Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies, an Indian think tank inaugurated in Washinghton DC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
District of Columbia, District of Columbia, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) August 8, 2011 --
http://www.fiids-usa.org
For Immediate Release
June 23rd, 2011
http://www.fiids-usa.org
E-mail: info@fiids-usa.org

“In the battlefield of ideas, it is need of the hour to have a India related think tank where opinion makers, scholars, thinkers and political leaders are brought together to brainstorm their ideas and analyze different scenarios which will help resolve unknown future problems” said Arun Jaitley, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha at the inauguration of The Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS), a think tank in Washington, D.C. More than 150 community leaders, thinkers, academicians, journalists and activists from the Indian American community came together in Washington, D.C to be a part of the historic event.

The FIIDS inaugural event started with a panel discussion on “South Asia after Bin Laden” where Prof. Walter Andersen and Member of Indian Parliament Mr. Chandan Mitra gave insights on the current state of war against terror in South Asia after the demise of Bin Laden on May 1st, 2011. Prof. Andersen, a well-known expert on South Asia, while predicting that the internal compulsions in USA will force to the withdrawal troops from Afghanistan by 2014, he specified that US goals in the region should be to have a terrorist free and stable Afghanistan and Pakistan while protecting nuclear weapons and aligning with India. Prof. Andersen outlined many challenges that would make difficult to achieve the goals. Diminishing power influence of USA, Afghan and Pakistan’s inherent instability along with complex relations with terrorists, increasing unpopularity of USA and conflicting interests of Pakistan and Afghan establishment to keep Afghan instable were few challenges mentioned by Prof. Andersen making him pessimistic in achieving the goals. Mr. Chandan Mitra, an eminent journalist and a member of parliament took a more aggressive stand and said,“There cannot be a good Taliban.” He mentioned that the root cause analysis of terrorism in the world points to the state-sponsored terrorism in Pakistan, which itself is a failed experiment of democracy. He emphasized that the think tanks like FIIDS should formulate a contingency plan if Pakistan should implode, what would be the actions of India in particular and world governments in general. During his inaugural speech, Arun Jaitley continued the theme of the panel and emphasized that post 2014 regime in Afghanistan must be stable, development oriented and peaceful and should not allow the revival of the Taliban. He further reminded that the world is now in agreement of his stand that Pakistan has been using terrorism as the state policy of Pakistan.

Jayant Sinha, venture capitalist and FIIDS board member said "The Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies will play a vital role in engaging leading academics, policy makers, and business leaders on topics central to India and its unique civilization. We anticipate that FIIDS will become a key participant in India's soft power efforts around the world. " Khanderao Kand, Silicon Valley Entrepreneur and FIIDS Board Member, outlined FIIDS plans in the coming years to achieve this by facilitating conference, debates, and dialogues between experts on India and experts from India, and sponsoring research prescribing policies.

At the launch event for FIIDS, Pranay Verma, Political Counselor at the Indian Embassy in Washington, D.C and Janardhan Swamy, Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha were honored during the event. Prof. Radheyshyam Dwivedi, FIIDS board member, thanked the distinguished speakers and echoed the sentiment of the eminent audience, “A long-standing dream to have an Indian think tank in Washington DC has now been realized as FIIDS.”

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