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CITD Aboutus

CITD Aboutus

The Centre for International Trade and Development (CITD) was established as an independent centre in the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University in July 2005. Prior to this the centre was known as the International Trade and Development (ITD) division as part of the erstwhile Indian School of International Studies, which integrated with the newly established Jawaharlal Nehru University in the early 1970s as the School of International Studies.

Over the last 50 years ITD has created a niche for itself in teaching and research in international economics and economic development. The first head of ITD was the renowned economist, the late Professor A K Dasgupta. He was succeeded by our distinguished colleague Professor Ashok Guha, who was the guiding force of ITD since 1963, until his retirement. He continues to be involved in the teaching programmes of the Centre. Former faculty include B.S. Minhas, Subimal Mukherji, Partha Dasgupta and others. Stalwarts like John Hicks, James Meade and Robert Baldwin have visited the division to deliver lecture-series.

Initially ITD was primarily geared towards research, running very successful MPhil and PhD programmes for several decades. In 1995, we introduced a unique MA programme in Economics (with specialisation in the world economy), keeping in mind the changing economic environment of India and its integration with the world economy. The curriculum has been designed with a clear emphasis on emerging global. This MA programme has proved to be highly successful, and is one of the most popular MA Economics programmes in the country.

CITD is perhaps the only economics department in the country focusing exclusively on international economics and economic development as its main areas of teaching and research, specialising in areas like trade & investment, technology, environment & natural resources, health& nutrition, finance, law & economics, poverty, inequality, and education.

The centre is served by distinguished faculty trained at top ranking universities of the world. Faculty strive to maintain highest academic standards in teaching, and produce high quality, cutting-edge research and regularly publish articles in the leading academic journals of their field. Faculty members have been conferred with various honours, awards and distinctions for their academic and professional contributions.

Our graduates are well established in the academic world in India and abroad, holding positions of great responsibility in the government, international organizations and the corporate world.

The centre runs a discussion paper series for early dissemination of research results. To expose students to recent developments in the discipline of economics and provide a stimulating research environment, the Centre also conducts weekly seminars and organizes Conferences on select themes.

The Centre received an endowment from the Ford Foundation in 1993. This grant allows and to meet minor research expenses incurred by faculty members.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.