India is geopolitically and geo-economically engaged in Asia and the Indian Ocean Region in ever-greater degrees. Alongside, Western India and Ahmedabad serve as a bridge between West Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean Region. Moreover, Ahmedabad has for centuries been an overland and maritime gateway to the world. It is a perfect pivot.

It is important for us to understand, thematically, how certain issues cut across Asian boundaries in terms of how they play out socially, politically, and economically. Recent global political shifts and trade disputes have made it amply clear that we must build a better understanding of how India and the region must navigate our future.

Equally, there is a need for practical and proactive policy dialogue and advocacy to secure conflict resolution, regional equity and, in turn, shared peace and prosperity.

Several years ago, Ahmedabad University established the Centre for Inter-Asian Research (CIAR) to bring together scholars and practitioners to work towards an inter-Asian century, through re-imagining political and economic structures, and experimenting with diverse artistic forms.

The Stepwell Centre for Asian Futures at Ahmedabad University now takes ahead this foundation for Asia-wide re-imagining and research initiated by CIAR, by evolving to the next active level. Indeed, while we remain a vehicle for rigorous research and engaging dialogue, we will add more crucial elements and resolute advocacy to further elevate this collective purpose.

In so doing, we shall partner with key practitioners and organisations, from academia to policymaking and the private sector, in India, Asia, and globally.

As with our earlier avatar, the mandate of Stepwell Centre for Asian Futures is to generate fresh and relevant frameworks for analysis and practice. We will promote interdisciplinary research and teaching across all the Schools at Ahmedabad University even as we engage with partners across India, Asia and elsewhere in the world.

As its initial remit, Stepwell Centre for Asian Futures will engage with the areas of regional trade, transshipment, and connectivity; technology; energy and rare earth minerals; the ‘blue economy,’ and maritime connectivity; water resources; and mitigating the effects of climate change and migration.

We are guided by Ahmedabad University’s vision of progressive thought and its outcome-driven approach. The Stepwell Centre for Asian Futures is ideally placed to be a leading thought-platform and contributor in these crucial spaces.

We will draw on the best available talent in academia, policymaking, and practice across India, Asia and globally.

Within Ahmedabad University, Stepwell Centre for Asian Futures will partner with several of our highly regarded Schools and practices: Amrut Mody School of Management​​​​​​, School of Arts and Sciences​​​​​​, School of Engineering and Applied Science​​​​​​, and The Climate Institute to boost interdisciplinarity in research, and in turn enrich the activities of the Centre, and enhance student and faculty participation. Stepwell Centre for Asian Futures will design and offer various courses in regional relations, and regional futures and outcomes.

Equally, we are engaging with several partners of Ahmedabad University, among them the University of California San Diego’s International Relations practice, and UC San Diego’s 21st Century India Center; the Centre for Security Research, and Centre of South Asian Studies at the School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh; the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Centre of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and the Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University; the Department of Diplomacy and International Studies at University of Nairobi; and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia.

Alongside, we are in the process of reaching out to prospective partner universities and institutions across India, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean Region, and the Asia-Pacific region.

Our work will find expression in topical research papers; high-profile events and seminars; commentary in media; the Centre’s own Asian Futures Policy Podcast; and monographs, anthologies, and books (published by Ahmedabad University Press) with contributions by researchers and practitioners at the Stepwell Centre for Asian Futures, Ahmedabad University, our partner institutions, and individuals and institutions we invite to participate in our aims and endeavours. We aim to publish a fortnightly newsletter shared with subscribers and media, and disseminated globally to universities, think-tanks, chambers of commerce, and policymakers. Over time, we plan to annually publish a Stepwell Centre for Asian Futures journal.

We aim to promote outcome-driven policy research and advocacy in our chosen areas of local and regional concerns, thus providing necessary policy thought platforms and policy toolkits. These will be interdisciplinary by design, and will foreground fresh ways of viewing the region, leveraging its myriad opportunities, and offering solution-based approaches to the most pressing transboundary issues.

The cornerstone of this research and practice is to establish evolving and flexible platforms to link scholars, practitioners, and stakeholders across Asia, and globally.

Please write to: asian.futures@ahduni.edu.in