Announcing the Yale India Initiative

President Richard C. Levin
November 17, 2008
New Delhi, India

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

I am honored and grateful that you have taken the time to be with us on this important day in the history of the relationship between Yale University and India. Today, we take a giant step forward with the creation of the Yale India Initiative.

As many of you already know, Yale University’s historical connections to India are among the oldest of any Western university, dating back more than three centuries. Elihu Yale lived here for nearly three decades from 1670, working for the British East India Company and administering Fort St. George in Madras as its Governor from 1687 to 1692. In 1718, Yale donated to the Collegiate School of Connecticut a portrait of King George I, a set of royal arms, 417 books and three bales of goods that included Madras cotton, silk and other textiles from India. The sale of those goods raised 562 pounds sterling, a considerable sum in those days, for the construction of the University’s first building, and in gratitude for this generosity, the Collegiate School changed its name to Yale College.

Some of you may know that it was at Yale in the late 1840s that Sanskrit was first taught in the Western hemisphere and that we have been continuously teaching Indian languages ever since. Today, a student at Yale can study not only Sanskrit, but also Hindi and Tamil, and more than 100 other languages through formal or independent study.

The earliest known Indian alumnus of Yale graduated in 1892 with a bachelor’s degree and returned to India where he worked in Bombay. Since then, the number of Indians to graduate from Yale has grown substantially and include such notable figures as Indra Nooyi, Yale School of Management Class of 1980, Chairman of the Board and CEO, PepsiCo; T.N. Srinivasan, Ph.D. Class of 1962, the Samuel C. Park, Jr. Professor of Economics, Yale University; Fareed Zakaria, Yale College Class of 1986, Editor of Newsweek International, and Rakesh Mohan, Yale College Class of 1971, the Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, who is with us this afternoon.

India and Yale have changed dramatically since the first Indian graduated from Yale more than a century ago. By 2030, India, already the world’s largest democracy and free market economy, will be the most populated country on the planet. By 2050, India is poised to have the second largest economy in the world.

Yale’s own goals have become more far-reaching: to prepare our students for leadership and service in an increasingly interdependent world; to attract to Yale the most talented students and scholars from around the world; and to expand Yale’s role as a global university of consequence. To achieve these goals, Yale is working to develop an even richer curriculum in global and regional affairs; to provide more of its students with opportunities to learn about other cultures by working or studying abroad; and to attract the most outstanding international students and scholars to the University, where they can learn about world issues and develop ties with students from the United States and other countries.

The rise of India since the 1990s into a nation of global economic and geo-political consequence compels Yale to provide a deep and rich curriculum covering all aspects of Indian civilization – its languages and literatures, religions, and history, as well as its politics, economics, and society. We also need to engage with the problems that confront contemporary India: equitable and sustainable economic development and public health.

Today, I am pleased to announce the establishment of the Yale India Initiative, which is the broadest and most ambitious interdisciplinary effort of its kind to date by any university, and it will position Yale University among the world’s pre-eminent institutions for the study of and engagement with India and South Asia.

Yale’s India Initiative will create new faculty positions and new curriculum across the arts and sciences disciplines, as well as Yale’s professional schools of architecture, environmental studies, law, management, medicine, public health, and nursing. The Initiative will also expand the University’s visibility in and engagement with India and South Asia through intensified student recruitment efforts, faculty and student exchanges, research partnerships with Indian institutions, and leadership education.

To signal the seriousness of the University’s commitment to developing a deeper relationship with India, Yale has committed $30 million of its own unrestricted endowment resources to this enterprise, and we expect to raise at least $20 million more from donors within the next year. Fully developed, with the support of additional donors in the coming years, the planned additions to Yale’s current academic programs on India and South Asia will require endowment resources of $75 million (or approximately 375 crore Indian rupees at present exchange rates). The scale of what Yale has developed for its Indian studies program is unprecedented.

Just as the naming of Yale University began with an act of philanthropy, so the Yale India Initiative has been catalyzed by the vision and the commitment of individuals who believe that India must have a prominent place in the curriculum and scholarship of Yale. Yale is grateful to Rohini and Nandan Nilekani who have made a leadership gift of $5 million to underwrite the Yale India Initiative. Mr. Dinakar Singh, a Yale College 1990 graduate, has also generously committed his own leadership gift to advance the Initiative’s goals. Rohini, Nandan, and Dinakar have all played significant leadership roles in supporting the University as it has developed the plans for the Yale India Initiative. Their gifts have enabled Yale to leverage its own resources and fundraising to create the Yale India Initiative. The University will forever be grateful to them, and their acts of generosity will be permanently recognized by the University when we attach their names to the positions and programs their gifts will create.

I would also like to acknowledge with gratitude the contributions of Drs. Vinod and Anil Rustgi and their families, Kanchana and Dhamu Thamodaran, Dr. Pravin Bhatt, Dinakar Singh, and others who have supported and sustained the Yale South Asian Studies program for more than a decade. Their support built the foundations for South Asian Studies at Yale on which the Yale India Initiative will build.

I would also like to acknowledge the intellectual entrepreneurship provided by Professor Kalyanakrishnan Sivaramakrishnan, the Chair of our Council on South Asian Studies, who will also serve as the Director of the Yale India Initiative.

Yale has a long and distinguished record of educating leaders. Since its founding in 1701, Yale has educated leaders and public servants for all sectors of American society and, increasingly, around the world. Yale’s tradition of leadership and public service is found in every branch of government in the United States. Yale’s graduates are leaders in all areas of human endeavor—the arts, business, law, medicine, science, and civil society. For these future leaders to be exposed to India while students at Yale will only deepen the bonds between our nations.

Today, Yale commits itself to the goal that India will have a permanent and prominent place in the teaching, scholarship, and the life of the institution. Decades from now, as India continues its economic, political, and social ascendancy, the commitments that Yale has made today will ensure that our students and faculty have a richer and deeper understanding of India, and will contribute to strengthening the relationship between the world’s two largest democracies.

Thank you.