Introduction | Chairman's message | Board members | Mission statement, aims and objectives

Activities
Funding application process | Australian studies | Commerce | Education | Indian studies | Institutional and professional links | International relations | Performing and visual arts | Print and electronic media and film | Public awareness | Science and technology | Sport

Administrative overview | Appendix: Australia-India Council Trust Account Financial Statements 1998-99

Indian studies

The objective of the Council's Indian studies program is to promote within Australia an informed interpretation of Indian society and politics.

To encourage the study of India in Australian universities, the Council has supported a series of workshops conducted by the National Centre for South Asian Studies (NCSAS) which have brought together honours and postgraduate students from all parts of Australia to discuss research and future directions in Indian studies with experts from Australia and overseas. The fifth such workshop, for which AIC funding had been agreed in the previous financial year, was held in Melbourne in July 1998. The workshops are now planned to be two-yearly events.

In 1998-99, the Council also provided funding to the NCSAS to assist the participation of young Australian economics students in the Annual Undergraduate Economics Convention, to be held in Mumbai in December 1999.

The Council provided funding for the participation of Professor P Patnaik of the Centre for Economic and Policy Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) New Delhi, Professor C D Wadhva of the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, and Professor S K Sareen of the School of Languages, Literature and Culture Studies, JNU, in the Midnight to Millennium conference on recent and potential developments in Australia-India relations, to be held at the University of Canberra during July 1999.

The Council also provided funding to assist participation by eminent Indian speakers in other conferences of relevance to the Australia-India relationship, including:

• a visit by Professor Ravinder Kumar, former Director of the Nehru Memorial Library and Museum, New Delhi, to give the keynote address at the biennial Asian Studies Association of Australia conference in Sydney in September-October 1998 and to present discussion papers, public seminars and briefings at universities in Armidale, Adelaide, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Perth
• participation by Professor A R Kulkarni of the Tilak Vidyapeeth, Pune, and Professor Meera Kosambi, Director of the Research Centre for Women's Studies, SNDT Women's University, Mumbai, in the Eighth International Conference on Maharashtra, held in Sydney in January 1999
• participation of Professor Ashis Nandy, Director of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi, as inaugural Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Postcolonial Studies, Melbourne, in March 1999.

To encourage broad Australian interest in and understanding of India through India's vibrant literary culture, the Council provided funding to enable participation by prominent Indian writers in leading Australian writers' festivals, including:

• participation of Ms Ruchira Mukherjee in the Sydney Writers' Festival in May 1999
• participation of Ms Chitra Divakaruni and Mr Raj Kamal Jha in the Melbourne Writers' Festival in August 1999
• participation of Mr Amit Chaudhuri in the Adelaide Festival Writers' Week in March 2000.

Paul Grabowsky, artistic director of the Australian Art Orchestra (back to camera) leads the orchestra in their applause for Karaikudi R Mani (right with bouquet) and his Sruthi Laya Ensemble, following a performance of the musical collaboration Into the Fire at the Elder Auditorium as part of the 1998 Adelaide Festival. The Council provided funding for production of a CD recording of the two orchestras performing Into the Fire.

Mr David Demant of Museum Victoria demonstrates a clock made from simple, readily-available components at the Sirsa Science Centre, Haryana, during his visit to India, with AIC support, to participate in the Second Science Centre World Congress held in Calcutta in January 1999.