On 14th January, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and King's College London announced that Dr S Y Quraishi, India's former Chief Election Commissioner would become the 2015 Visiting Fellow at the prestigious India Institute at London’s King’s College.
He will help to promote and develop a relationship that will be of enormous benefit to staff, students and researchers within the college and engage with policy-makers, media representatives and the business community in the United Kingdom and Europe.
This is the third year of this unique Fellowship. Fellows are persons of eminence in the fields of business, public policy, government, media and the likes. Each Fellow delivers lectures, conducts panel discussions, guides and mentors students, interacts with policy and business networks in the UK, and works on a policy research paper.
Dr. S Y Quraishi served as the Chief Election Commissioner of India for 6 years between 2006 and 2012 and presided over some of the largest elections ever in history. Dr. Quraishi introduced a number of innovative electoral reforms in his role as Chief Election Commissioner, including innovations to control so called money power in elections, which brought about a participation revolution among voters. He also founded the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management to professionalize election management and share it with the emerging democracies of the world.
Dr Joanna Newman, Vice Principal (International) at King's made the announcement at the inaugural India Skills and Education Innovation Conference 2015, being hosted at King's College London, immediately after a high-level Joint Working Group of Indian and UK Education and Skills providers met as part of formal UK-India Joint Economic Trade Committee (JETCO) to discuss the furthering of trade ties between the two countries.
Dr. Newman, said: "King’s is very proud of our relationship with FICCI. FICCI is one of India's leading industry bodies and has long served as the torchbearer for India's private sector. FICCI has made noteworthy contributions to shaping policy and I congratulate them on their continued support of internationalising higher education in India.
Dr Quraishi is highly respected for his important contributions to electoral reform and has also overseen the implementation of critical social sector reforms in India. I congratulate Dr Quraishi on his nomination and acceptance of this exciting opportunity and look forward to greater success in the King’s-FICCI relationship in the years to come”, Dr Newman added further.
Dr. A. Didar Singh, Secretary-General, FICCI said: "FICCI has a long tradition of supporting advancement of knowledge in the wider community, and this association is a further step in that direction. We are delighted Dr. Quraishi has taken up the Fellowship as it continues our proud tradition of thought-leadership in policy-making in this scheme, which started with Ambassador Shyam Saran and former Chairman of Shell in India Vikram Mehta in last years."
