About ICAF
The importance of Central Asia to India is multi-spectral: civilisational, historical, geopolitical and economic. And, the area invites fresh and focused studies to advance common interests and concerns. It is emerging as an area rich in strategic, economic and trade terms. Its historical and cultural linkages with India would, of course, continue to be of abiding interest. But awareness of and sensitivity to contemporary events in Central Asia are of higher importance in promoting common interests.
These countries, uniformly, display unique warmth towards India and a desire for a significant increase in bilateral interactions. In their perception, India is a welcome and benign neighbour. These countries also have a desire to learn from India’s developmental experience in pluralist politics and post-1991 economics.
India’s interests in Central Asia deserve to be effectively advanced by diversifying from cooperation in education and culture to high technology interactions and enhanced business transactions.
And, there is a firm need to provide professional and timely research advisories for Indian and Central Asian entrepreneurs on the new pathways and markets in Central Asia, Eurasia and the world at large. Against this background, there is clear and present need for creation of a non-governmental entity to fill this gap.
It is against this backdrop that The India Central Asia Foundation has been set up in Delhi as a Track-II non-profit enterprise whose objectives would include the following:
- To establish and promote bilateral interactions in social, economic, cultural, political, strategic and related areas to mutual benefit.
- To facilitate and promote exchange of scholars and other professionals
- To build and foster appropriate linkages with institutions in Central Asia
- To create a contemporary data base of relevance to scholars and business persons
- To create and maintain a data base of various publications in Central Asian countries and provide document translations as part of information dissemination services.
- To sponsor research, publications, etc., for activities of the Foundation.