The 3rd ASEAN-India Grassroots Innovation Forum 2022 was held on 19-21 December 2022 at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The threeday forum served as a platform for participants from ASEAN and Indian communities to share experiences and best practices in grassroots innovation.
The 4th ASEAN-India Workshop on Blue Economy was successfully held on 1516 December 2022 in New Delhi, India. With the theme “Advancing Partnership for Sustainability,” the workshop highlighted the importance of collective action to ensure the sustainable and rules-based use and management of oceans, seas, and their resources.
Nineteen media professionals from 10 ASEAN Member States visited India to learn more about ASEAN-India ties through the 2022 ASEAN-India Media Exchange Programme.
Living and studying at Nalanda University made Yuni Saputri reminisce about her high school life. She was a student at an Islamic boarding school or pesantren in her hometown in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Like in Nalanda University, students and teachers in a pesantren live around the school area. However, the 26-year-old said that the temperature significantly differs between Banda Aceh and Rajgir, India, where she lives now.
The Phoenix is an apt metaphor to depict the revived Nalanda University. Like this mythical bird, the historic campus was resurrected after being burned down to ashes. According to the university’s website, historical findings revealed that ancient Nalanda had a remarkable life lasting 800 years from the fifth to the twelfth century CE.
After a gap of hundreds of years, the new avatar of Nalanda University opened its doors for the first batch of students in 2014, around 12 kilometres from the original site. The restored Nalanda University is again aiming to become an icon for a new Asian convergence, a creative space and a centre of inter-civilisational dialogue for future generations.
The university is built upon a foundational philosophy that seeks to re-establish lost connections in the Asian region. The ideal is shared among students and teachers. Surrounded by the picturesque Rajgir Hills of Bihar State, India, wisdom seekers from all over the world have come to deepen their knowledge at this monumental location.
Stretching around 450 acres, Nalanda University students come from 31 countries, including ASEAN Member States. They are recipients of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) scholarship and the Nalanda University ASEAN Scholarship scheme. The ASEAN interviewed two of them to learn about their stories.
The ASEAN-India cultural and civilisational linkages form a solid bedrock for the connection between the ASEAN Member States and Nalanda University to flourish. The shift from the Look East Policy to the Act East Policy by the government of India, underlining the policy of connectivity, culture, and commerce, accelerates the momentum of this engagement.
The year 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of ASEAN-India relations, and its progression into a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. India initially came on board as a Sectoral Dialogue Partner in 1992, then gained Dialogue Partner status three years later. It began participating in ASEAN Summits in 2002, became a Strategic Partner in 2012, and in 2015, it formally set up a Mission to ASEAN to deepen its engagement with ASEAN.
ASEAN and India are fast-rising hotspots for digital start-ups. This was evident in the first ASEAN-India Start-up Festival 2022, held on 27-30 October 2022 at the Innovation Convention Center in Cibinong, Indonesia.
Art is a powerful tool that brings people together and imbibes the socio-cultural practices of the time. The ASEAN-India Artists’ Camp 2022 was one such project. It recognised the power of art in fostering intercultural people-to-people exchanges to promote mutual understanding and tolerance.
ASEAN and India marked the anniversary of their partnership by holding several commemorative events throughout 2022. Some of these are high-level meetings, such as the Special Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and the Delhi Dialogue on 15-17 June 2022, the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus and ASEAN-India Defence Ministers’ Informal Meeting on 22-23 November 2022, and the ASEAN InterParliamentary Assembly (AIPA) Delegation’s visit to India on 10-14 August 2022.
