Thaindian News

By Arun Kumar
Washington, May 1 (IANS) Subhashini Chandran, a business and social entrepreneur who owns and manages the largest privately owned tea plantation business in India, has been named of one the 15 Yale World Fellows for 2010.

Chandran, the CEO of the Woodbriar Group and the Managing Director of the Tea Estates India Ltd, has diversified interests in insurance services and real estate.

The New Haven, Connecticut based Yale University President Richard C. Levin Monday announced the Fellows for 2010 for what is considered the university’s signature global leadership development initiative and a core element of Yale’s ongoing commitment to internationalisation.

Expressing his admiration for the 2010 Fellows’ achievements, Levin said: “Over the last nine years, the World Fellows Programme has significantly broadened the Yale community’s perspective on international affairs and helped develop the next generation of global leaders.”

Previous Yale World Fellows from India have included: Nachiket Mor, President, ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth (2004); Unmesh Brahme, Senior Vice President, Corporate Sustainability, HSBC India (2009); Chetna Gala-Sinha , Chair, Mann Deshi Mahila Group (2002); Amit Wanchoo, Managing Director, Eaton Laboratories (2007); Celine D’Cruz, Associate Director, Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres (2003); and Paromita Goswami, Founder, Elgar Pratishthan, and Founder, Shramik Elgar (2005).

This year’s World Fellows include a senior advisor to the largest progressive Islamic organization in Indonesia; a leading advocate for drug policy reform in Mexico; a Tunisian pro-democracy proponent who is one of his country’s most successful business entrepreneurs; and a Sudanese diplomat who leads the developing world’s negotiations on climate change.

Selected from a pool of nearly 1,500 applicants, this year’s cohort brings the total number of Yale World Fellows since the four-month leadership programme’s inception in 2002 to 155 Fellows, representing 72 countries.

From August to December, the 2010 World Fellows will enrol in a specially designed seminar taught by leading Yale faculty; audit any of the 3,000 courses offered at the University; receive individualised skill-building training; and meet with U.S. and foreign leaders.

The Yale World Fellows Programme has at its core three main goals: to provide advanced training to emerging leaders from diverse disciplines and countries, to link this network of world leaders to each other and to Yale, and to expand international understanding among the Yale community.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)