New York:
A group of Indian MPs underwent a crash course at the Yale University, during which the elections in India, the prospects for Afghanistan and Pakistan after the US military withdrawal in 2014, the implications of political and economic transitions in China dominated.
The eleven Indian MPs came to the Yale University campus in New Haven, Connecticut on June 19 to complete a six-day leadership program with Yale faculty.
It is now being complemented by a four-day program of meetings, discussions, and interactions in New York City, ranging from the New York Stock Exchange, the United Nations Security Council, the New York Times editorial board, and the architect of President Obama's high successful social media strategy in his 2012 re-election campaign.
The 2013 participants are drawn from five different national and regional political parties in India, and include BJP vice president Smriti Irani and her TDP counterpart C Ramesh.
In addition to BJP and TDP, there are also representatives from the Congress, All India Trinamool Congress Party, and Shiv Sena.
In the academic program on the Yale campus, the delegation participated in discussions with Yale faculty on nuclear non-proliferation; the democracy movement in the Arab world; women's empowerment; elections theory and practices; political and economic developments in China; campaign finance reform; the environmental impact of shale gas development; Afghanistan and Pakistan after 2014; pharmaceutical innovation and patent law; and climate change mitigation.
The 2013 program was held in a new partnership with the Governance and Public Policy Initiative of the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi.
In total, more than eighty members of India's parliament will have participated since the program was created seven years ago.