By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: O.P. Jindal Global University, a non-profit global university established in 2009 by the Government of Haryana located at Sonipat and run by the Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) Group with ‘Institution of Eminence’ status, has become India’s only private university to be conferred with the prestigious Jean Monnet Chair honour by European Union.
The other University chosen for this honour is Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, popularly known as the JNU. The OP Jindal University received the coveted Jean Monnet Chair for ‘Multi-dimensional Approaches to the Understanding of the EU Data Protection Framework.’ The JGU also secured the largest grant amount awarded by the European Union for the Jean Monnet Chair in India. Jean Monnet Chairs are named after Jean Monnet (1888-1979), a French politician and diplomat, who had dedicated himself towards the integration of the European Union. He played a pivotal role behind the historic ‘Schuman Declaration’ of 9 May 1950, leading to the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which went on to ideate the integration of the European Union.
Professor (Dr.) C Raj Kumar, Founding Vice-Chancellor of OP Jindal Global University, said, “This is indeed a proud and historic moment for the JGU to have received the much-coveted and prestigious award – a truly remarkable achievement. The award of the Jean Monnet Chair for the JGU reflects the outstanding contribution of the faculty members of JGU in teaching, research and institution building.
The Jean Monnet Chair was received by Professor (Dr.) Indranath Gupta (Jean Monnet Chair – Academic Coordinator), Professor, Jindal Global Law School and Dean of Research (Projects, Grants and Publications), along with Prof. Avirup Bose, Associate Professor, Jindal Global Law School; Prof. Chitresh Kumar, Associate Professor, Jindal Global Business School and Prof. Krishna Deo Singh Chauhan, Assistant Professor, Jindal Global Law School.
Professor Gupta, as the Chairholder said, “The award of the Chair is a testament to the institutional leadership of JGU in supporting research and scholarship. JGU has been at the forefront of teaching and research in a range of disciplinary areas, including European Studies
The Jean Monnet Chair will contribute towards strengthening, deliberating, and implementing E.U. studies, and in particular E.U. Data Protection Framework, by creating a specialized project with the overall objective of institutionalizing it within the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary academic framework of OP Jindal Global University (JGU). The vision of the project titled “Multi-dimensional approaches to the understanding of the E.U. Data Protection Framework” will create an extensive and rigorous academic resource pool in the given area and will facilitate capacity-building exercises for different stakeholders. The wider implications of the courses and research conceived under this project will not be limited to a particular discipline but will add value to the understanding of a wider audience connected to different disciplines.
The Chair will undertake the dissemination of specialized new courses like: Understanding the E.U. structure of Informational Privacy, Building a global consensus through EU GDPR: An assessment of data privacy legislation in Asia (India, China, Philippines, and Thailand); The Demands of Business: Data Needs v/s Data Privacy; Privacy, and New Technologies – The E.U. Paradigm and; Data, Platforms and the Digital Economy: An E.U. Competition Law Perspective. Further, an edited volume and proceedings of events will be published following the open-access model.The Chair will also organize three Dissemination events – Conference, Roundtable and Workshop on the following topics: (a) Protecting personal information on different platforms: Challenges and way forward, (b) Testing Durability and Flexibility features of E.U. Data Protection Framework, and (c) Deciphering E.U. Data Protection Framework.
