Jayati Bhattacharya is a Visiting Research Fellow at the ISEAS , working on modern business history with special focus on South and Southeast Asia . She has a Ph.D from the Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi , India on the nexus between business communities and nationalist politics in India in the period of the national movement. She is at present working on the Indian business communities in Singapore. The research work attempts to situate the ethnic Indian business communities amongst the larger framework of the mosaic populace of Singapore to bring about continuity through generations into the context of the present day socio-economic order.
Jayati has been fascinated by the business interactions between the different ethnic communities, which has enthused her to take up comparative studies, especially between the Chinese and the Indian business networks in Singapore which may later be extended to other parts of South East Asia . On a similar note, she is also keen to explore the various nuances of the family business networks between the two communities.
At ISEAS, she has also been involved with the coordination, along with her colleagues, of a number of conferences and workshops dealing with historical and contemporary issues. One such workshop recently held was involved with the burning issue of the “Oil Palm Controversy” (March 2-4, 2009). Jayati is also involved in co-editing the publication of the proceedings of the workshop.
Jayati had earlier worked as a Lecturer at Loreto College , Darjeeling in India and as a Guest Lecturer at the Qingdao University in Peoples’ Republic of China.