Jawaharlal Nehru University
School of International Studies
Centre for Studies in Diplomacy, International
Law and Economics
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1)The M.A.Programme
The International
Trade and Development Division at the
School
of International Studies ,Jawaharlal
Nehru University, initiated a new M.A. programme in Economics to
add to its existing M. Phil./Ph.D. programmes, in 1995. What separates
this programme from the conventional M.A. programmes in economics is that
it has been designed keeping in mind the changes that have taken place
in the Indian Economy and its growing integration with the World Economy.
Apart from preparing
the students for advanced research work, the programme also keeps in mind
the special requirements of the corporate world. This is reflected in the
courses taught as well as the mode of evaluation. Every non-technical paper
is evaluated on the basis of presentations or group discussions in addition
to the written examinations. Besides this, every student has to participate
in the weekly departmental student seminars and debates on issues of current
economic interest.
Of special interest
to the corporate sector should be the fact that the students of the International
Trade and Development Division are acquainted
with cost-benefit analysis, project-appraisal, investment and financing
decisions of the firms and corporate restructuring. In addition, emphasis
is laid on the use of various econometric techniques, including forecasting.
Another important feature of the programme is the provision for Summer
Internship of the students with the corporate sector as well as with economic
research institutes.
What sets this programme
apart from an M.B.A. course is the fact that courses like Corporate Finance
or Investment Finance are not taught in isolation, but rightly as a continuation/extension
of a much broader subject. Similarly, the training in forecasting and quantitative
techniques (or more properly Econometrics) imparted to our students
is far more rigorous than any programme in India. Thus the potential of
the combination of these two sets of courses are far too obvious to be
stated here. In addition, students are trained in the relevant software
programmes needed for quantitative applications.
For the interested student of Economics
Dear Student
This year, the new Masters
Programme in Economics initiated by ITD
at the School of International
Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, had a graduating batch of 20 students
who have been selected through a rigorous all-India entrance examination
in the year 1998. This should give you an idea about the exclusiveness
of the programme. I believe that you will find a syllabus prepared to enable
you to either carry out research in this field or cope with the challenges
being faced by the corporate sector in the backdrop of a rapidly changing
economy that is getting increasingly integrated with global trends.
The new Masters
programme differs from other conventional Masters programmes in Economics
in emphasizing – along with conventional tools of Economic analysis – global
issues such as trade, technology, environment, natural resources, currency
and finance, as well as the recent developments in the real and financial
sectors in the Indian economy. Thus, by the time you have completed this
programme, you should find yourself well conversant in issues such as the
implications of the East Asian crisis for India, the progress of privatisation
in India, the response of Indian corporates to financial deregulation,
whether India should attempt to join the ASEAN and so on. Besides a thorough
understanding of the theoretical concepts, you will be given an oppurtunity
to develop your communication skills through the conductance of group
discussions, presentations, seminars and debates on current economic issues.
This is our fourth
batch of graduating students. Of the first two batches of students, all
those who applied for higher studies abroad got offers for admission and
financial aid from top U.S. universities like Yale, Michigan State, Ohio
State, Iowa, SUNY at Albany, Rutgers etc. Others received job offers
from private sector organizations such as ICRA, Telco and the CII. Some
got into M.B.A. and M.Phil/Ph.D. programmes of reputed institutes in India.
I hope this has
given you a preliminary idea about our programme.
How do you get in?
That's easy to answer! You have to sit for an admissions test sometime in the month of May. Advertisements issued by the Jawaharlal Nehru University are published by all leading English Language newspapers in the month of March. All you have to do is apply for an admission form after paying the requisite fee. If your application is in order, i.e. if you have 50% or above in your B.A. or B.Sc., and if your draft does not bounce, you will be given an admit card and a letter inviting you to write the JNU entrance examination to the Centre of your choice. If you do sufficiently well, you are in.
But isn't the admission test very mathematical?
Let me confess that we do expect a degree of familiarity with mathematics, especially calculus, matrix algebra and some statistics. But that is about all. If you are familiar with A.C. Chiang's `Fundamental Methods in Mathematical Economics' you should have no problems. What we look for is not your knowledge of mathematics but your knowledge and command of economic theory and your ability to answer questions based on the same. To the extent mathematics can be used to answer such questions the test may be described mathematical. But if you can answer the same questions without using mathematics, you would not be at a disadvantage vis-a-vis others whose training in maths may be better than yours. In fact if you ahve gone through a standard microeconomics text book like Hal Varian's `Intermediate Microeconomics' and standard macroeconomics textbook like Rudiger Dornbusch and Stanley Fischer's `Macroeconomics', the test should not overawe you. All you are expected to do is to use your knowledge of economics to answer the problems that may be posed to you. Obviously, the problems will not be simple ones. But they will almost never require hard math. They will only require you to think! In fact why don't you have a look at the question papers and get an idea of what the test is all about? And if you have any suggestions, observations or opinions to express, feel free to e-mail to us at dsg68@jnuniv.ernet.in or write to any faculty member. Just append the following to the name of any member of the faculty.
International Trade
and Development Division
Centre for Studies
in Diplomacy in International Law and Economics
School of International
Studies
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi 110067
2)The M.Phil-Ph.D Programme
The M.Phil-Ph.D programme
of the International Trade &
Development Division is designed keeping
in mind the requirements of those students, who have chosen to pursue research
in economics after completing their M.A. While the focus of research in
this division is mainly in the fields of international
economics and development
economics, these are by no means the
only areas in which research is carried out or supervised. For some time
now, members of the faculty have been writing and supervising research
in the areas of exhaustible Resources
and
environmental
Economics. Research in Financial
Economics in ITD
got a massive boost, when the State Bank
of India endowed the State
Bank Chair of Finance to the division.
Tied to this chair is a project `Forecasting
Financial Variables for India.' Professor
Sudipto
Dasgupta, formerly of the University
of Science and Technology, Hong Kong was appointed
State
Bank Chair Professor and Ms. Soubarna
Pal from the University
of Cardiff was appointed to assist Prof. Dasgupta
on this project.
Students admitted to
the M.Phil/Ph.D. programme have to complete an year's course work divided
into two semesters. They are then permitted to write their M.Phil. dissertation
only if they a certain minimum grade in the examinations conducted during
and at the end of the coursework. Dissertations have to be submitted by
the student within one year after completion of course work. Students,
if they have done sufficiently well during their course work, may chose
to by pass M.Phil and go into the Ph.D. programme directly. Students are
ordinarily required to submit their Ph.D thesis within five years of completion
of course work or four years of submission of the M.Phil. dissertation.
Defence of the Ph.D thesis usually takes place after an year's time, but
this of course depends largely on the external examiners. JNU issues advertisements
for entrance examinations to the M.Phil-Ph.D and M.A. programme simultaneously.
For the M.Phil-Ph.D programme however, in addition to the written admission
test, short-listed candidates also have to sit for an interview with the
members of the faculty. The JNU administration issues the list of successful
candidates after adding the marks of the interview to those of the
written examination.
I hope we have given
you sufficient information to whet your appetite to know more, if not actually
apply. Please send in your comments to us.
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