Pune: Gokhale Institute to start a new Centre for Geopolitics and Geoeconomics
Pune: Gokhale Institute to start a new Centre for Geopolitics and Geoeconomics
Pune, July 20 : City based Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE) is set to start ‘Geosquare‘, a new Centre for Geopolitics and Geoeconomics from the current academic year 2024-25. This was announced by Dr Ajit Ranade, Vice Chancellor, GIPE while interacting with the members of the Press at the GIPE Campus today. Registrar of the GIPE Kapil Jodh was also present on the occasion.
While sharing the details of this new Centre Dr. Ajit Ranade said,”As the world is getting increasingly complex, competitive, and convoluted, it is imperative to pay close attention to the interdependent and multi-dimensional relationship between geopolitics and economics. A new Master’s program titled M. Sc. Economics (Geo-Politics And Geo-Economics) will commence from the current academic year and shall be run under this new Centre. The primary focus of this Centre would be to develop writing skills in the form of academic and research articles, to establish contacts with political and economic actors and policymakers, to gain critical reading skills in the area of Geo-Politics and Geo-Economics and to obtain and impart knowledge of current affairs and historical events as related to international context. Organizing workshops and seminars of experts from this field is also on the cards.”
“As a part of our commitment to improve the overall learning experience at GIPE, we are creating a state-of-the-art reading room for our students which will be open and operational for 24 hours. It will be air conditioned and will have wifi connectivity for the benefit of the students. CCTV would also be installed from the safety point of view. This reading will be inaugurated next month”, he added.
Dr Ranade gave an overview of the progress made by GIPE on various fronts in the past two to two and half years including academics, research, infrastructure development, modernization, industry collaborations, human resources and welfare activities.
He said, “On the academic front two new Master’s programs have been introduced along with many certification and diploma programs in the past couple of years. Executive development programs as per the requirements of Corporates have started. Start of the ‘Second Orbit’ program for the entrepreneurs for mentoring them to take their business to the next level was successfully introduced. Dr Anand Deshpande, Founder of Persistent Systems and Prof Ashok Korwar ex IIMA are mentoring the entrepreneurs under this initiative. CPTP (Common Probationers Training, Program) Training for MPSC cadres in collaboration with YASHADA has also been successfully commenced, which was earlier with the Mumbai University.”
“In the last couple of years new initiatives in the form of new research centres have come up and have started functioning efficiently. Some of them are Centre for Excellence in Entrepreneurship Development, Centre for Sustainable Development and the Centre for Health Policy System and now the Centre for Geopolitics and Geoeconomics would be started. Well known industrialists like Ravi Pandit of KPIT, Dr Pramod Caudhari of Praj Industries have extended their support for these centres. I am indeed proud to tell you that the Centre for Sustainable Development is one of 10 institutes in India which is working for the ‘Namami Gange’, the ambitious project of the Prime minister. A total of over Rs.15 crores have been raised to establish and run these three research centres for the next five years”, Dr Ranade added.
GIPE is successfully taking up and executing the third party research projects from the state government as well as the private sector. In the last two to two and half years about 20 such large size research projects have been successfully completed. The Government ones include Maratha Reservation Survey & Analysis, District Strategic Planning by Govt of Maharashtra (9 districts), BRTS Impact Study with Pune Municipal Corporation and Mahabaleshwar lake pollution study project. The private ones include projects from ITC, John Deere, Open Links Foundation and the District Development Index with Saraswat Bank and Loksatta.
To encourage research amongst the faculty members and the PhD students GIPE introduced prize money in the range of Rs.25000/- to Rs.45000/- under the research publication incentive scheme. It was introduced in the year 2022 for the period of 2 years. Now, due to the good response, it would be extended further. Students other than PhD are also encouraged to be a part of research projects and field work. Here, 100 plus Internships for students on live projects of Government of Maharashtra under the Unnat Maharashtra Abhiyan have been offered. To enable the students to hear the thoughts of national and international experts, the GIPE organized over 100 Research seminars at the campus.
Dr Ranade informed that under the modernization drive, ERP implementation has started at GIPE. All classrooms have been upgraded and are 100% ICT enabled. The entire campus has been made wifi for the benefit of the students. On the infrastructure front the hostel capacity has been increased from 280 to 400 beds. Facilities like cafetaria, gymnasium, faculty lounge for the meetings and briefings of faculty members have been created. An amount of Rs 50 lakhs has been invested in the restoration of the heritage SIS Hall.
To address the issue of skilled manpower crunch, recruitments were done and the strength of the staff has been increased to 170 from the earlier figure of 90. For the first time ever Health Insurance cover was given to the staff members of GIPE. The institute has spent about 3.65 Cr for staff welfare in the last few years. The backlog of the ‘Arth Vijnana’ journal published by GIPE has been covered up and now it is getting published regularly with the frequency of once in 3 months. It would soon be made available in digital form.
Considering the current pace of growth the revenue of GIPE is expected to double in the financial year 2024-25 as compared to the revenues in the year 2021-22.
