New York, Aug 17: Leading New York university The New School has named Indian-American academic Sanjay Reddy as one of the two directors of the India China Institute (ICI), a leading centre of trans-regional study.

Reddy, associate professor of economics, and Mark Frazier, professor of politics, will develop the ICI's exploration of the relationships between India, China and the US by launching new research programmes and partnerships with other global institutions, the school announced.

"India and China represent rising nations states and civilizational spaces which scholarship and teaching in the United States cannot afford to ignore," said Reddy. "They are jointly reshaping the world economy, polity and society."

Founded by The New School in 2004, ICI supports research, teaching and discussion on the relationships between India and China, two of the world's emerging economic and political powers, and their interactions with the US.

Sanjay Reddy has served at The New School for Social Research in 2009. His research focuses on global political economy, development and poverty, with a particular focus on contemporary India.

In addition to having taught at Columbia, Princeton, and Harvard, from where he earned his PhD in economics, Reddy has consulted for development agencies and institutions like Oxfam, UNICEF and the World Bank.

He is the author of "Understanding India's New Political Economy: A Great Transformation?" (Routledge, 2011) and "International Trade and Labor Standards: A Proposal for Linkage" (Columbia, 2008).

The school also announced that in autumn, the ICI will welcome five fellows in Social Innovation for Sustainable Environments from India, China and the US.

Two fellows from India are: Jayanta Bandyopadhyay, professor and head of the Centre for Development and Environment Policy, Public Policy and Management, India Institute of Management, Calcutta and Sanjay Chaturvedi, professor of political science, Punjab University, Chandigarh.

The US side will be represented by Indian-American Nidhi Srinivas, associate professor of Nonprofit Management, the Milano School of International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy at The New School.