Events
• November 14, 2009:
Princeton University hosted its official celebration of the Hindu festival of Diwali at the University Chapel.
The Diwali celebration was organized by the University’s Office of Religious Life (ORL) and spearheaded by the University’s recently created Hindu Life Program. The program was launched last year as a pilot. This fall, Princeton made the program a permanent part of the ORL and hired Vineet Chander to be a full-time Coordinator for Hindu Life. The unique appointment makes Chander the first Hindu chaplain in the more than two hundred year history of the prestigious University.
This year’s celebration built on last year’s observance, which was the first of its kind at Princeton, and featured devotional music, sacred readings, classical Indian dance, and a traditional Hindu worship service. The celebration this time also allowed Princeton’s Hindu students and faculty members to share their talents as a devotional offering. The event included performances by Swaranjali, a student group dedicated to Indian classical music, and Kalaa, the University’s classical Indian dance company. Professor Manjul Bhargava (Mathematics) played the tabla (an Indian drum) and Professor Mekhala Natavar (Anthropology) performed a dance in Kathak style.
The worship service included a mix of students, faculty, and staff; residents of Princeton; and members of the broader Hindu community in Central New Jersey.
• August 7, 2009:
PCI organized a successful "Delhi Reception 2009" for incoming Princeton students.
The event took was held at the home of Dr. Prabhu Ghate, a distinguished alumnus who has both an MPA (1976) and a Ph.D (1983) from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.
 | PCI President Ranjan Pal expressed that it was very gratifying to see so many new and young faces. For the first time in the history of a Princeton gathering in India, it was dominated by undergrads - both current and young alum. About 20 people showed up including all six of the new UG admits from Delhi, one of whom, Mohit Manohar, traveled all the way from Patna to make it! Most impressive was the fact that DPS had made a clean sweep of admissions from North India this year, the only exception being Akarshan Kumar from Modern School. The grad turnout was dominated (as usual) by WWS alum including the lone grad admit to attend Karan Malik. |
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Despite the oppressive humidity on Prabhu’s lovely terrace (which soon drove everybody downstairs to the air-conditioned comfort of his living room), everybody had a great time, and much spirited interaction could be seen among the enthusiastic young freshmen and their more laid-back seniors. Prabhu gave a short but heartfelt speech about the need for young people privileged enough to attend Princeton to remember always to give back to India. This, of course, was based on his own considerable years of public service both inside and outside the government and was attentively heard by his young audience. The evening wound up around 10 pm.
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All photos from the event can be found here.
• August 1, 2009:
Alumni from Bombay were hosted by Namita Devidayal '91 in her house on Saturday, August 1 to meet and welcome the two incoming students who will be joining the Princeton community this year. The two admits from Bombay, Shloka Mehta '13 and Anjali Mehrotra '13 are both recent graduates of the Dhirubhai Ambani International School located in the Bandra-Kurla complex of Bombay. Joining Namita were recent graduates Saahill Desai '06 and Rahul Mehra '07, who also helped in organizing the event. Bhupendra Oza '69 was present as was current student from Pune, Sreedev Basu '12. Professor of History at Princeton, Gyan Prakash, who has incidentally been in Bombay for a year on sabbatical from teaching, was present to talk to the new admits. Prof. Prakash recently completed working on a book on Bombay history and talked to the students and alumni about his work and about Princeton. The new admits were pleased at interacting with others associated with Princeton and are looking forward to starting their academic careers there. It was a nice opportunity for the small alumni body in Bombay to come together. Congratulations once again to Shloka and Anjali on getting into Princeton and good luck for their futures there!
Mumbai Reception 2009
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| Prof. Gyan Prakash of the History Dept. and Namita Devidayal '91 | Incoming students Anjali Mehrotra '13 and Shloka Mehta '13 |
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| Recent alumnus Saahill Desai '06 and Prof. Gyan Prakash | Saahill Desai '06 and rising sophomore Sreedev Basu '12 |
• April 16, 2009:
PCI presented "An Evening with Nandan Nilekani" in association with the Penn Club of India.
The event took place on the evening of April 16 at the IILM campus in Delhi.
PCI was generously hosted by a Penn alum Anand Rai whose family are the founders of the IILM institute.
 | The event saw almost 70 alum from Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Chicago, Yale and other top US schools turn up to hear Nandan Nilekani, currently Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Infosys and the author of "Imagining India: Ideas for a New Century" talk about his new book. More can be found on Nandan and his book here |
 | There was a panel discussion with Mr Nilekani, Dr. Surjit Bhalla '72 '77 (a widely-known commentator on public affairs and economics and current CEO of Oxus Investments) and PCI President Ranjan Pal. Mr. Nilekani also signed copies of his book. The event ended with dinner discussions between Mr Nilekani and the members of PCI and Penn Club of India. |
PCI President Ranjan Pal said "I’m delighted to say that this has been a first in terms of inter-Club collaboration in India and a big success !" The feedback from the event was strongly positive with over two-thirds of respondents rating it very highly in terms of meeting their expectations. Almost everyone who came also expressed keen interest in participating in future alumni events.
Thanks to our Treasurer Rishi Jaitly ’04 and our young Princeton-in-Asia fellows Jevon Harding ’07 and Nienke Boer ’08 for working so hard for organizing this event.
All photos from the event can be found here
• September 2, 2008: PCI hosted Karen McGuinness (MPA '85), Assistant Deam for Graduate Education at the Woodrow Wilson School, at the India Habitat Center. The event was attended by ~30 alums and friends, as well as potential WWS applicants. Karen is also a thesis advisor for WWS undergraduates. Thanks to Ranjan and Shiv Dutt (C '11) for arranging this event at short notice.
• December 6, 2007: PCI, together with sponsor Bahri Infrastructure Ltd., hosted an evening to discuss "The Dilemma of India's Growth: Can Micro-Finance lift Bharat?". Dr. Prabhu Ghate (WWS Ph.D '83) and Rajul Awasthi (MPA '97), currently serving as special assistant to Finance Minister Chidambaram, served as panelists, which was moderated by PCI President Ranjan Pal. The interactive session, followed by cocktails and dinner, was held at the India Habitat Center in Delhi.
• August 12, 2007:
 | The Delhi send-off for the Class of 2011 and GS admittees was held at the home of Sarla Sachdev '92, the incoming ASC India Chair. Dhanyawad, gracias, domo arigato gozaimasu to Sarla and spouse Hemant for hosting the event. Go to the Media section for more photos from both events.
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• July 14, 2007:
 A reception for the incoming Class of 2011 and GS students was held in Bombay, and hosted by Michael Owen (WWS MPA '75), the US Consul General, at his residence. Approximately 30 people attended the event [An interloper, Rasesh Mohan, Yale C'11, was unmasked during the event. Bulldogs, fret not, the creature was captured and released unharmed into the wild]. Many thanks to Michael and his wife Annerieke for being such gracious hosts, and to their son Brendan (C '09) for taking the pictures (and for finding a camera with which to do so!). Thanks also to Madhur Kotharay *90 and Namita Devidayal '91 for coordinating the event. Michael was US Consul General for Western India from 2005 to 2008, and has been with the US State Department since 1987.
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• January 5th, 2007:
 Princeton Club of India presents a lecture by Princeton History Prof. Gyan Prakash, Director of the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies, on the study of India at Princeton against the backdrop of the history of South Asian studies in the United States. Event Summary: Professor Prakash addressed PCI at the India International Center in New Delhi. South Asian studies remains in its infancy at Princeton, particularly compared to the well-established field of East Asian studies, and Gyan talked about the efforts of him and others to change that. He noted the university's approval of a South Asian Studies program, which will allow students to earn a certificate in the field. Princeton also has hired a Hindi instructor, who teaches Urdu as well. And Gyan, who has been the lone South Asian specialist in his department since he joined in 1988, will soon have a colleague to keep him company (a 100 percent increase, noted PCI Secretary Ranjan Pal, who moderated the event). The Q&A period saw a spirited debate on the Nehruvian legacy in India, with Gyan arguing that India's economic growth today would not have been possible without the IITs. Some in the audience begged to differ. The gathering also heard from Sanhita Sen '07, who talked about Princeton-in-India (PI), an exciting initiative she is helping to launch, to be modeled on the 100-year old Princeton-in-Asia program. PI will place Princeton graduates at NGOs and companies in India for one year. Click here for a profile of Prof. Prakash, including his current research interests.
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• December 7th, 2006: For Woodrow Wilson alumni in New Delhi - a unique videoconference, to be held live simultaneously in Delhi, Shanghai, and Princeton, "Movement of Global Talent: The Impact of High Skill Labor Flows from
India and China". Sponsored by: The Policy Research Institute for the Region (PRIOR) at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School; The World Bank; The Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program; The Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania; The Global Development Learning Network (GDLN). To better understand the growing role of internationally mobile human capital on local and global politics and economies, this symposium will bring leading scholars, policymakers and business leaders from around the world to examine the circulation of high-skilled ("knowledge") workers from India and China to and from the New Jersey-Pennsylvania-New York region, and its impact on the source countries and the receiving region. The symposium will be held at Princeton University and composed of two sessions (the first of which will be the trans-continental videoconference). SESSION 1 (6:30 to 10 am, EST on Thursday, December 7) will examine how the flow of knowledge workers affects India and China, primary source
countries for the migration. The focus will be on the impact of the Indian and Chinese Diaspora and returnees on the economies of India and China. The research presentations will be at Princeton and the discussion about them will be held live, via videoconference, with leading figures in the field in both New Delhi, India and Shanghai,
China. India Details for the videoconference: New Delhi Time: 5:30 - 8:30 p.m. Location: The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) - Darbari Seth Block, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road New Delhi Contact: Col Vinod Bhargava Tel: 9811009263 or 2468 2100 (Extn 2403), E-mail: bhargava@teri.res.in . For more information on both sessions of the event and a list of confirmed speakers, visit http://region.princeton.edu/conference_40.html.
• December 1st, 2006: The Centre for Philosophy and Foundations of Science in Delhi is organizing a public lecture by Prof. Arnold Levine (from the Simons Center for Systems Biology, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) on December 1st. Arnie Levine taught at Princeton University from 1968 to 1979 in the Biochemistry department,and founded the Molecular Biology department at Princeton where he was from 1984 to 1998. In Delhi, he will speak on the topic "Reading the Book of Life for Clues to the Origins of Cancer". The lecture is scheduled to begin at 6.30 p.m. at Somany Hall, Assocham House, 47, Prithviraj Road (opposite Safdarjung Tomb) and will be preceded by a high tea at 5:30 pm. All members of the PCI are cordially invited to attend the tea and the lecture and show their support for Professor Levine.
• August 7th, 2006: Princeton Club of India Inaugral Reception – New Delhi. The inaugural reception of the recently established PCI was held at the Delhi Gymkhana and was attended by ~25 Princetonians and friends, including both Class of 2010 admittees (Aman Kumar and Arjun Arora). A lively time was had by all (next time, we promise the open bar will stay open longer). Kudos to Shyamal, Ranjan, and Rajul for organizing the event at short notice. View photos of the event!
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