Former Foreign Secretary lalit Mansingh inaugurated a new building of the School of International Studies (SIS) at the Ravenshaw University in the presence of writer Sitakant Mahapatra, Prof Digambar Mishra of Miles College, USA and university Vice-Chancellor Prof BC Tripathy.
Ravenshaw is the first and only university in the State to start a full-fledged SIS with regular courses of MA and MPhil.
Mansingh observed that it is high time Odisha contributed to international relations locating India’s role in it. Prof Tripathy emphasised the need of a specialised School of International Studies and hoped that in the future the university’s SIS would focus on the emerging regions of the world and critically look at the India’s role in the regions of Africa, latin America and Europe, etc.
Giving example of how India does not have an adequate number of experts on Pakistan who understand Urdu and other Pakistani languages like Pasto, Sindhi and Saraiki, Prof Tripathy highlighted the need to focus on India’s greater understanding of South Asia for better regional partnership, peace and development in the region.