Two Indians among Yale World Fellows

Ayush Chauhan

Ruchi Yadav

Two Indians are among this year's Yale University 2012 World Fellows. Ayush Chauhan and Ruchi Yadav are two of the 16 honorees considered "global emerging leaders," the university announced in a Sept. 6 press release. Jasmeet Kaur Ahuja, a scholar at Yale, has been named an associate fellow.

Chauhan is co-founder and managing director of Quicksand, a multidisciplinary design and innovation consultancy working at the intersection of business, development, and culture. He is also a partner at the Box Collective, where he conceptualized and launched UnBox, the first interdisciplinary festival in Delhi that brings together leading voices from across the world for inspiration, debate and reflection, the release said. Yadav is a senior program officer with The Hunger Project, an initiative to empower elected women representatives at the grassroots level as key change agents across seven states in India. She has a background in advertising, human rights and the women's movement in India. Ahuja is at Yale Law School.

She spent six years working in Washington, D.C., on U.S. policy toward South Asia. As the senior adviser for South Asia on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, she helped draft foreign policy legislation on Pakistan, negotiate the civilian nuclear deal with India and lobby for the right of Sikh-Americans to wear turbans while serving in the U.S.armed forces.

The fellows will learn from Yale experts and join in dialogue with members of the campus community, the university said. During the semester, the fellows are scheduled to discuss important global issues as part of the "Hot Coffee, Hot Issues" series, which will take place at least once a month until December.

[ BY VRN ]