The partners and non-beneficiaries Universities and NGOs will meet on 18-19 May 2017 for the Kick-Off Meeting of the Global India Project.

Dr. Himanshu will be presenting during a seminar “Untangling the ‘Global-Local’ Linkages: The Case of Right to Information Act in India”, Wednesday 21 June, at 12pm, in room CG35 (Glasnevin). All are welcome. If you would like any information, please contact [email protected].

Paper abstract:

Globally one finds a proliferation in transparency laws. This is evident from the fact that between 1990-2010, 76 countries have promulgated laws or ordinances around freedom or right to information. Indeed, this pattern point towards global norm diffusion around transparency laws. This paper locates this ‘global’ trend within the ‘local’ context by examining the domestic and global ‘processes’ involved in the passage of Right to Information Act 2005 (RTIA), in India. The paper argues that RTIA signifies an institutional change since it replaced the norm of ‘secrecy’, nested and perpetuated within the Indian state since colonial times with the norm of ‘openness’. Was this institutional change a result of an endogenous process? Or the exogenous factors such as the global policy stimulus around transparency and accountability played an instrumental role in the institutional change? The convergence of ‘good governance’ agenda of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) focusing on transparent and accountable government initiated in the 1990’s as a part of conditionality of Structural Adjustment Programs with the global move towards enactment of laws on access to information suggests role of exogenous factors. Was this true of institutional change in India as well? The existing scholarly literature argues that the international influence was “marginal” and the “drive was fueled from the grassroots up”(Florini 2007, Singh 2011). In this light, this paper explores the process of ‘norm –diffusion’ from global to the local by examining, how ‘home-grown’ (Singh 2011) was the process of institutional change? By bringing in some historical archival material and internal government documents the paper attempts to unravel the degree of ‘norm diffusion’, and the extent of exogenous factors and global norms in affecting institutional change in India.

Seminar on “India’s Security Policy and new international order in Asia ” jointly organised by the Institute for International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction (IICRR) and the Ireland India Institute, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, DCU and Institute of International Relations, Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, University of Warsaw.

The Network Event 1 will be focused on Research Design, Ethics, Gender sensitivity, India’s Global Role – debates from the literature. It will be held in IBEI, Barcelona, Spain, 21-23 February 2018.

The content of the event is as follows:

• Presentation of draft research proposals to the network. Structured feedback from Indian experts. Feedback
  from EU universities from disciplines beyond home dept. Feedback from non-university practitioners
• Inputs on EU Ethics requirements
•  Bringing a Gender perspective to research
• Introduce Internship Opportunities
• Introduce Indian host universities
•  Literature debates on India’s Global Role

The Second Network Meeting will be held in King’s College London, 23-25 April 2018. The event will focus on the following:

• Advanced Methods: presents on methodologies
• Engaging in multi-disciplinary research
• Ethics in fieldwork
• Key debates on Indian Democracy

The third Network Meeting will be held in Warsaw, 10-12 October 2018.

The fourth meeting will be held in Leuven 10-13 March 2019.

The fifth meeting will be held in Delhi 13-15 November 2019.

Two public events will take place:

Thursday 14 November 2019

10-13.00 – Public event in JNU on “India-EU relations”, Prof. Gulshan Sachdeva (JNU), Prof. Uttara Sahasrabuddhe (University of Mumbai) –  Room No 344 ( School of International Studies [new building], JNU

Location: Jawaharlal Nehru University

18.00-20.30 – Public event on “EU Approach to Conflict Prevention” with Prof. Tasneem Meenai (JMI),  Prof. Anjoo Sharan (BHU), and Prof. Priyankar Upadhyaya (BHU)

Location: Jamia Millia Islamia