India International Centre

"The idea of the India International Centre first came up in October-November 1958, when Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, then Vice President of India, and Mr. John D. Rockefeller III discussed setting up a centre for the ‘quickening and deepening of true and thoughtful understanding between peoples of nations’. Mr. Rockefeller suggested an International House on the model of Tokyo’s International House of Japan, in whose founding he had played a great part and offered a generous grant towards this end. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, then Prime Minister of India, was so enthused by the idea that he personally took interest in the selection of the beautiful 4.76 acres site adjacent to Lodi Gardens, on which the present complex stands. Later, as the activities of the Centre expanded, an Annexe was added to the main complex in December 1996. "Examining the model, while the buildings were under construction, Dr. C. D. Deshmukh, Smt. DurgabaiSome of the best minds of the time came together in the preparatory committee to spell out the objectives of the Centre set up by Dr S. Radhakrishnan. They were Dr C. D. Deshmukh (Chairman), Smt. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya, Pt. H. N Kunzru, Professor Humayun Kabir, Dr V.K. R. V. Rao, Shri Raja Ram, Dr Malcolm S. Adiseshiah and Shri Prem Kirpal. Dr. C. D. Deshmukh, then Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), was identified by Dr. Radhakrishnan as the person who would be able to set up such an institution. This faith in Dr. Deshmukh was vindicated for by 24 December 1958, the Centre had been founded and by 19 March 1959, it was registered under the Societies Registration Act (XXI) of 1860. "Dr. Deshmukh invited Joseph Allen Stein to be the architect of the Centre’s building... "Through its close contacts with prominent academic and cultural institutions in India and abroad, and through its networking with diplomatic missions in the capital, the India International Centre draws thinkers and professionals from different parts of the world and this country. In the early years visiting delegates have included Pearl Buck, P.M.S. Blackett, Robert Goheen, Paul Gore-Booth, Frederick Leboyer and Ivan Illich. "In recent years, eminent public personalities speaking at the Centre have included H.H. the Dalai Lama, Sogyal Rimpoche, Julius Nyerere from Tanzania, Willy Brandt from West Germany, Henry Kissinger from the U.S., Lee Kuan Yew from Singapore, Shimon Peres from Israel, Fernando Henrique Cardoso from Brazil and Sheikh Hasina from Bangladesh... "From its inception, decision-making of policies at the Centre has been invested in the authority of the Board of Trustees. The five original Life Trustees of the IIC were Dr. C. D. Deshmukh, Pandit H.N. Kunzru, Lala Shri Ram, Nawab Zainyar Jung Bahadur and Smt. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya. The present Life Trustees are: Professor M.G.K. Menon, Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, Shri Soli J. Sorabjee, Shri N.N. Vohra and Justice B.N. Srikrishna. Each Trustee is an eminent authority in his/her field, bringing years of experience to the governing of the Centre. Every two years, two Trustees are elected in addition to the Life Trustees, to the Board. "Since 1960, there have been nine Directors of the Centre selected by the Board of Trustees, each with years of administrative experience: P.N. Kirpal (I960), D.L. Mazumdar (1961-66), Romesh Thapar (1967-72), J.S. Lall (1973-78), U.S. Bajpai (1979-85), Eric Gonsalves (1986-91), A. Madhavan (1992-95), N.N. Vohra (1995-2003) and P.C. Sen (2003-2008). The present Director is Dr. Kavita A. Sharma."

Advisory Council

 * Jai chandiram, Ashok Parthasarathi, Keshav Malik, R. Ramachandran, Samar Singh, Sanjoy Hazarika, Pradip Krishan, Dipankar Gupta, H.Y. Mohan Ram , C. Uday Bhaskar, Ramaswamy R. Iyer, Raja Menon, Narayani Gupta , Dilip Padgaonkar, Rajiv Kumar, Sydney R. Rebeiro, Jayati Ghosh, G. K. Chadha, Sanjaya Baru, Brij Tankha, S. Shahid Mehdi, Karuna Channa, M. Ramachandran, Gautam Bhatia, M. Damodaran, Ashoke Chatterjee, P. N. Tondon, Nandita Das, Ranjit Roy Chaudhury, Neeraj Gupta, Mohammed Qasim, Naresh Gupta, V. Ramesh, Vinod Sehgal, K. Raghunath, Vinod Khanna, Deb Mukharji, Ranjit Nair

Contact
Web: http://www.iicdelhi.nic.in

Related Sourcewatch

 * Karan Singh - former president
 * Kapila Vatsyayan - former president
 * Indira Gandhi - founding trustee
 * Indar Rikhye