The Mansarovar Podcast Council for Strategic and Defense Research

In the final episode of this season, Dr. Tishya Khillare, Fellow at the Council for Strategic and Defense Research, New Delhi hosts a conversation with Ms. Nandita Baruah, country representative for The Asia Foundation in India. Ms. Baruah has over 25 years of professional experience working on gender, human rights, labour migration and development issues in South and Southeast Asia.

They are joined by Dr. Swati Prabhu, Associate Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation’s Centre for New Economic Diplomacy. Her research explores the interlinkages between India’s development partnerships in South Asia and the Sustainable Development Agenda.

Together they discuss the role and state of gender-sensitive development cooperation in South Asia and explore benefits of adopting a more gender-reflective approach to development cooperation in the region.

In this episode, Dr. Shailly Kedia, Senior Fellow and Associate Director with the Centre for Sustainable Development Research and Leadership, at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Delhi hosts a conversation with Mr. Chandra Bhushan-founder-CEO of International Forum for Environment, Sustainability & Technology (iFOREST), which is an independent, non-profit, environmental research and innovation organisation based in New Delhi. 

They are joined by Mr. Srinivas Krishnaswamy, CEO of Vasudha Foundation- an independent, not-for-profit policy research institution working in the areas of climate change and access to clean energy. They discuss where the BBIN countries stand on their green energy transition journeys, the challenges they are facing in their respective plans to decarbonise the energy sector and some of the important takeaways from COP27 around the issue for this region.

In this episode, Dr. Meera Sethi, Senior Migration Policy Advisor and former Director General’s Special Envoy to India, at the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) hosts a conversation with Dr. Meena Poudel, senior expert on migration policy and formerly with the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Kathmandu, kabul and Libya. They are joined by Prof. Priya Deshinkar, who is a Professor of Migration and Development, at the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex.

They discuss the various types of migration flows observed in the BBIN sub-region, the status of policy dialogue on migration and policy changes needed to ensure safe migration in the sub-region.

In this episode, Prof. Rama Baru, from the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, is in conversation with Ms. K Sujatha Rao, former union secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt of India and Prof. Jishnu Das from Georgetown University, Washington DC.

They discuss the lessons that can be learnt for regional cooperation from experience of the Covid19 pandemic, the state of public health infrastructure in the BBIN region and ways of leveraging individual and institutional cooperation on knowledge and health data for improving global pandemic preparedness.

In this episode, Dr. Simi Mehta, CEO and editorial director of the Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI), New Delhi, hosts a conversation with Dr. Aditi Mukherji, Climate Change impact area platform Director at the CGIAR. They are joined by Dr. Malancha Chakrabarty, lead investigator with the climate change and development initiative at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.

They discuss the water-energy-food nexus in the BBIN sub-region and how countries in this region may work together to ensure food security in a climate crisis.

In this episode, Ms. Shravishtha Ajaykumar, Associate Fellow at the Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology at the Observer Research Foundation hosts a conversation with Prof. Rajat Kathuria, Professor & Dean - School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Shiv nadar University.

They are joined by Mr. Kazim Rizvi, a public-policy policy entrepreneur and founder of The Dialogue-an emerging policy think tank, with a focus on technology and strategic affairs.

They discuss ​​the importance of internet governance frameworks in South Asia, cross-border data flows and the harmonisation of data governance legislation to govern the data economy.