have received multiple Grants from the US and Australian governments and believe that the faith that these two countries have placed in JSIA, is a validation of the high academic rigour and quality being promoted in our university.

In coordination with developed countries that are closely aligned with India, we hope that our university can play a major capacity-building role for the benefit of Indians as well as citizens of fellow developing countries.” Expressing immense satisfaction at these achievements, the Dean of JSIA, Professor Sreeram Chaulia said, “The two grants will go a long way in catapulting JSIA into a new league, which will combine JSIA’sacademic strengths with eminent experts and scholars from countries that are strategically vital for Indian foreign policy. Such interaction will also facilitate meaningful research and analysis on various aspects of India-US and India-Australia bilateral relationson critical security-related themes in the Indo-Pacific maritime region.”

In previous years, JSIA had led efforts at JGU for winning large Grants from the World Bank and the US State Department for training programmes of civil servants and college teachers of developing countries, including those from Afghanistan.