The Department of Political Science, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi, feels privileged and honoured to convey that it organised an International Seminar on the topic of Federalism and Governance in a Globalising World: Issues and Challenges on 4th and 5th February, 2015 at India International Centre, New Delhi. The seminar attracted an overwhelming response from the scholars and practitioners of the germane area. In particular, more than 35 academicians, practitioners and policy-makers from all over the country and abroad participated and presented research papers in the two days intense deliberations. Besides, more than 250 faculty members and students also attended and benefitted from this academic engagement.

As it is well known, the notion of federalism is undergoing fundamental transformations as the global interdependence is intensifying. The phenomenon of Globalisation has erected a context in which both the assets and liabilities have become complexly interdependent and global. From ‘Global’ to ‘Local’ a multifarious web has emerged giving rise to, what is often called, ‘Glocal’. The seminar attempted to map some of these fundamental transformations related to federalism and governance. Such a mapping is imperative to make sense of many enigmas of our time. New contestations have surfaced between the Centre-State relations in India in recent past. Terrorism has acquired a global dimension throwing up new issues and challenges. For instance terrorist threats are getting more severe and multifaceted in the era of globalisation. A proposed federal anti-terror agency in India, viz. the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC), modelled on the National Counter Terrorism Centre of the United States, however, has brought in new complexities in this terrain. Similarly disputations between various political parties were noticed on the issue of tax reforms like GST and DTC. Such issue areas of immense contemporary relevance were explored in the seminar.

The ‘inaugural session’ of the seminar was followed by the key note address by Prof. Lawrence Saez of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), UK. The seminar was structured under the rubrics of four technical sessions. The first technical session - chaired by Prof. Ujjwal Kumar Singh (Head of the Department, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi) -attempted to explore the theme of ‘Internal Security and Ethno-Linguistic Dynamics of Indian federalism’. Second technical session, chaired by Prof. M. P. Singh, was on the theme of ‘Constitutional and Political Dynamics of Federalism’. In this special session various eminent figures working in the area of federalism participated. The third technical session, chaired by Prof. Rumki Basu, engaged with the theme of ‘Redefining Policy and Governance in a Globalising World’. Fourth session on the theme of ‘Green Federalism and Disaster Management’ was chaired by Prof. Chintamani Mahapatra.

The four technical sessions were followed by a unique panel discussion on the theme of ‘Positions of Political Parties on Federalism and Democracy’ in which several representatives of both national and regional political parties participated. Some esteemed panellists in this discussion included Mr. Manish Tewari, Mr. Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, Mr. Jayant Choudhary and Prof. Manoj Jha. This session was chaired by Prof. Rekha Saxena.

Thus a seminal component of some of our contemporary challenges and predicaments were explored under the above outlined themes. Epistemic engagements, defined by nuanced perspectives, opened up many productive lines of inquiry about the pertinent issues. Various research papers enriched the academic engagements on the issues by drawing upon interdisciplinary frameworks.

The seminar was sponsored by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR). Dr. P. K. Khurana, Principal, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, was chief patron of the seminar. Dr. Pravin Kumar Jha, as seminar convenor, and Dr. Sangeeta, as co-ordinator, took immense efforts to make the programme a grand success.