Establishing an endowed chair highlights the importance of studying India at UCF. In Fall 2022, over 3,000 students from 149 countries enrolled at UCF. Students from India represented the second-largest group of international students with 460 individuals enrolled.

The Chopra’s gift will be amplified by a $50,000 match from the university through the UCF Challenge. This strategic initiative provides matching funding from the transformational $40 million gift made in 2021 by philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. With the Chopra family’s gift, donors to date have pledged more than $2.5 million toward the $5 million goal to establish the endowed chair position.

“It is our hope that our gift will help The India Center create a strong foundation for ongoing research and teaching about India, a dynamic culture that is both ancient and modern,” says Ramesh Chopra.

Ramesh and Neena Chopra have both practiced medicine in Florida for over 40 years and live in Port Orange. The couple first moved to Florida in 1982 from Minneapolis, Minnesota. They are active in the Indian American community in Central Florida and helped establish CAPI, a network of Indian American medical professionals who fundraise and pool resources to support health and wellness initiatives, professional growth and leadership development. The couple has a son and daughter, who are both physicians, and four grandchildren.

“We are honored that the Chopra family has chosen to support The India Center at UCF,” says Kerstin Hamann, interim director of The India Center, an associate dean in the and a Pegasus Professor in the . “Their gift makes a significant contribution to support the work and enhance the reputation of the center as we strive to become the nation’s preeminent location for the study of contemporary India.”

The mission of The India Center at UCF is to broaden the awareness and understanding of India’s role in the world today. The center is housed in the School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs in the College of Sciences. Established in 2012, the center hosts symposia and events of interest to the regional Indian American community and to UCF students and faculty interested in India and its impact in Florida, the nation and beyond. The center has supported the work of UCF scholars and students in India and has received a variety of delegations from India.

The India Center at UCF develops India-U.S. partnerships among universities, companies, governmental, cultural, and other organizations to address issues and opportunities important to both India and the U.S. in areas ranging across technology, politics, security, medicine and more. UCF and The India Center have established partnerships with eight educational institutions in India for student and faculty collaborations and joint graduate degree programs with two colleges in India.

“We are grateful to the Chopra family for their generosity and vision in advancing our goal of creating the Indian Community Endowed Chair for The India Center at UCF,” says Michael D. Johnson, UCF provost and vice president for Academic Affairs. “The endowed chair will help The India Center expand opportunities for students and faculty to better understand one of the world’s most influential countries and how it impacts us.”

Estimated to surpass China as the world’s most populous country in 2023, India is a major player on the world stage of economics, security, politics and technology. People of Indian origin are one of the fastest growing migrant populations in the United States, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The Carnegie Endowment notes that between 2000 and 2018, the Indian American population grew by 150%. In Florida, Orange County is home to the state’s third largest population of immigrants from India behind Hillsborough and Broward counties in 2021, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

The India Center is part of the , and is a preeminent location for the study of India’s role in the world today. The center partners with the Indian American Chamber of Commerce, the Indian American Business Association and Chamber and numerous educational institutions, and through its resources and connections, helps faculty members further their work as it relates to India.

For Ghosh, the center gave her a platform to host a virtual Q&A, co-sponsored by the department of English, with the International Booker Prize recipients: author Geetanjali Shree and the American translator of the book, Daisy Rockwell. The center also helped promote the event to the broader Indian community in Central Florida and beyond, generating an impressive turnout. The center also provided resources for “10,000 Memories,” an in-person Q&A hosted by Ghosh with Guneeta Bhalla, founder of the 1947 Partition Archive that documents, shares and preserves oral histories of Partition witnesses. The event was widely attended by students and broader community members last month to learn more about the partition of India, which refers to the end of Britain’s rule over the subcontinent and it being divided into two independent nation states, India and Pakistan, which led to mass human migration and violence.

“I’m very happy to be in a space where my work connects to this center and gets connected to the greater community in an exciting and dynamic way,” Ghosh says.

The center partners with faculty across disciplines, including engineering, film, history, hospitality and philosophy. Students can take various courses on South Asian culture, history and politics, and gearing up for launch in the coming years is an Indian studies certificate where students can learn about India’s rising global prominence.

“The U.S. government for the last several years has really emphasized the importance of India,” says Leila Chacko, director of public affairs for the India Center, noting in 2010 the two countries established the U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue with a focus on the environment, global security, technology and trade.

“The political relationship is important, but India is really moving ahead with tech and the U.S. can learn a lot from how advanced India is,” Chacko says.

The center also forges global relationships with academic institutions to create educational opportunities for students. Thanks to an agreement with the Vellore Institute of Technology in India, for instance, students needing computer engineering, computer science or math credits can complete their requirements abroad through a semester-long exchange program. The agreement is the first UCF-sponsored study abroad program to India, Chacko says.

Yet, for those who stay local, the center has numerous resources to immerse in Indian culture, history, politics and technology. In January, for India’s Republic Day, the Consul General of India in Atlanta, Swati Kulkarni, donated more than 200 books to the center that span Indian art, cooking, history, language, politics, religion and even yoga. Her donation makes the India Center the first of its kind in the southeast with such a collection, says Chacko, who adds the books are available to borrow from the center.

“The idea for this center began among local community members, who still support our work today,” says Chacko. “We work hard to establish the center as the preeminent location in the country to study India’s place in the world today. We envision UCF as the place where community members, organizations and others can all come together; we can be their unifier.”

For more information on the India Center, see here: .