Gautam Adhikari

Gautam Adhikari, former journalist and author, has joined the Washington, D.C.-based conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI), as a visiting fellow. The first Indian ever to be made visiting fellow, his appointment is part of AEI’s effort to expand the dialogue between India and the United States, according to the influential think tank.

Adhikari, 53, who launched a ‘Discussion Series on U.S. India Relations’ Oct. 20, at AEI, used to be executive editor of The Times of India and most recently was senior resident fellow with the National Endowment for Democracy.

At the launch of the discussion series, Adhikari chaired a panel that included former U.S. Ambassador to India Frank Wisner, now chairman of American International Group, and Montek S. Ahluwalia, former finance secretary of India and currently with the World Bank, as well as Daniel Pletka, AEI president. Speakers emphasized the need to build an autonomous relationship with India and strengthen economic ties and the reform process with India.

“This was the inaugural meeting to help the program take off,” Adhikari told News India-Times. “We wanted to involve some members of the Indian-American community as well. Other programs have tended to be academic, but ours is not about researching things as they were, but to take it forward on a dialogue on a parallel track to what is happening between the governments.”

According to AEI, the past “difficult” relationship between India and the U.S. is “poised for change. If real progress is to be made in building an alliance, then dialogue must expand to encompass our common commitment to democratic and free-market principles,” and the AEI discussion series is expected to spur that dialogue along. “Strategic and economic cooperation can benefit both nations. New frontiers must include expanded military-to-military cooperation in the region and in the global war on terrorism. At the same time, a shared economic stake in the bilateral relationship can help transcend problems of past years and enhance both Washington’s and New Delhi’s willingness and interest to resolve differences,” AEI contends.

Adhikari joins two others of South Asian origin currently at AEI: Jagadeesh Gokhale, a visiting scholar from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland; and Sarath Rajapatirana, also a visiting scholar, who is an economic adviser to the World Bank.

The AEI’s Board of Trustees is a veritable Who’s Who of blue-chip American corporate heads from companies like Motorola, Exxon Mobil, Merck, American Express Co., Alliance Capital Management, and Dow Chemical. Other Fellows at AEI currently include Newt Gingrich, former Republican party leader and Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995-1999; Jeane Kirkpatrick, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and member of President Ronald Reagan’s cabinet; and James Lilley, U.S. ambassador to China from 1989-1991. But AEI also has fellows who are not Republican.

Founded in 1942, AEI is financed by tax-deductible contributions from corporations, foundations and individuals, and has some 50 resident scholars and fellows and more than 100 adjunct scholars at universities and policy institutes.

According to information provided by AEI, the organization’s revenues (excluding investment income) totaled $23.6 million, and expenses, $16.5 million in 2001. Some 35 percent of the Institute’s support came from foundation sources, while another 35 percent came from individual donors.

Adhikari was born in Kolkata, came to the U.S. in 1987 on sabbatical from The Times of India. He was a resident fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He was a JB and Maurice C. Shapiro Fellow in George Washington University’s School for Media and Public Affairs in 1997, before joining the National Endowment for Democracy.

His books include ‘India: The First Fifty Years’ (1997); ‘Press Councils: The Indian Experience’ (1971).