PDF: 2962 pages, 5.2 MB - Bay Area Council Economic Institute

Global Reach
• the Satyajit Ray Film and Study Collection, containing a comprehensive collection of the
director’s works;
• the annual Siddhartha Maitra Memorial Lecture, which has featured prominent Indian
intellectuals such as Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and authors Vikram Seth and Pico Iyer.
UCSC economics professor Nirvikar Singh also serves as director of UCSC’s South Asian
Initiative, which until now has focused on the social sciences. Singh was central in coordinating
and launching a 2008–09 colloquium series, “Mapping the Future of India,” in cooperation with
the Indian Community Center. The series began with a May 2008 lecture by Shubhashis
Gangopadhyay, adviser to India’s finance minister. Professor Singh works to enable UCSC
faculty with expertise in South Asia to meet with counterparts in India.
A longer-term goal is to establish an interdisciplinary South Asian Studies Center (SASC) in 2010
that—in contrast to most South Asian studies centers that focus on language and culture—will
primarily emphasize business and economic development (international finance, water management,
agroecology, health care), and science and technological innovation (environmental science,
climate change, engineering).
In a separate Silicon Valley Initiative, UCSC is working to establish networks and collaborative
arrangements with South Asian entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, including TiE and other groups,
and with business leaders in India.
Professor Singh points to a range of programs and events on the UCSC campus that can be leveraged
through better coordination under the auspices of a new SASC. For example, the Santa
Cruz Center for International Economics and the Center for Global, International and Regional
Studies have held three successful conferences on the economies of India and China. The Center
for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, the Program in Community and Agroecology,
and the Center for Integrated Water Research are positioned to study crop development, food
production, and water policy. Faculty members in the Division of Physical and Biological Sciences
are conducting research in areas critical to South Asia’s future, including arsenic pollution
in groundwater, environmental pathogens such as cholera, and the effect of global climate
change on environments and populations in low-lying coastal areas. And members of the Baskin
School of Engineering faculty, particularly in Technology & Information Management (TIM),
have been invited by California government agencies, Indian business and government leaders,
the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) to participate
in research and education initiatives.
UCSC’s goals for the South Asian Studies Center are establishing faculty and professional networks
in Santa Cruz, Silicon Valley and India; convening an advisory board; hiring an executive
director; endowing six new faculty positions—two each in business and economic development,
science and technological innovation, and arts, music, and culture (including language)—and, by
2020, endowing $3 million in scholarships to attract foreign students.
Within the California State University (CSU) system, only San Francisco State
University (SFSU) reports data separately. SFSU had 73 Indian students on campus
in 2007.
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