Rapporteur, Satu Limaye

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ENHANCING PRIVATE-SECTOR ENGAGEMENT WITH SOUTH ASIA

One of the most hopeful and exciting aspects of future United States relations with South Asia is the increased opportunity for private-sector collaboration. Given the recent progress toward more open markets and democracy, American businesses, nongovernmental organizations, media, universities, and foundations have a wider scope for cooperation with their South Asian counterparts. South Asians express a strong interest in business, cultural, professional, and educational ties with the United States. And within the region there are effective private-sector organizations of all kinds with which U.S. institutions can pursue shared learning and activities.

Vigorous private-sector collaboration between the United States and South Asia will expand the constituencies with a stake in U.S.—South Asia relations and may in the long term help governments to deal with policy differences. Increased private-sector ties may also serve to strengthen South Asia's move toward greater democracy.

In order to take advantage of these opportunities, U.S. private-sector organizations need to enhance their knowledge of South Asia and their capabilities to interact with the region. Over the past 25 <%2>years attention to South Asia has declined across a wide range of U.S. enterprises and institutions, from businesses to newspapers and journals, from universities to foundations and think tanks. The reasons for this decline are complex, but the net effect has been to make<%0> South Asia a relative stranger to a wide range of American groups that in principle favor and could benefit from a deeper engagement with the region. Moreover, many of these organizations at one time had significant links with South Asia, and these could be revived.

Another hopeful factor is the growth of the community of South Asian Americans, now numbering more than one million. South Asian Americans are influential in a variety of professional fields as a result of their high levels of education. The South Asian community already figures prominently in business and other professional linkages with South Asia, has begun to be politically active, and will likely play a significant role in the U.S. policy process.

RECOMMENDATIONS

To heighten the U.S. private sector's engagement with South Asia, we recommend that several initiatives by various U.S. organizations be undertaken.

• American nongovernmental organizations concerned with issues ranging from family planning to AIDS to environmental protection should seek ties with their South Asian counterparts. For these organizations, collaboration would extend their international reach and bring fresh perspectives to issues of common concern.
• U.S. think tanks concerned with international relations and foreign policy should increase their capacity to analyze South Asian affairs and develop joint studies and dialogue with South Asian institutes. At present very few American think tanks have experts who focus regularly on South Asia. Although high-quality organizations exist in South Asian countries, their links with American institutions are much thinner than those of, say, Southeast Asian think tanks. U.S. and South Asian foundations, corporations, and individuals should provide financial and other support for these initiatives.
• South Asian Americans should engage themselves fully in the emerging agenda of U.S.—South Asia relations, and especially in activities directed at problems common to the region. <%2>Many South Asian Americans are already individually active,<%0> but there is a need for concerted efforts to help attract wider U.S. public attention to the region.
• U.S. business and professional associations should initiate or increase their links to and activities with counterpart associations in South Asia. The recent formation of the India Interest Group by a number of leading U.S. companies is an example. Organizations in law, medicine, engineering, social work, and other fields should develop professional exchanges and cooperation in South Asia.
• U.S. national science organizations such as the National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science should focus more on South Asian contributions to science and draw on the large number of South Asian Americans in scientific and technical fields for this effort. Science and technology are areas of particular opportunity in U.S.—South Asia relations. South Asia has the world's third largest pool of scientific and technical human resources. Joint development of scientific and technological solutions to South Asian problems ranging from energy to public health to natural disasters will benefit both South Asians and Americans.
• Universities and colleges should start or expand programs on South Asian history, culture, languages, politics, religion, and economics while emphasizing the region's importance in the context of emerging global issues. There is a rising demand from young South Asian Americans and other students for such programs, which many universities cannot meet. A wider exchange of professors, students, and scholarly materials with South Asia should also be pursued. South Asian governments should allow better access to U.S. scholars who wish to do fieldwork in the region. American and South Asian individuals, businesses, and foundations should endow professorships and create scholarship programs to facilitate the expansion of South Asian studies in the United States.
• Broad public awareness of South Asia in the United States has often focused on exotic stereotypes, poverty, and natural disasters. To bring about greater public understanding of South Asia's complex realities and America's stake in the future of the region, public education institutions such as museums, libraries, and world affairs councils around the United States should give greater attention to South Asia in their programs. People-to-people organizations such as Youth for Understanding, AFS Intercultural, World Learning, and many others should begin or strengthen exchanges with South Asian countries.
• American foundations focusing on a variety of issues should give a higher priority to South Asia in their grant making. South Asia's open societies, diversity, and nongovernmental organizations provide opportunities to address problems of global as well as local significance. The involvement of U.S. foundations will also help generate South Asian philanthropy.
• South Asian societies and the United States have in common a free and vigorous press. But the media on each side have often failed to present full and accurate pictures of the other. American press coverage has often reinforced negative stereotypes of the region. And there is little professional communication between American and South Asian journalists. American media organizations should devote greater resources to covering South Asia, and journalism schools and associations should develop professional exchanges with South Asian counterparts. New forms of communication such as global television capabilities and the Internet, South Asian American community media covering South Asia in the United States, and some newly expanded Indian media are already providing better and more reliable sources of information, but the "mainstream" U.S. media need to be more involved with the region.

U.S. private-sector engagement with South Asia will benefit Americans in a number of tangible ways while enabling them to express their values and humanitarian concern in a region critical to American and global well-being. We urge American leaders and organizations to see South Asia as presenting a prime opportunity to redefine and pursue American interests in the post—cold war era.