
About Asian Century Foundation
The term ‘Asian Century’ refers to the fast emerging economic and demographic influence of countries in this region on world affairs. As the global center of gravity shifts towards Asia, the Asian Century Foundation’s aim is to help deliver the promise of this century by increasing mutual understanding amongst countries to leverage each other’s knowledge and experience in socioeconomic development. We aspire to achieve this by creating avenues for collaboration and knowledge sharing among scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.
Our work is divided into two streams, Education and Knowledge & Policy.
Asian Century Foundation is funded by Indian philanthropy, and directs all its work towards socioeconomic developmental areas of priority to India and the Global South.
Our Team
Founder

Ashish Dhawan
Founder
Ashish Dhawan is an Indian private equity investor and philanthropist who founded one of India's leading private equity funds, Chrys Capital. He left his position at Chrys Capital in 2012 to found Central Square Foundation (CSF), a non-profit foundation working towards quality K12 education for all children in India. In 2014, he founded India's first liberal arts university, Ashoka University, and is the Chairman of the University’s Board. Ashish has also launched the Indian School of Development Management, an institution focused on creating development managers for the social sector. Ashish graduated from Yale University and received his MBA from Harvard Business School. Ashish is currently the Chair of Harvard’s India Research Center, is on the Global Advisory Board for Harvard Business School, and is a Sterling Fellow at Yale University.
Advisory Board

Shivshankar Menon
Advisor
Shivshankar Menon is an Indian diplomat who served as the National Security Adviser of India under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He has previously served as the Foreign Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. Between 2000 and 2003 he was the Ambassador of India to China, prior to which he was the High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka.

Vijay Keshav Gokhale
Advisor
Vijay Keshav Gokhale is an Indian diplomat and former Foreign Secretary of India. He served as India’s Ambassador to China (2016-2017), High Commissioner to Malaysia (2010-2013) , and also Director (China and East Asia) and Joint Secretary (East Asia) in the Ministry of External Affairs.

Raj Jain
Advisor

Rajat M. Nag
Advisor

Suhasini Haidar
Advisor
Suhasini Haidar is the Diplomatic Editor of The Hindu, one of India’s oldest and most respected national dailies, regularly writing on foreign policy issues. Previously, she was the Foreign Affairs editor and prime time anchor for India’s leading 24-hour English news channel CNN-IBN where she presented the signature show “WorldView with Suhasini Haidar.” She has won a series of awards for her work in television as well as the Prem Bhatia, India’s most prestigious print journalism award.

Jabin Thomas Jacob
Advisor - Education Initiatives
Jabin T. Jacob is an Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations and Governance Studies, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shiv Nadar University. He is also Adjunct Research Fellow at the National Maritime Foundation and Associate Editor of the academic journal China Report. He was formerly Fellow and Assistant Director at the Institute of Chinese Studies. Jacob holds a PhD in Chinese Studies from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

K. R. Subramanian
Operating Partner, The Convergence Foundation
Team

Anumita Raj
Associate Director

Mahak Chhajer
Associate Director

Sajal Sehgal
Team Lead

Smridhi Khanna
Team Lead

Tanya Rohatgi
Program Manager

Ahaan Ghosh
Program Associate

Akshat Khare
Program Associate

Bhavana S Resmi
Program Associate

Samir Pius George
Program Associate