Guest speech of the Ambassador of the Republic of India; H.E Dr. Sheel Kant Sharma

At the occasion of recent state visit to India by the Austrian governmental and trade delegation headed by President Fischer, the IMC Export Department (under the auspices of Chair for Intl. Law and Global Political Studies) invited the India’s Ambassador accredited to Austria for a guest lecture. H.E. Dr. Sheel Kant SHARMA, Resident Ambassador of the Republic of India to Austria and IOs in Vienna paid the visit to IMC and delivered a lecture on 04th April, followed by two hour of talks with students and small reception.

The IMC fellow professors, Export alumni members and students had the opportunity to learn about the cultural and historic heritage of India’s society, institutions, political system, current economic and trade affairs, foreign and security policy as well as to hear thoughtful and inspiring answers on series of their questions (like; FDI, India as the knowledge-based economy, Bangalore and other HiTech centers of excellence, regional cooperation, Sino-India’s relations, Austria’s position in the India’s market, etc.).

Extraordinarily eloquent diplomat of impressive career, Dr. Sharma was serving his respective country Republic of India at many key destinations like; Kuwait/Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Algiers, UN Geneva and Vienna (IAEA). Prior to his appointment to Austria, he was mainly involved with the ASEAN, Indo-China and South Pacific (south and disarmament) issues. Being of natural science background with the PhD degree in High Energy Physics, Ambassador Sharma is very prolifically writing himself; research articles, publications and policy papers.

Summing up at the end of this content-intensive and extremely valuable event with Ms. Silvia Kucera, IMC EXP Study Director and Mr. Anis H. Bajrektarevic, EXP Chair and principal host of the event, Excellency Dr. Sharma stated that he was impressed by interest, commitment and knowledge of our students as demonstrated throughout the questions and discussion with him, and promised to return to our University for lecturing in a due time again.

Text: Mr. Bajrektarevic

The presentation "India at glance" can be found here.
The presentation "Bilateral trade" by H.E. Dr. Sheel Kant Sharma can be found here.