About the SAPRA India Foundation

The SAPRA India Foundation is a India based, not for profit, think tank which focuses on peace & conflict studies, political risk, terrorism and security related issues pertinent to the Southern Asian context. SAPRA India looks at all of these from an "Indian point" of view. Specifically, it analyses trends, events or findings in the military, external, political and economic fronts that could impact on India at the strategic level. The Foundation was informally founded by a group of journalists, retired military officers and bureaucrats in July 1995. The principal activity in the early days was the publication of a monthly bulletin. In November 1999, the Foundation was formalised and full time staff was recruited to carry out research, news monitoring and publishing. In September 2001, the Foundation was legally instituted as a registered public charitable trust. The Foundation, apart from carrying out research, also publishes a monthly bulletin and maintains a web site www.subcontinent.com. The founder and managing trustee of the Foundation is Indranil Banerjie, a former journalist and TV documentary maker.

The Foundation
The aim of the Foundation is educational, in that it endeavours to promote the understanding of strategic, national security issues. The focus areas are nations in India's periphery and the big powers, their military capabilities, their internal political situation, their economies and the incidence of terrorism. These issues are aimed to be projected through the Foundation's monthly bulletin, through seminars and workshops, through its web site and through direct interactions with academics, mediapersons and students. The Foundation's primary purpose is to educate young Indians, analysts, researchers, the media, legislators and others about the state of national security in India and promote defence studies in general. A related aim is to promote the understanding of Indian national security concerns to a global audience.

The People
An institution is no more than the sum total of the individuals it is made up of. The Foundation stresses on the development of personal relationships and skill management. Given the shortage of full time quality analysts on terrorism, Pakistan, China, Central Asia, military studies etc.. the Foundation aims to develop skills and the knowledge base of a small corpus of scholars. This apart, associates are also routinely provided background material and encouraged to enhance their knowledge base. A small group of trustees guide the overall functioning and direction of the Foundation. The Foundation's founder and executive director is Indranil Banerjie, while its Patron-in-Chief is General (Retd.) Shankar Roychowdhury, former Chief of Indian Army Staff. Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Shantonu Choudhry, former vice chief of Indian army staff, is Honorary President. The Foundation also has a number of associates who contribute to the SAPRA Bulletin as well as participate in its various activities. These associates are spread all over the country and are experts in various disciplines.

Research
The Foundation's principal task is research. In order to deliver the very best in research reports, the Foundation maintains a large network of area studies experts, political risk analysts, security experts and economic scientists. The idea is to produce the very best quality research for clients. This is not possible if a research organisation today is to rely on in-house analysts alone. The Foundation also has dedicated researchers for its daily activities like news gathering and monitoring. Staff researchers concentrate on software development, database maintenance and day to day research. More details of our research activities could be found here.

Products &Services

The Foundation provides two types of services: free and paid. Free services include lectures on national security & related subjects for academics, students and business executives. Paid services and products include research, report writing and news monitoring.

Book
The first book by the Foundation was "India and Central Asia" (ISBN 0-9547556) edited by Indranil Banerjie published in London by the Brunel Academic Publishers, UK, in June 2004.

Area Studies

Researchers at the Foundation not only focus on national security issues but also on key areas of relevance to Indian national security. Currently, Foundation scholars closely monitor events and trends in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia. The idea is also to keep up with the published literature (including journal articles) on these countries. Scholars are also encouraged to gradually begin establishing contacts with scholars, think tanks etc. from these countries. The other areas of interest are foreign policy, terrorism, military affairs and political risk.

The Central Asia Programme
Central Asia, particularly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, has become the focus of renewed global competition. The competition is not just between Russia, the dominant regional power, and the United States, the world's sole super power, but also amongst a whole host of other nations like China, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan, who believe in their historical connection with this area and who seek to emerge as major players in these countries. Central Asian states also have the world's largest reserves of hydrocarbons after the Gulf. India has had traditional links with this region and seeks new relationships. Central Asia as it evolves in the medium and long terms is an important area of study. Currently, one Foundation scholar focuses on the Central Asian countries. The Foundation has also evolved a loose network of scholars within and outside the country, who collaborate on Central Asian studies. The Foundation has signed MoUs with four research organisations in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.


Projects & Programmes

Area studies apart, the Foundation has been involved in a few initiatives not directly related to its other educational/research activities, these include the Central Asia Programme, the Washington Initiative and media interactions.

The India idea The Coexistence Research Project
The failure to coexist is at the root of most contemporary conflicts both between nations and within them. As the world is becoming more global with mass migration of people and tight integration of economies, the urgency of learning to coexist is rapidly increasing. India is a unique experiment: it is perhaps one of the only nation-state held together not by any common ethnic, linguistic or religious factor but by the notion that heterogeneous people can coexist. Though there have been many failures of coexistence within India, there are many success stories as well. India also has a bewildering variety of people. It is urgently required to document the successes and failures of coexistence amongst these communities. India has to a large extent succeeded in developing a viable model of coexistence. We need to study this model carefully and examine whether it could hold lessons for mankind as a whole. Read details.

The Washington Initiative
The Foundation has been involved in maintaining a dialogue with lawmakers in the United States. The idea is to interact with US legislators and educate them on national security issues, including terrorism, concerning India. This initiative was started in 1994 by Foundation director, Indranil Banerjie. Since then several workshops and seminars have been organised on the subject over the years. This effort has assumed more importance ever since the Bush Administration's declaration of the beginning of a strategic relationship between the United States and India.


Scholarships and Internship Programmes
As part of its efforts to promote the study of India's national security interests as well as evolve a body of scholarship that provides the space for a healthy interaction of divergent views, the Foundation offers Internship Programmes for Visiting Research Scholars studying in foreign universities. It also provides research scholarships for local students on specific projects. For details on how to apply for the Internship Programme please visit our scholarships page.

Software Development
Over the years, in-house developers and software consultants have helped put together a robust, scalable intranet and associated applications written in Perl and Java. The aim has been to automate routine tasks as much as possible, database all information inputs, and make administration transparent yet simple. As a result, several important research and administrative resources have been created.

Electronic Library
This library, partly resident in databases and partly as indexed free text, has grown into a fairly awesome resource with close to half a million articles on national security, terrorism and related issues. This library is searchable and it is our endeavour to make it available to outsiders through dial-up connections.

News Monitoring Automation
Researchers at the Foundation daily sift through through over 50 online newspapers and more than a thousand articles. Articles on relevant subjects are identified, collected and collated. The categories under which articles are stored are politics, military, terrorism, nuclear, narcotics, administration, economy, intelligence, judiciary and internal security. This entire activity is completed during the first half of the day. The task has been made possible by semi-automated applications, involving over 100,000 lines of code and more than a hundred individual applications.


Address
SAPRA India Foundation
B 8 Alpha I
Greater Noida
Uttar Pradesh
PIN 201308 India.
email: sapra@subcontinent.com