Concept

The Centre for Social and Economic Progress hosted an Expert Policy Roundtable Discussion on India, Japan and Economic Partnerships Towards a Free and Open Indo Pacific. The discussion took place on Wednesday, August 16, 2023, 10:00 am – 11:30 am.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s visit to New Delhi in March 2023 yielded a key outcome: a strong emphasis on deepening economic cooperation between Japan and India and leveraging the Indo-Pacific partnerships for growth and development. This commitment was further reinforced during the recent meeting between Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and his Indian counterpart, S. Jaishankar, where both agreed to increase bilateral public-private investments and advance projects aimed at regional connectivity. Moreover, Japan’s recent declaration of the New Plan for ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’ has significantly reinforced the path towards enhanced connectivity and cooperation in both bilateral and Indo-Pacific contexts.

Underpinning these efforts is the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership, which has been driving increasing collaborations between both countries. With a target of public-private investments worth 5 trillion yen in the next five years, India and Japan have been focusing on enhancing cooperation and boosting bilateral investments in various sectors, such as infrastructure development, technology transfer (including defence technology), decarbonization, supply chain resilience, and innovation. These areas hold profound significance for India’s strategic pursuit of realizing its ambitious $5 trillion economy target by 2030.

In addition to their strategic partnership, India and Japan have taken proactive steps to foster regional cooperation, with a particular focus on promoting quality infrastructure development in South Asia and the Bay of Bengal region. Together, they are actively engaged in developmental projects in India’s Northeast Region and Bangladesh, prioritizing the sustainable advancement of critical areas like roads, highways, ports, railways, and energy while also focusing on technical assistance and capacity building programs. These are aimed at not only improving linkages between South and Southeast Asia, but also contributing to the development and prosperity of the wider Indo-Pacific region.

In this context, CSEP is organizing a closed-door Expert Policy Roundtable to identify further opportunities for India- Japan cooperation to deepen their bilateral economic presence and regional connectivity partnerships. The Roundtable will include interventions from senior policy experts on crucial topics such as ease of doing business, supply chain diversification (including in key areas such as technology and critical minerals), defence cooperation, and infrastructure development in the Indo Pacific. It will also involve a discussion on the best practices in the region. These are all priorities for India’s Neighbourhood First and Act East policies and topics of research at CSEP’s Sambandh Initiative on Regional Connectivity. The discussion will include high-level policy experts, decision makers and scholars and be held off the record.

Speakers

Nobumitsu Hayashi is the Governor of Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). He started his professional career at the Ministry of Finance, Government of Japan upon graduating from the University of Tokyo in 1980. Since then, he held various senior positions at the Ministry, in charge of economic policy, government finance, and international finance, including Director–General of the Finance Bureau and President of the Policy Research Institute, and finally was appointed Commissioner of the National Tax Administration in 2014. He was Executive Assistant to Prime Minister from 2007 to 2008 and, from 2010 to 2012, served as Executive Director for Japan at the World Bank Group.

Hiroshi Suzuki is the Ambassador of Japan to India and Bhutan. He was a Private Secretary to the late Shinzo Abe when he was Chief Cabinet Secretary in 2005. Prior to this, he was also appointed at the Japan PM office during both terms of Shinzo Abe. At the PM House, Suzuki worked as a spokesperson for the International Press and as Private Secretary to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He has served as a senior deputy minister for foreign affairs and minister at the Japanese embassies in London and Seoul.
He has also served as Special Assistant to the Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency, Deputy Director-General (Crisis Management), and European Affairs Bureau, Consular Affairs Bureau, Director-General, Intelligence and Analysis Service and Deputy Minister for Foreign Policy and Director-General, Foreign Policy Bureau prior to being appointed as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to India in October 2019.

Participants

Bharat Joshi is the CEO of J-Curve Ventures Pvt. Ltd (www.jcurve.in). His career has spanned the roles of entrepreneur, author, social worker, and mentor. J-Curve focuses on a range of verticals through I’s – Insight+, Investment and Implementation, and has alliances with institutions in Germany (Fraunhofer IML), New Zealand, Hungary, and the Netherlands. He serves on the boards of three companies of the Joshi Group as Executive Director. All three companies have interests in logistics, technology, and infrastructure. He has been appointed as a member of government-led bilateral business platforms, including the India-Japan Business Leaders Forum, the India-Australia CEO Forum and CII’s Core Group for Singapore.

Constantino Xavier is a Fellow in Foreign Policy and Security Studies at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) in New Delhi. At CSEP he leads the Sambandh Initiative on regional connectivity. He is also a non-resident fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, in Washington DC. Most recently co-edited the CSEP reports on “Connectivity and Cooperation in the Bay of Bengal Region” (with Amitendu Palit) and “China in South Asia: Themes, Partners and Tools” (with Jabin Jacob). At CSEP he is also leading research projects on India’s infrastructure and connectivity partnerships, climate cooperation frameworks and critical minerals security, with a special emphasis on South and Southeast Asia.

Deepa Wadhwa has been a distinguished career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. She was the first Indian woman to be appointed Ambassador to the Gulf State of Qatar and later Japan. She has also been India’s Ambassador to Sweden, Latvia and the Republic of Marshall Islands. Earlier, she served twice in China, besides stints in Switzerland and Netherlands. She was instrumental in the active promotion of India’s economic interests in the areas of trade, technology, investments, and energy security. While with the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi, she has held the charge of Joint Secretary responsible for Indian relations with the United Nations and its agencies, including development-related programmes of UNICEF, ILO, UNDP, WHO etc. in India.

Jaimini Bhagwati is Distinguished Fellow, CSEP. He is a 1976-batch Indian Foreign Service officer and is also a financial sector specialist. He was appointed as India’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom in 2011. Immediately prior to this appointment, Bhagwati was India’s ambassador to the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg. He was also Joint Secretary (Capital Markets and Pension Reforms) in the Ministry of Finance from 1999-2002. He worked for eleven years at the World Bank Treasury in Washington DC and his responsibilities included the issuance of IBRD bonds and pricing of associated derivatives transactions.

Laveesh Bhandari is President and a Senior Fellow at CSEP. He has been leading climate change and sustainability research at CSEP. He has published widely on subjects related to sustainable livelihoods, industrial, economic and social reforms in India, economic geography and financial inclusion. He has taught economics at Boston University and IIT Delhi. Currently, he is conducting research on issues of inclusion, India’s energy transition, and how it will impact the government as well as the economy.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia is Distinguished Fellow at CSEP. He was the former Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Government of India. He joined the Government in 1979 as an Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance, after which he held a series of positions including Special Secretary to the Prime Minister; Commerce Secretary; Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs; Finance Secretary in the Ministry of Finance; Member of the Planning Commission and Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. In 2001, he was appointed as the first Director of the newly created Independent Evaluation Office of the International Monetary Fund.

Pooja Vijay Ramamurthi is an Associate Fellow in CSEP and PhD candidate in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at the School of Public and international Affairs (STEP) at Princeton University. She studies climate and energy transition policy, particularly focusing on the role that India can play in accelerating domestic and international action towards decarbonisation. Her work has always been multidisciplinary, where she looks at techno-economic, social and political dimensions of sustainability. She has worked at premier think tanks in India, including the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago and the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy. She has also worked on projects in Ghana and Cambodia.

Rajat Kathuria is the Dean, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Professor, Department of Economics, Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence. He has spent over 12 years with the International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi, teaching post-graduate students Managerial Economics and International Trade. He has also previously worked with the World Bank in Washington DC as a Consultant and worked on research assignments for a number of international organisations, including the International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), LIRNEasia, The World Bank and The Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Rajesh Chadha is Senior Fellow, CSEP. He was formerly a Professor & Research Director at the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and prior to that, an Associate Professor of Economics at Hindu College, University of Delhi. He has worked extensively on regional  and multilateral issues of international trade. His other areas of interest include foreign direct investment, agricultural markets, and non-fuel minerals & mining in India. He has provided research support to the Indian Government on multiple projects. He has also played a key role in the research projects sponsored by the Governments of India, Australia, the UK, and various international organisations.

Rakesh Mohan is President Emeritus and Distinguished Fellow at CSEP. Prior to this, he was President and Distinguished Fellow, CSEP from October 2020 till May 2023. He was also Senior Fellow at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University and was also a Professor in the Practice of International Economics and Finance at the School of Management at Yale University, 2010-12. He has also served as Distinguished Consulting Professor at Stanford University in 2009. In October 2021, he was appointed to the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC-PM).

Riva Ganguly Das is an Indian civil servant who belongs to the Indian Foreign Service cadre. She is the former High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh and former Ambassador to Romania, Albania and Moldova and has served as Consul General in Shanghai and New York. She is also the former Director General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, an autonomous organisation of the Government of India. Ganguly has also done postings in Spain and The Netherlands and has served in various capacities at Headquarters dealing with Nepal, Public Diplomacy, Passport & Consular, and United Nations. She was also Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs.

Riya Sinha is an Associate Fellow in the Foreign Policy and Security vertical. She is also the 2022
Visiting Fellow at the Stimson Centre in Washington DC. At CSEP, Riya coordinates the Sambandh Regional Connectivity Initiative, focussed on conducting data-driven research to map India’s links with its neighbouring countries. She also co-manages the Sambandh Policy Dialogue, a track 1.5 format, private, and off-the- record forum for policy-makers and experts to exchange perspectives on connectivity and geo- economic relations between India, South, and Southeast Asia, the Bay of Bengal, and the Indo- Pacific regions. Her research interest includes regional economic connectivity in South Asia, particularly in the area of trade, logistics, infrastructure, and border management.

Sachin Chaturvedi is currently Director General at the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), a New Delhi-based Think-Tank. He works on issues related to development economics, involving development finance, SDGs and South-South Cooperation, apart from trade, investment and innovation linkages with special focus on WTO. Professor Chaturvedi has persistently endeavoured to build up institutions and launching of networks, both at national and international levels. He is credited with the launch of Network of Southern Think Tanks (NeST) and Forum for Indian Development Cooperation (FIDC). He has also created “Delhi Process”, a major forum for exchange of ideas on South-South and triangular Cooperation.

Sanjeev Ranjan is the Chairman of the National Shipping Board. He is a 1985 batch IAS officer. He is the former Secretary of Ministry of Ports Shipping and Waterways. Prior to this, he served in various positions in the Government of India and at state level inTripura, including as the Secretary of MoRTH, Chairman of NHAI, Chief Secretary of Tripura, Additional Secretary & Financial Adviser in the MoRTH, Shipping, and Tourism, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Defense, Resident Commissioner of Tripura, Director in the Ministry of Heavy Industries, and district magistrate and collector of North Tripura district in the Tripura government. He has also served on the Board of a number of companies in the infrastructure, power and tourism sectors including NHIDCL, SCI, ITDC, OTPC, NEEPCO and National Dairy Development Board.

Sujan Chinoy is the Director General of the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), New Delhi since 2019. A career diplomat from 1981-2018, he held several important diplomatic assignments, including as Ambassador to Japan. He is a specialist on China, East Asia and politico-military and security issues. He anchored as a team leader the CBMs/peace and tranquility issues related to the India-China boundary dispute between 1996 and 2000. On deputation to the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) from 2008-2012, his expertise covered external and internal security issues including the extended neighbourhood of the Indo-Pacific. He has served as Consul General in Shanghai and Sydney and has extensive experience in trade, investment and economic issues.

Toshihiko Kurihara is the Chief Representative of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Representative Office in New Delhi and covers all JBIC operations and geopolitical research mainly in India, also Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka. He is also a Director of the Board, National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation, which is both India-Japan government-based development entity for all-across-Indian industrial corridors. He is also a geo-economic researcher of Nihon University Graduate School of Social and Cultural Studies(GSSC), and a visiting fellow at the Center for Economic and Social Progress(CSEP), specially on India’s foreign/economic policies and Japan/India economic relations. Over his two-decade global banking career, he has engaged in wide range of international banking operations from mega project financing deals to treasury/comptroller professions.

Vikram Singh Mehta is Chairman and Distinguished Fellow at CSEP. Vikram Singh Mehta was the Executive Chairman of Brookings India and Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution from 2012 to 2020. Prior to that, he was the Chairman of the Shell Group of Companies in India (1994-2012); Chief Executive of Shell Markets and Shell Chemicals, Egypt (1992-1993); Advisor, Strategic Planning to the state-owned company, Oil India (1984-1988). He started his career by joining the Indian Administrative Service in 1978. He is on the Board of Overseers of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; the Global Advisory Board of Macro Advisory partners; and the Board of Governors of the Deen Dayal University of Petroleum.

Yamini Aiyar is the President and Chief Executive of the Centre for Policy Research. In 2008, she founded the Accountability Initiative at CPR, which is credited with pioneering one of India’s largest expenditure tracking surveys for elementary education. Her work sits at the intersection of research and policy practice. Her research interests span the fields of public finance, social policy, state capacity, federalism, governance, and the study of contemporary politics in India. She has published widely in academic publications and the popular press and writes regularly on current affairs and policy matters in mainstream Indian newspapers.

For further details, please contact Anahad Kaur, Research Analyst, CSEP at akaur@csep.org.

All content reflects the individual views of the speakers. The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) does not hold an institutional view on any subject.