MADHAV “M.D.” NALAPAT M D Nalapat, a Gold Medalist in Economics from the University of Bombay, is Professor of Geopolitics & UNESCO Peace Chair at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India's elite private university. In 2000,he organized the first non-official India-China conference in which serving members of the armed forces of both countries participated. Since 1998,he has visited China several times, meeting CCP officials, PLA officers, academics and others. He has also lectured at Peking and Fudan universities. In December 2003,he was part of the India team at the India-China Round Table organized by the University of Hong Kong. His department has hosted several meetings, conferences and lectures with Chinese experts, at which efforts have been made to understand and afterwards suggest ways to harmonize the policies of both countries. Apart from China, the US has been a focus area for the Department, which has supported the development of strong strategic ties between the world's two largest democracies. Nalapat was also the organizer of the first India-Israel-US Trilateral Conference at New Delhi in February 2003 and headed the Indian delegation to the second Trilateral Conference at Herzliya, Israel, a year later. This year, the third in this annual series took place in Washington. Professor Nalapat also lectured on Secularism at the Shahid Behesti University, Teheran, in December 2004 and introduced himself as a friend and admirer of both the US and Israel. Since 2003,he has made several trips to Taiwan, to attempt to craft scientific and economic cooperation between India and Taiwan. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the US-based "India China America Institute". He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Centre for Indian Renaissance, an Associate Member of the United Services Institution and a Senior Associate of the National Institute of Advanced Studies |