Carnegie India and the COVID-19 Crisis Carnegie India, the sixth international center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, opened in April 2016 in New Delhi. As with Carnegie’s centers in Beijing, Beirut, Brussels, Moscow and Washington, Carnegie India is staffed and led by local experts who collaborate extensively with colleagues around the world. Carnegie India focuses on three key areas (a) foreign policy and security studies (b) political economy and (c) technology and society. As the COVID-19 crisis unfolds in India and around the world, Carnegie India is committed to providing insightful, well-research and sober analysis of the pandemic and its potential aftermath. In our outputs around the pandemic, we will focus on the state of India’s response as well as associated policy issues. We also intend to continue with outputs in our regular research areas, albeit incorporating the new context where applicable. Some of the ways in which Carnegie India is doing this are:
Webinars
Under normal circumstances, Carnegie India hosts a number of talks, panel discussions and roundtables around a range of topics related to its programs of research. Given the national lockdown in India, Carnegie India has focused its efforts on hosting webinars. Keeping in mind the times we live in, the first few planned webinars are around COVID-19. The first webinar, with Taslimarif Saiyed (Chief executive officer and director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms) and Shaheed Jameel (Chief executive officer of the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance) to be held on 1 April, will be around India’s response to COVID-19. In the coming weeks and months, there will be more webinars on various dimensions of the crisis, particularly where these intersect with our other programmatic expertise. For instance, one planned webinar for April 8 is on COVID-19 and the impact on innovation; another one planned for April 13 is on cryptocurrencies and their role in the post-covid world where globalization is expected to take on a different dimension.
Written analysis
Carnegie India and its scholars continue their focus on written analysis, both short-form and long-form content. The aim is to produce a series of outputs that look at the geopolitical, economic, public health and technological aspects of the crisis. Some pieces that have been published already: Suyash Rai (Fellow) in his piece focused on the financial measures necessary in these times; Rudra Chaudhuri (Director), in his article, focused on Indian leadership and COVID-19; Shruti Sharma (Research Analyst), in her piece, looked at where India’s stands currently with the COVID-19 situation with special focus on public health infrastructure capacity. Videos Carnegie India is also focusing on putting out video content on various aspects of the crisis. A recent video featuring Suyash Rai, for example, addresses the impact of COVID-19 on the Indian Economy. Another video featuring Tarunima Prabhakar (Non-resident scholar) looks at COVID-19 as an infodemic. More videos in the coming weeks and months will be added to our YouTube page.
Infographics
Carnegie India puts out infographics on the spread of coronavirus twice daily on its twitter page. The infographic is based on data from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The infographic looks at aspects such as total number of cases, fatalities, geographical spread and testing capacity in the country. Podcasts Interpreting India is a Carnegie India production hosted by Srinath Raghavan (Senior Fellow). On Interpreting India, every week, we bring in voices from India and around the globe to unpack how technology, the economy, and foreign policy impact India’s relationship with the world. Over the last couple of weeks, the podcast has focused on Covid-19 and the potential impact of the same. A recent episode with Suyash Rai focussed on the grave social and economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on financial markets and its consequences for India. More episodes on the geo-political and technological aspects of the crisis will be released in the coming weeks. Government, industry and civil society engagement Carnegie India regularly interacts with key government, industry and civil society organizations. Carnegie India is committed to producing and disseminating informed, sober and insightful analysis around crisis with a key focus on immediate issues while not losing sight of the bigger picture and longer-term impact. More information of Carnegie India’s work particularly related to COVID-19 can be found here. Carnegie India benefits from being a part of a global family known as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP). More information on CEIP’s global outputs around COVID-19 can be found here.