The importance of India to Fortune 500 companies will only increase in the coming years—the country boasts a young and well-educated population, anticipated GDP growth north of 6% every year for the next decade, and structural reforms that will boost the business climate in the world’s largest democracy.
Now, venture capitalist and philanthropist Asha Jadeja is investing in a similar academic infrastructure between the U.S. and India. (She and her late husband Rajeev Motwani of Stanford were founding stakeholders in Google.) I spoke to Jadeja this past weekend at a dinner marking the establishment of the Motwani Jadeja Institute for American Studies at OP Jindal Global University. She has also funded programs at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, U.C. San Diego, the Hudson Institute, the Center for a New American Security and, soon, Columbia University.
“When policymakers want information in making decisions, they pick up the phone and call Georgetown or Stanford. Similarly, if someone in Delhi wants to know how to deal with America on mineral rights or human rights, they need someone to call who has a serious understanding of those issues and access to data,” she told Fortune.
