On September 13, 2010 the Columbia Global Center | South Asia, a newly launched Columbia Global Center, officially inaugurated offices in Mumbai. Dr. Nirupam Bajpai, the Center’s Director and a Senior Development Advisor at the Earth Institute, was joined by Mrs. Rajashree Birla, Chairperson of the Aditya Birla Foundation, Paul Folmsbee, US Consul General in Mumbai, prominent Aditya Birla group officials, Columbia University alumni, and the Model Districts health team. Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of Columbia’s Earth Institute, joined via web camera from New York. The inauguration included a ribbon cutting, a traditional Indian Puja ceremony, and welcoming remarks from Dr. Bajpai, Mrs. Birla, Mr. Folmsbee, and Dr. Sachs.
Columbia University announced the launch of its latest Columbia Global Center in South Asia in March 2010. The Center will provide a base for schools and departments of the university that are keen to expand current academic programs or inaugurate new ones in South Asia, a region with which the university has a deep history of scholarship and engagement in research and policy.
New collaborations at the Center include the Model Districts project of the Earth Institute, a partnership with the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare focused on improving rural healthcare delivery, and Studio-X Mumbai, an initiative of Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. Studio-X Mumbai occupies a loft space in a heritage building near Victoria Terminal and joins an existing network of Columbia architecture labs in Beijing, Amman, Rio de Janeiro and Moscow.
You can view a slideshow from the event by clicking here.
[…] The Model Districts project team is housed at the Columbia Global Center | South Asia in Mumbai (inaugurated in September 2010), the Earth Institute in NYC, and will soon have team members at the district […]