Urban Women Most Impacted by Job Losses Due to COVID: A powerful report by IWWAGE

Urban Women Most Impacted by Job Losses Due to COVID: A powerful report by IWWAGE

Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy (IWWAGE) aims to build on existing research and generate new evidence to inform and facilitate the agenda of women’s economic empowerment. IWWAGE reported that two in five urban women were impacted by job losses during the first wave of the pandemic, owing to the unnatural development of dual workload of domestic care work and paid work. IWWAGE also took stock of the situation and put forward recommendations to make the ‘future of work’ more conducive to women’s workforce participation.

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Take Two- Diversity Dialogues

Take Two- Diversity Dialogues

A veteran from the area of Strategy and Management, Prof Shobha Das,  Area Chair – Strategic Management, IFMR GSB, got on a Zoom call with an Ethnomusicologist, Prof Sumitra Ranganathan, Senior Assistant Professor of Music, SIAS. What followed was an exchange from worlds intersected, in stark contrast yet drawing the parallels.

Prof Shobha and Prof Sumitra got together for a special exchange of ideas and perspectives on the occasion of International Women’s Day, tracing the similarities and differences in their lives as academics and as women from diverse fields. Paving the way for an interesting dialogue, Prof Shobha Das drew attention to how arts and management are considered to be siloed as two different worlds but yet share deep commonalities. In agreement Prof Sumitra explained how this is innate to the consciousness at Krea, how habits of the creative mind come together in almost all domains.

Drawing on her life as an academic, Prof Shobha spoke about how academia is synonymous with her identity, more so than being a woman. Academia has allowed her to explore, interact with different people and learn about things, about how it affirmed there is no ‘me’ in academics.  While Prof Sumitra pondered on her identity at the intersection of arts and academics, her journey from being a theoretical physicist to the  world of IT and finally to the shift in academics, and how it made the most sense in a space such as Krea University. She expressed how she felt closest to home in academia, where the active churning rarely stops, and spills over.

“The artist in me expresses it in this way, my shift into academics happened following a song, it was a beautiful dhrupad I learnt from the Maharajas of Bettiah, composed by them. And following that song is how I decided I will do my PhD in music and then I made a transition and there I have stayed ever since.”

Prof Sumitra expressed her amazement at women artists from traditional communities who have always had to manage their time and demands made at them as a person. Prof Shobha drew the analogy to the field of management, to what is labeled ‘The Great Resignation’ in the post pandemic era.

“More women have resigned than men because women have realised if now they go back to the workplace, all things they have adapted to will feel astray. The onus is on them to now continue the new role but apparently the men aren’t that affected by the change in role because they probably were able to partition it still and continue to do so. The Great Resignation is greater for the women, post pandemic. We will have even fewer women in the workforce.”

Continuing the thread, Prof Sumitra spoke about the pressure women face as caregivers and how it comes into play when she seeks employment, cloaked as questions and qualms. Prof Shobha pointed out how the top 500 Fortune Companies in the United States had 8 percent women as CEOs and the top 500 companies of NSE had 5 percent as CEOs and the buck didn’t stop there, a study by IIM-A showed that the gender pay gap increased as women climbed the ladder instead of the other way round. This led to contemplation over the takeaways from the pandemic on how to bring women back to the workforce, of the awareness and the solutions.

Prof Shobha stressed on the fact of inability to delve deeper into metrics, incentives and motivation to keep higher education equally excitable for men and women. On how if one lesson from the pandemic is accessibility, the other is a question on digital divide. In Prof Shoba’s words, “A chakravyuh we need to emerge from.”

Retracing a Mnemonic for woman empowerment, something she had coined for an event in the year prior, Prof Shobha expanded STREE- Support The People Who Are Around You, the women and community members. Talk about the people and what hardships they have, stories are never hidden. Raise awareness in every forum you can. Educate yourself and others of opportunities available for women. Empower women, put power back in their hands.

Prof Sumitra added how there is a huge opportunity to bring the quality of a woman that is associated with the aspect of ‘care’ to the classroom. A need to feminise the workplace, to bring in the idea of care to the classroom where everyone cares for the other, making space differences and acknowledging that they come from various backgrounds and do not face the same challenges, to inculcate the ethics of care into enabling students, workers and colleagues.

The short conversation concluded with a pause, refraining from a full stop. With a promise for future collaborations, exchange of novel ideas and building of continuous bridges.

Please click here to view the engaging dialogue.

In conversation with Dr Vishakha N Desai, Member, Governing Council and Academic Council at Krea University

In conversation with Dr Vishakha N Desai, Member, Governing Council and Academic Council at Krea University

Dr Vishakha Desai is a member, Governing Council and Academic Council, Krea University. She is also Senior Advisor for Global Affairs at Columbia University, and an adjunct professor at the School of International and Public Affairs. She was President and CEO of the Asia Society, a leading global organisation committed to strengthening partnerships among the people, leaders and institutions of Asia and the United States. In 2012, President Barack Obama appointed her to serve on the National Museums and Library Services Board. Dr Desai holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Mumbai, and MA and PhD in Asian Art History from the University of Michigan.

Dr Desai, the theme for the International Women’s Day 2022 is ‘Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow’. Why, according to you, is every word in this year’s theme is crucial

The phrase sustainable future, implies that it would be a future that would have consistency, a clear path and continuous renewal. Such a world is not possible if half the human race is not fully involved in creating that future. Equality doesn’t just mean participation but also equity of ownership, where women not only need a place at the table but also have the capacity to change the shape of the table, if necessary, to create a more sustainable future. 

Personally, do you believe that the world needs to dedicate a day exclusively to reinforce, reiterate the role, existence and impact of women in society? What is your view?

I wish we didn’t have to dedicate a day to highlight the role of women in society. It implies that the days in the rest of the year are not about issues and aspirations of women. The main reason we need to highlight women’s contributions on a single day is to remind everyone that this needs to continue throughout the year! Not a token that can be forgotten the next day, but an important step that paves a road. 

In an interview about your recent book, World as Family, responding to the relevance and importance of the idea of the book, you say, “​​the Coronavirus reminds us that no matter where we are, and who we are, the pathogens of the pandemic will affect our bodies the same way. My dancer friend Faustin Linyekula once said, the world lives in our body.” If we were to apply the same principle to the context of gender equality, would you say, women across the world – no matter the countries they are from – are grappling with a common set of issues and are in a sense, united in their fight for equality?

With the exception of a few matrilineal societies, it is fair to say that women in many parts of the world face issues of discrimination, but they are not always the same. As we have learned with Covid, while the pandemic affects people with the same level of alacrity, it does matter how individual countries or local communities handle the pandemic. Similarly, while women suffer inequality universally, how their issues are handled by political and social leaders does affect their well-being. 

You call two countries – India, and the United States – your home. As a woman, have you had to straddle these two worlds, differently? 

Given the different cultural contexts of the two countries, of course, one has to be sensitive to the surrounding conditions. But I do feel that through my upbringing in early independent India in a family of Gandhian freedom fighters, I learned to have my feet firmly planted while keeping my mind and eyes open to the world.  And that has served me well no matter where I am. 

What is your take on the global progress on gender equality?

After the Beijing women’s conference, there was a strong sense that women all over the world will continue to move forward with confidence, but it is fair to say that the progress has been unequal. For example, in India, more girls were going to school but during the pandemic, it affected young female students as well as women workers more adversely than men. In other words, in many parts of the world, new policies may have been put in place, the social attitudes have not changed fast enough because there has been less attention paid to changing the mindset. 

In countries across the world, women even in positions of power have had to make choices that men are less likely to make. While workplace policies over years have attempted bridging the divide, at a time when the world is talking of gender equality for a sustainable future, how do we accelerate systematic support so that women continue career roles while they continue to be mothers and caregivers?

First and foremost, we have to recognize that all societies have to account for the needs of families to provide shelter and financial support and taking care of the children and elders. These functions need not be gendered.  That is the reason some northern European countries are focusing on support for children and elders and not penalize women who often end up being the caretakers. 

Do you believe that the fight for equal rights is an everyday work-in-progress? 

Yes.

Do you have any advice for students who seek careers at the intersection of sustainable development and gender?

Sustainable development is often exclusively associated with environment and climate change, and it sounds very neutral. But as we are learning now, issues of equity, class and gender do affect how the climate crisis plays out. For example, it is only in the last five years or so, scholars have begun to highlight how the urban poor are more adversely affected by environmental degradation than others.  Similarly, the environmental degradation caused by wood and cow dung-burning cooking affects rural women more severely, and requires a gendered lens.  So, it is important to provide a gendered lens to the questions of environmental sustainability , and in the process expand the definition of sustainable development.  

And finally, if you were to share with us, three women you consider your role-models, who would they be?

My mother, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and my women friends in their late eighties who continue to be engaged, active and always interesting! 

Non-Banking Financial Companies in India: A study on their crisis and revival strategies

Non-Banking Financial Companies in India: A study on their crisis and revival strategies

By Sourav More

IFMR GSB – MBA Batch of 2023

“An essential feature of the evolution of the financial system has been the emergence of non-banking financial institutions,” read an RBI press release on 2 January 2012. Time and again, they have emerged as an epicentre to support the often credit-starved MSMEs and Rural India. The NBFCs landscape in India is a story in itself, as it has been a rollercoaster ride for them right from their humble beginning in the 1960s to finding innovative ways to drive the growth of MSMEs; and then the sudden shakeup due to the default in debt repayment by IL&FS group in the latter half of 2018, which ultimately resulted to a liquidity crunch and had negatively impacted their stock prices.

Growth Drives

  1. NBFCs mainly targeted the customers who are from the unorganised and under-served segments, customised their products as per their preference, and thus, NBFCs created a niche for themselves.
  2. NBFCs have always come up with newer and better technology for their customers, with 24/7 service and reaching the Tier-2, Tire-3, and Tier-3 markets. This helped them have a wider reach.
  3. NBFCs have been trying to set up co-lending arrangements with digital platforms and commercial banks, like Punjab National Housing Corporation – a part of Punjab National Bank.
  4. NBFCs are investing in data analytics and artificial intelligence to enhance their business operations and also commensurating technological advances.
  5. NBFCs are focusing on lending to the subprime customer segments through proactive, robust and agile risk management modules, in comparison to commercial banks.

 NUMBER OF NBFCs IN INDIA AND ITS DECLINE OVER THE YEARS

Roadblocks to these growth prospects

  1. NBFCs have been trying to offer customers the kind of products that they want through constant customisation and innovation, and this has led to misalignment in product offerings with customers and a rise in the cost of investment and operations.
  2. The asset-liability mismatch, which became the cause of concern for the Liquidity Crisis of 2018, was mainly because NBFCs borrow funds at a lower rate for a shorter time period and lend the same at a higher rate for a longer time period, and after four to five years the interest rate usually increases and ultimately it leads to a loss for the company. Due to this, their liabilities were maturing faster for payment compared to the loans advanced.
  3. NBFC payroll had a downward spiralling effect on their quality of sourcing due to the absence of direct sales agents. Effective underwriting was required to form personal relationships with prospects. 

The liquidity crisis of 2018: Case of DHFL

Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL) provides home loan services and was one of the biggest housing finance companies in India. Unexpectedly, their share prices fell down by more than 60% after 21 September 2018 which created panic in the market. There was a rumour that DHFL may have defaulted in one of its debt payments, and people said that DSP mutual fund sold short term DHFL papers at 11 percent yield which was at a discount of 18 percent to its actual yield. Investors were worried why an AAA-rated company sold its short-term papers at such a discount.

Upon further discussion, it was identified that the fund house had IL&FS debt and IL&FS was roiled by a lot of defaults in commercial papers, which led to a shortage of INR 1000 billion in the system. Exposure to IL&FS formed the base of all the rumours and it spoiled DHFL’s valuation, and the same thing happened for other NBFCs as well.

Steps taken by the Reserve Bank of India   

  1. On 2 November 2018, RBI announced Partial Credit Enhancement (PEC) to bonds, the period of occupancy of which should not be less than three years. These were issued by systemically important non-deposit takings of NBFCs amid the liquidity crisis.
  2. To reduce the stress of NBFCs, RBI relaxed its rules to sell or securitise the loan books. Therefore, NBFCs can securitise loans of more than five-year maturity after holding those for six months.
  3. Harmonisation of different categories of NBFCs into fewer ones was done for greater operational flexibility. AFC, LCs and ICs were merged into a new category called NBFC-Investment and Credit Company (NBFC-ICC).

Krea Student Diaries | 5 affirmations to help your school-to-college transition

Krea Student Diaries | 5 affirmations to help your school-to-college transition

By Apoorva Peri, SIAS Cohort of 2024

Graduating from high school and embarking on the next chapter of your life in an entirely new atmosphere. You may feel as if you have compromised every sense of your identity and belonging. On the contrary, you actually learn to adapt. Making the transition to college life at Krea was a life-changing experience for me. Right from academics to exploring new interests– my journey to a new learning experience has only just begun!

It’s a new dawn. It’s a new day. It’s a new pedagogy!

It is natural to feel overwhelmed when you witness a new curriculum unfolding, which encourages you to think for yourself. After being used to nearly two decades of following a certain pattern, University life brings you the real world. As someone who felt overwhelmed immediately, instead of adding more tasks to your plate and being productive, take your time and get used to the environment. 

It’s going to be okay.

Once you have immersed yourself in the new environment and made progress, move on to the next step– Accept that it is okay to fall back and ask for help. College is new to you and other students, some are probably used to this unique learning model. Others take time. There will be students who race you to the top, with answers that you may not know. Don’t hold back. Ask for help, communicate with professors and classmates, join activities that you are comfortable with. These are your halcyon days! 

It’s good to have a plan.

You know yourself better than anyone. Hence, you can anticipate your reaction and needs accordingly. So, plan your first few months well. You can do this by talking to your seniors, professors or even your family to gauge your challenges and strategically move forward.

One of the distinctive features of Krea’s curriculum and teaching approach is the pride and enthusiasm that they foster, which helps shape our minds as we continue to grow and learn. The Krea culture is an integral part of the experience, and it can help you meet people from diverse backgrounds. This can be as easy as actively participating and engaging in orientation week and open mics, or getting involved in the many clubs and committees. 

The only constant in life is change.

It’s easier than ever for us to stay connected to our high school life and the same perspectives we have always had. However, this can stunt our ability to really engage with new perspectives and thoughts. If you find yourself obsessing over how you used to do things or how so much has changed, remember that progress is impossible without change. We must learn to focus your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new. 

Push the boundaries of learning.

Put yourself out there and explore; don’t isolate yourself from the outside world, learn to push the boundaries and over time you will become accustomed with your new college lifestyle. Exploring the world is one of the best ways of exploring the mind. 

You don’t have to completely abandon your roots to fit in at college. Consider it an opportunity to explore new aspects of yourself that you may not have had the opportunity to do previously, and be open to new experiences and perspectives.

About Apoorva Peri

SIAS Cohort of 2024

Living in ruins of the palace within my dreams

All the way from south India to the United States to participate in the HPAIR Harvard Conference 2022

All the way from south India to the United States to participate in the HPAIR Harvard Conference 2022

Chennai, 01 February 2022: Sai Balaji, a sophomore at Krea University, majoring in Economics and minoring in Psychology recently got selected by The Harvard College Project for Asian and International Relations for the Harvard Conference which will be held from 18-21 February 2022 at the Harvard campus.

Originally from Chennai, 19-year-old Sai wears multiple hats within the University ecosystem. He is a Student Ambassador, Research Assistant, Club Representative of the Social Outreach Club “Aikyatha” and is a Content Manager for the University Newspaper “Tapestry” alongside his academics. 

Obviously excited with the opportunity to be a part of HPAIR, Sai says, “This is a fantastic platform for me. I truly believe that the overall ecosystem at Krea re-kindled the childlike curiosity within me to constantly ask questions about the various aspects of social, political, and economic issues in the 21st century. The faculty, peer group, and the overall learning culture at KREA, have played a vital role in my selection for HPAIR 2022.” 

Every Harvard Conference serves to create meaningful dialogue regarding the current socio-economic and political landscape across the globe. Speaking about what he is most excited about Sai says, “This conference gives the opportunity for me to interact with a diverse range of people and speakers.” Sai’s role specifically is to voice his views and share his knowledge with fellow delegates attending the conference. The responsibilities post the conference would mean how individuals who are a part of the conference attempt to Implement these learnings in their research and to focus on making an impact on the world with it.

The mission of HPAIR is to connect the top leaders of today and tomorrow in a dynamic forum of exchange. The Harvard College Project for Asian and International Relations (HPAIR) was founded in 1991 to create a forum of exchange for students and young professionals to discuss and learn about the most important economic, political, and social issues facing the Asia-Pacific region. Since 1991, HPAIR has organized 43 conferences in 12 different host countries, touching the lives of more than 10,000 students and young professionals. HPAIR hosts two student-led conferences a year – one on Harvard’s campus and the other in the Asia-Pacific. Prospective host cities in Asia must undergo an intensive, six-month bidding process; this year’s Asia Conference will be held in Nur-Sultan, HPAIR’s first conference in Central Asia. HPAIR conferences feature world-class speakers and guests to foster mentorship, networking, and guidance opportunities for delegates.

Two SIAS students set to create TURNIP- a venture idea validated by Venture Capitalists

Two SIAS students set to create TURNIP- a venture idea validated by Venture Capitalists

Thrilled and raring to go, Aditi Rajesh and Mitul Aggarwal, 2nd year undergraduate students at SIAS, Krea University, are all set to work on the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for their venture TURNIP, an idea that was witnessed and validated by noted Venture Capitalists in the country, including Sunil Cavale and Sanjay Selvan (Speciale Invest), Praveen Sridharan (TVS Capital Funds) and Nihir Nemani (Emerald India).

So, what’s TURNIP?

“It’s a peer-to-peer learning network which seeks to make learning interesting. It aims to facilitate learning through conversations,” says Aditi.

“In short, it’s a networking platform focused on learning,” adds Mitul.

In a conversation with the Communications Team at Krea, these young minds opened up about the experience of pitching their idea to potential investors, and how the elective ‘Creative Economy’ by Prof Anil Srinivasan acted as a catalyst to the creation of TURNIP.

“Prof Srinivasan’s course has been a pillar for the Interwoven Learning Experience. A very well-structured course, there are theory classes and then industry-based sessions giving us a chance to implement learning from the classroom into real life. It’s very practical and hands on. The course in Creative Economy led us to start TURNIP. It gave us the push and the reason to work on something new. Prof Srinivasan provided us the experience of pitching to real-world investors and it really inspired us to take it further”, they added.

Aditi and Mitul are fine-tuning the idea and will be progressing to the research and development phase, in the coming weeks. Even before TURNIP, Aditi and Mitul were well on their way on the entrepreneurial journey. Aditi most recently launched Inturn, a platform that aims to connect students looking for internships/volunteer work for student-led organisations. Mitul is the co-founder of Inagiffy, a communications agency curating and creating accessible and aesthetic content to make global communication more seamless and easier.

SIAS student conducts a skill development workshop for UG students at Kalasa

SIAS student conducts a skill development workshop for UG students at Kalasa

Shreyasi Patil (they/she), a 3rd year SIAS student at Krea, worked with the Skill Development Office of Chikkamagaluru and Srinidhi Gurunath, MGN Fellow, to conduct a soft skills and design thinking workshop for final year degree students about tackling problems of rural Malnad area.

The one-day interactive design thinking workshop was conducted at GFGC Kalasa, with the final year BCom and BA students aiming to promote soft skills and entrepreneurial values among them.

“The Design Thinking workshop was used to identify problems specific to the Malnad region and why entrepreneurship isn’t developing in the area. Especially in  Chikkamagaluru, which is well known but mostly for tourism.”

Emphasising on what contributed to a seamless building of the workshop, Shreyasi added, “ At Krea, we have a course in the 1st year on Design Thinking and in the 2nd year we have a course named Creative Economy where we build our own company and pitch in front of real life Venture Capitalists at the end of three months. Along with these I have also been part of the TiE – Young Entrepreneurs Chapter where we represented India and won the second position. All these factors together helped me plan the one day workshop.”

Kalasa is a taluk, located deep within Chikkamagaluru. “We had no clue how remote Kalasa was. A couple of government buses ply in this region and some students have to walk 6-7 kilometers each day to reach their schools. The heavy monsoons also create havoc and the students and teachers usually aren’t able to make it to the institutes in such conditions. Added to it the weak internet connectivity, the education of most students at Kalasa are hindered.”

The workshop revolved around combating these issues that the students faced in their everyday lives. They worked through the process of identifying problems, empathising, building solutions and testing the solutions – a reality check on how viable it would be if one were to implement the same.

There were around eight problems which were identified and solutions proposed. The students wrapped up the workshop with solutions like setting up a customer service team which would work as a liaison between rural places in Malnad and the telecom companies. Another suggested a bus for the safety of girl students, as many of them dropped out of school and colleges and got married early because of the lack of efficient transport systems.

Shreyasi has been training and teaching students from a very young age. Yet, teaching and training peers and young adults of their own age was led by their experience at Krea.

 “I was comfortable training younger students, but at Krea, the student experience facilitated by being an extracurricular representative had an impact. I have been able to take up the challenges of teaching people my age. Now I know the vocabulary for it, having the right language and presentation is important. Two years of college at Krea have done to me what years of training by myself couldn’t. College has given me the language to present what I really believe in.”

Shreyasi also trains school students in gender studies through the medium of theatre. On completion of their under graduation, they plan to travel across India and teach gender studies to students across demographics, using theatre. Shreyasi hopes to pursue their future goals in the intersection of art, education and entrepreneurship.

Despite policy support, labour participation by Women still low

As the pandemic rolled into India in early 2020, urban women seemed to quit or lose jobs en masse. The urban female participation rate plummeted to a record low of 15.5% in April-June, the first quarter of the lockdown, before improving marginally to 16.1% in the September quarter marginally to 16.1% in the September quarter.

By the last quarter of the year, it had recovered to 20.6%, near its recent trend, indicating the challenging situation for women workers in India.

Despite all the effort and policy support, the female labour force participation has hovered at around 20% for several decades and stood at 22.8% in FY20, a slow rise over 18.6% in FY19 and 17.5% in FY18 as per the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

Experts say India needs to provide consistent structural support and flexibility to female workers while changing the approach toward the women workforce. Some of the systemic measures that could be taken include enhancing enrollment and successful completion of education for every girl child, capturing data for unpaid economic activities by women in the overall workforce data and considerable enhancement of social security for unorganised sector female workers, who constitute 90% of the total female workforce in India.

World Bank estimates show that India has one of the lowest female labour force participation rates in the world with less than a third of women, defined as 15 years or older, working or actively looking for a job. It had estimated the female labour participation rate in India at 19% in 2020 from over 26% in 2005, even lower than 35% in Bangladesh and 31% in Sri Lanka. “India’s female labour force participation rate continues to be substantially low and we cannot make peace with just incremental progress,” said Rituparna Chakraborty, cofounder and executive vice president, TeamLease Services.

Reasons for decline
Some experts attributed the low female participation rate primarily to taking on greater responsibility for care of children and the elderly at home and more women opting for higher education. “Females in India are not aspiring to work for multiple reasons, primarily because of their additional responsibilities at home or an inclination towards becoming an entrepreneur or pursuing higher education,” said Preethi Rao, associate director, LEAD, at Krea University, a research centre of the IFMR Society.

Other factors include safety issues and the unavailability of facilities to help women continue working while maintaining a work-life balance.

Systemic changes needed
Chakraborty of TeamLease Services said India needs to tackle the problem at the grassroots.

“Government has to make an all-out effort to enroll more and more girls in primary education while arresting the high dropout rates among female students,” she said. “This will enhance female education, which in turn will help more women to become part of the workforce when they enter working age.”

The government has so far looked at female social security from the lens of the organised sector, which is very narrow, said Shyam Sundar. “Focus should be to enhance social security, including medical benefits, health insurance and old age benefits through a gender-oriented universal social security,” he said.

Deloitte India estimates that 65% of women wanted to leave work during the pandemic and a year later.

“For years there has been no conscious appreciation to bring in gender balance as part of business strategy. This, coupled with the inherent bias towards hiring men, citing reasons for greater level of commitment, has kept female participation low,” said Mohinish Sinha, partner, diversity and inclusion, Deloitte India.

“Consistent infrastructure support and policy measures are needed to bring in more and more females into the workforce.”

‘India’s navrang bird can help us strengthen solar energy’

Vinod Kumar Saranathan teaches biological sciences at Krea University. Speaking to Times Evoke, Saranathan outlines his discovery of single cell gyroids in bird feathers — and why this could transform technology:

I’ve trained as a physicist but I was always deeply interested in birds. When applying to graduate school at Yale, I wanted to continue my interest in birds alongside researching physics. So, I became a biomedical engineer, working on bird colour. For my PhD, I studied how birds make the colour blue. This contains cyanine, prevalent in plant tissue. Animals also sport blue but they have created an entirely new way of making this — theirs is a structural colour where the physical infraction of light gets scattered by different interfaces. The portion of the visible light that falls on these structures is reinforced and reflected while everything else is not.

A world of wonder, torn asunder

These colour-producing and scattering nanostructures are microscopic, about 500 times smaller than the width of a human hair. These can be arranged periodically or randomly with a hidden order that makes blue look the same, whichever direction you see it from. Consider a laptop, TV or phone. You’d want the same information from these whether you tilt your head this way or that. 

A STUDY IN PHYSICS: Single cell gyroid structures (R) give the pitta bird its intense blue colouration.

However, in fact, there is only a narrow angle where you can actually see the screen with high fidelity. With birds like blue jays though, no matter where you tilt your head, you get back the same information, the same colour through a perfect quasi-random reflector which makes light bounce back. I’ve also researched butterflies with a vivid green on their wings. If you gently touch one, you’ll find a glitter-like substance on your fingers. These glittering entities are single scale cells. As I discovered, each has a unique structure called a gyroid, a crystal like a building block. A single unit is the gyroid where three channels come together, fuse and gyrate away.

‘Colour helps Darwinian fitness in nature — humans are impacting this hidden world too’

Imagine a cube now — a division makes the cubic material into two equal surfaces. That is a gyroid surface which is an efficient way to increase surface area. But in the case of birds, these surfaces are filled in on one side with keratin, the other side being air — with this arrangement, you get a single gyroid crystal which is actually really hard to synthesize. Somehow, birds evolved to make this structure in their feathers, light interacting with these to create a vivid blue — my research found that over time, the female preference for pure blue in mates led to this unique ordered structure.

‘Colours show how plants and animals communicate constantly with each other’

A single gyroid has superior optical powers. It interacts very well with light and electrons — if we design photovoltaic cells with such single gyroid crystal symmetry, these can extremely efficiently transform solar energy into electrical energy. In fibre optics too, a cladding on fibre opticals using this structure ensures light won’t escape and losses are minimised. Making these structures is extremely hard but the birds offer us a template. My eventual goal is biomimetics where we understand exactly how birds grow these structures — if we can copy this, that will be transformative for human technology.

THE RIGHT LIGHT: Birds have crystalline structures in their feathers which make certain light or colour reflect back to our eyes, their feathers never fading.