July 28, 2010
Link to Fudan University website 

After heated discussions on academic exchanges and cooperation, Fudan Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences (IAS-Fudan) and Observer Research Foundation (ORF) reached an agreement on July 28, 2010, to undertake a two-year joint research project on rural political economies and governance practices in both China and India. Professor Deng Zhenglai, Dean of IAS-Fudan, and Sunjoy Joshi, Head of ORF, signed the agreement at Holiday Inn Shanghai Vista in Shanghai. Professor Guo Sujian, Associate Dean of IAS-Fudan, Dr. Lin Xi, Research Fellow in IAS-Fudan, and Samir Saran, Vice President of ORF as well as other delegation members attended the signing ceremony.

The project named “Innovation and Entrepreneurship in China and India in relation with Grassroots Democracy and Governance” is the first project to be conducted between the two institutions. It attempts to understand how local governance practices in both China and India have helped or hindered innovation and economic development at the grassroots level. It will examine case studies of rural political economies in both the countries and their influence on innovation and local entrepreneurship in India and China, which have different political and governance structures. A case study approach will be used to illustrate how both India and China, two countries with world’s two largest populations, rapidly growing economies and increasing global ambitions, have witnessed challenges of internal development and local governance on one hand and experienced successful instances of micro enterprises, entrepreneurship and innovation on the other within the same landscape.

The two sides also made discussions on potential academic cooperation in other fields and both expressed their hopes to have brighter prospects in future cooperation.

More news reports on this cooperation:
http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/172030
http://www.newdelhinews.net/story/666782
http://www.daylife.com/article/0gfx6DbgfB3Uq
http://www.anhourago.in/show.aspx?l=5318549&d=502
http://www.newkerala.com/news2/fullnews-11554.html
http://news.oneindia.in/orffudan-university-to-study-rural-economies-andgovernanc.html