![Text: "[the] ONE THING" on a dark blue world map. "the" is golden and bracketed; "ONE THING" is large, white.](https://global.nd.edu/assets/651794/950x/the_one_thing_graphic_1200_x_400_px_3_.webp)
This story is part of Notre Dame Global's series titled "The One Thing."
Every month in 2026, Notre Dame Global will feature one of the 12 locations on its website—asking each director to share with us “the one thing” they want the Notre Dame community to know about their programs, their achievements, their goals, or their aspirations.
In January, our focus was on Notre Dame Mexico. This month, we turn to Notre Dame Mumbai and its director, Dhiraj Mehra ND ’96, who joined Notre Dame Global in 2016.
What is the one thing you want the Notre Dame community to know about Notre Dame Mumbai?
"We are a strategic platform for engagement with India—often, a catalyst first and then a sustained presence that engages with Indian institutions across sectors."
DHIRAJ MEHRA: Notre Dame Mumbai serves as a strategic platform for engagement with India, positioning the University within one of the world’s most important global geographies. Not only do we have a presence in India, we have a sustained institutional presence—one that advances research, teaching, and public-interest engagement in partnership with Indian institutions across a myriad of sectors. These partnerships are often multi-year collaborations that lead to knowledge that is relevant, rigorous, policy-oriented, and grounded in the reality that is India.
An excellent example is Notre Dame Mumbai’s participation in Project Sampoorna, a signature educational and anti-poverty initiative within Notre Dame’s Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child. Since 2021, Project Sampoorna has introduced a transformative Whole Child Development curriculum into the state of Telangana’s residential schools, now serving 270,000 of India’s most vulnerable and marginalized children.
Notre Dame Mumbai’s involvement began by simply responding to a request for help with constructing a budget for a pilot project, but we became contributors even at the beginning—identifying stakeholders, working alongside Neil Boothby’s team to envision the project, assisting with the hiring process, and helping to launch the initiative. And, we have stayed involved by providing strategic guidance, facilitating institutional connections, managing talent of the project team, and monitoring impact and alignment to the University’s strategic framework.
In other spheres as well, we are focused on long-term institutional partnerships. This past December, we invited a strategic cross-section of Indian higher education institutions to campus to jumpstart and enhance partnerships, both in India and at Notre Dame. This was a great step forward as we work for even greater sustained involvement and two-way mobility between the University and India.
Why is that one thing—being a strategic platform for engagement with India—so important to Notre Dame Mumbai?
"As does the University as a whole, we aspire to be a convenor of global dialogues."
DHIRAJ MEHRA: As we dedicate ourselves to the University’s mission to be a convenor of global dialogues, we are inspired by the knowledge that the dialogues we convene at Notre Dame Mumbai take place in a country that, with 1.4 billion people and counting, is the most populous in the world. Even more importantly, India brings into focus many of the defining challenges and opportunities of the 21st century—rapid urbanization, infrastructure development, and climate challenges and resilience—with some of the world’s most complex societal challenges.
It is to immerse themselves in this environment and to explore these complex challenges that undergraduates choose Notre Dame Mumbai’s semester-long or summer programs and internships, like those offered through the Global Professional Experience program, in the liberal arts, science, business, or medicine.
Faculty come here to engage with India’s top scholars and to perform research in a number of fields. A notable example is the collaboration between Notre Dame School of Architecture professor Krupali Krusche and Indian archeologists using 3D documentation and advanced mapping techniques at the Taj Mahal, a World Heritage site.
And, just recently, several parts of the University coalesced when—on Notre Dame’s home campus, in Mumbai, and in Pune—we were integral to a dialogue among students, journalists, scientists, and artists on one epic question: the beginnings of the universe. The initiative began with Notre Dame Global’s Notre Dame Asia Guest Scholar/Artist Partnership Program and melded the insights of Notre Dame Chemistry and Biochemistry Assistant Professor Saurja DasGupta as well as the cancer researcher-turned-comics artist Argha Manna, a faculty member at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar.
What does this one thing reveal about India?
"India is a central actor in the global knowledge, policy, and innovation ecosystem, with the added benefit that many at Notre Dame find great resonance in the spirituality that pervades the country."
DHIRAJ MEHRA: The future of global higher education and research depends on moving beyond transactional internationalization and toward institutionalized, values-driven partnerships with strategically important countries. Notre Dame Mumbai’s accomplishments, strategies, and aspirations emphasize that India is such a country. It is a central actor in the global knowledge, policy, and innovation ecosystem.
Additionally, it is important to acknowledge the spirituality that shapes life in India and its alignment with the spirituality so integral to Notre Dame. When students and faculty immerse themselves in India, they often find their own faith deepening.
One example is the experience of Ty Harrington ’26, who came to India for two consecutive summers and found the experience transformative. He encourages classmates to approach India with intention and openness. “Reflect deeply on why you want to go…It is an intense adjustment and will require periods of adaptation. If you decide to go, be radically open. Do not treat it like a box to check. Go because you believe India has something to teach you, and you are willing to listen.”
Learn more about the work of Notre Dame Mumbai and the University of Notre Dame’s global network, or browse related articles:
its alignment with the spirituality so integral to Notre Dame. When students and faculty immerse themselves in India, they often find their own faith deepening.
One example is the experience of Ty Harrington ’26, who came to India for two consecutive summers and found the experience transformative. He encourages classmates to approach India with intention and openness. “Reflect deeply on why you want to go…It is an intense adjustment and will require periods of adaptation. If you decide to go, be radically open. Do not treat it like a box to check. Go because you believe India has something to teach you, and you are willing to listen.”
Learn more about the work of Notre Dame Mumbai and the University of Notre Dame’s global network, or browse related articles:
Learn more about the collaborative work of Notre Dame Mumbai
Project Sampoorna
Project Sampoorna was launched in the residential schools of the Indian state of Telangana—schools run by the Telangana Tribal Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society that house and teach some of India’s poorest and most marginalized children. The curriculum embeds academics in a culture that prioritizes the nutritional and psychosocial needs of students, with an emphasis on collaboration, critical thinking, empathy, and kindness.
The anchor organization for Project Sampoorna is Notre Dame’s Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child, part of the Institute for Educational Initiatives.
So successful has Project Sampoorna been in its embrace by teachers, students, and administrators that, from a pilot program introduced directly after the pandemic in 16 schools, it was scaled up to about 100 schools in just two years. Now, its curriculum has been integrated into the Bachelor of Education programs at Osmania University, and plans are being developed to introduce the curriculum throughout India.
Related articles:
For one undergraduate, summer study in India became a journey of spiritual clarity
For Andrew Volpe, a global affairs and Chinese major from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the India Summer Program in 2025 proved to be more than a cultural immersion. It became a journey of spiritual clarity.
On Day 2 of his program, a jet-lagged Volpe decided to attend 6 a.m. Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Name, which led to breakfast with Cathedral priests, and then to both a deep friendship and an enrichment of his Catholic faith.
“Even in a place where Catholics are few, the Church felt like home,” Volpe observed. “The universality of it hit me more in India than anywhere else.”
Related articles:
An innovative collaboration between a Notre Dame scientist and an Indian comic-book artist leads to public dialogue in the US and India on an epic question: the origins of the universe
The Notre Dame Asia Guest Scholar/Artist Partnership Program was the impetus for a long-standing collaboration between Notre Dame Chemistry and Biochemistry Assistant Professor Saurja DasGupta and the cancer researcher turned comics artist Argha Manna, a faculty member at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar.
Together, they explore in scientific and public forums the chemical origins of life, examining how simple molecules on early Earth may have assembled into increasingly complex systems capable of supporting life. First in talks at Notre Dame and at other American universities, and then in Mumbai and Pune, they have worked together to make science accessible and to emphasize the importance of uncertainty, experimentation, and imagination as key drivers of scientific progress.
Related articles:
Originally published by at global.nd.edu on February 27, 2026.