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Tuberculosis, the State and International Assistance in twentieth Century India

Tuberculosis, the State and International Assistance in twentieth Century India

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Tuberculosis, the State and International Assistance in twentieth Century India
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<strong>Centre of Social Medicine &amp; Community Health School of Social Sciences</strong> <strong>Dr Niels Brimnes</strong> ( Associate Professor of History and South Asian Studies, Univeristy of Aarhus, Denmark ) Presentation on <strong>Tuberculosis, the State and International Assistance in twentieth Century India</strong> Date :<strong> November 3rd, 2016</strong> <strong>Abstract:</strong> Dr Niels Brimnes, Aarhus University, Denmark has recently published the book "Launguished Hopes. Tuberculosis, the State and International Assistance in twentieth Century India" [Orient Blackswan]. The book is a comprehensive analysis of tuberculosis control in India in the twentieth century. It narrates how the disease was ‘discovered’, how it has been understood, and how national and international agencies have struggled to bring it under control. His focus is on the first two decades after independence, when tuberculosis control received unprecedented attention and underwent fundamental transformations. In this period the world’s largest vaccination campaign was rolled out in India, and new antibiotic drugs were distributed to infected Indians through the ambitious National Tuberculosis Programme. The analysis ends with the early 1990s, when Indian authorities realised that 80 years of control efforts had achieved little, and prepared to revamp the official control programme.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.