Dr Sayandeb Chowdhury, Senior Assistant Professor, Literature, SIAS, delivered a talk in Kolkata on 22 August at the invitation of DAG (formerly Delhi Art Gallery). The talk, on the idea of singularity in image tropes, was occasioned by the DAG exhibition Light and Shadow: Satyajit Ray Through Nemai Ghosh’s Lens and was titled ‘An Eye for an Eye, or Watching Ray Seeing’.
A research paper by Jyothis Franklin, PhD scholar and Dr Jayasankar Ramanathan, Associate Professor, Marketing, IFMR GSB titled Understanding the Literature on Advertising Ethics Using Morphological Analysis, has been published in the Indian Journal of Marketing.
Abstract of the Paper
Purpose : This study reviews the literature on advertising ethics and identified research gaps to provide scope for future work.
Design/Methodology/Approach : The relevant literature was identified through a search of Scopus and Web of Science. The final sample of 174 articles was carefully read to determine dimensions and variants, which were used in morphological analysis to construct a cross-consistency matrix and obtain a comprehensive understanding of the domain of advertising ethics. The cross-consistency matrix was used to identify explored and unexplored areas of study.
Findings : A comprehensive morphological analysis framework, encompassing six dimensions and 27 variants of advertising ethics research was constructed, leading to the identification of 87 research gaps.
Practical Implications : Managers can use the MA framework as a guide for understanding advertising ethics and acting accordingly. Researchers can utilise the framework and the identified research gaps to extend the literature.
Originality/Value : This study is the first in the advertising ethics literature to construct a morphological analysis framework. A comprehensive literature search was undertaken by searching both Scopus and Web of Science databases.
Two research papers co-authored by Prerona Jana, MBA Cohort of 2024 – 2026, IFMR GSB, have been published. Subtractive proteomics unravel the potency of D-alanine-D-alanine ligase as the drug target for Burkholderia pseudomallei in International Journal of Biological Macromolecules. Two Birds with One Stone: Targeting Wild Type and Drug Resistant Mutant ALK using Brute Force Screening, MD Simulation and NCI in IEEE. These works were initiated during her undergraduate programme in Biotechnology. She’s currently pursuing her master’s at IFMR GSB.
Sibling, co-founded by three kreators – Mitansh Aggarwal, Adwitiya Roy Viney Jain, was selected for Catalyst AIC (Supported by AIM, NITI Aayog)’s Startup School Innovation Challenge 2025. Sibling will be part of an intensive three-month incubation program designed for early-stage ventures with scalable ideas.
Program: 3-month incubation program (7th edition) run by Catalyst AIC under NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission.
Focus: Sector-agnostic, designed for early-stage ventures with scalable ideas or prototypes.
Structure: Expert-led sessions, mentorship office hours, and monthly milestone check-ins.
Outcome: Culminates in a Demo Day (Nov 2025) with 8 – 10 angel investors; opportunity for ₹5 lakh Startup India seed grants and access to Catalyst AIC’s equity fund.
Significance: Prestigious national-level incubation program providing visibility, mentorship, and funding opportunities.
About the start-up: Sibling is a digital mental health platform transforming how schools deliver student wellbeing. While many schools have counselors and resources, these services are often underutilised due to poor access, low visibility, and fragmented processes. Sibling bridges this gap through three integrated features: a Resource Hub offering curated content and interactive tools to build awareness; Near Peer Mentorship connecting students with trained college mentors for relatable support; and ReachOut, a confidential booking system that links students directly to school counselors with encrypted communication and case history tracking. By unifying education, mentorship, and professional care, Sibling makes mental health support accessible, stigma-free, and effective within schools.
Dr Debankur Saha, Assistant Professor, Marketing, Area Chair – Marketing, IFMR GSB has recently published a paper titled The Call of the Wild: What Draws Birdwatching Tourists to Eco-Avitourism? (co-authored with Prof. Anirban Chakraborty, IIM Lucknow), in Current Issues in Tourism (ABDC–A / Scopus–Q1, Impact factor – 4.6, Cite Score – 15.5).
The study explores the motivations and behaviours of birdwatching tourists within the ecotourism framework, offering insights that can guide policymakers and planners in designing conservation-focused, responsible tourism experiences.
The Major Minor Mela, held on 9 and 10 August 2025 was a great success. Hosted by the Ministry of Learning of the SIAS Student Government in collaboration with some of the academic clubs and societies under SIAS, the event aimed to give first-year students a comprehensive and interactive introduction to the diverse academic disciplines available at SIAS.
Day one featured Open Houses, where senior students delivered presentations detailing the discipline-wise requirements, ensuring first-years had a clear understanding of their academic options. Day two presented an interactive fair where students could visit different booths, chat with seniors, and get a more personal feel for the disciplines they were interested in.
The event was well-attended, with many first-year students eager to learn and participate. Feedback from attendees highlighted the interactive and informative nature of the Mela, and these insights will be invaluable in making future iterations even more impactful. Overall, the Major Minor Mela brought the university community together, sparking curiosity and excitement about academic exploration within and beyond the boundaries of Krea.
(Input by Trishna Saha, SIAS Cohort of 2023-26)
Kaveri Bharath, Visiting Professor, Global Arts, SIAS is showcasing a solo show, Fifty-50, which opened on the evening of 8 August, 2025, at Espace 24 (the gallery of the Alliance Francaise of Madras). After a very warm welcome by the Director of the Alliance, and a small cake cutting to commemorate the artist’s birthday, the doors were opened by the artist’s close family. Krea faculty members, Dr Akhila Ramnarayan, Dr Gowhar Fazili, Dr Annu Jalais, Prajwal Parajuly, and Sara Abraham attended the opening too.
The show has a collection of ceramics ranging from sculptural installations to functional cups and plates, as well as some mini ceramic vases framed by quilted textile panels, also made by Kaveri. There are also watercolour paintings and pencil sketches on display. A set of shelves with 50 ceramic drinking forms on it, is titled “50 Cups”, and beside it is a wall full of pencil and charcoal drawings of 5 faces, titled collectively as “50 Mugs”!
The exhibition also has a corner with colours, pencils, and paper set up on an easel and another sheet of paper that scrolls down the wall, where the visitors and viewers are invited to leave their mark, by adding a squiggle or drawing.
The exhibition features works from her own studio as well as from ones she’s made at other studios, over the years. The oldest piece in the show being a vase from 1999, and the more recent pieces being from her time in Japan in April-May 2025. There are even pieces that she made/painted as recently as July 2025!
Kaveri herself will be at the gallery on the 14, 17, and the 22 of August, if you would like to see it and get a personal guided tour of the exhibition. The gallery is at the Alliance Francaise on College Road, Nungambakkam, Chennai. The timings are 10.30 am to 6.30 pm, including Sundays. However it will be closed on Independence Day and Krishna Jayanti, (15 and 16.Aug). The last day to be able to catch the show is 22 of August.
Artist’s Statement:
The main impetus to have this show was my 50th birthday. Fifty seemed like a significant milestone and cause to celebrate. Every aspect of this show – the venue, the ceramics, quilted panels, sketches, and the paintings – is significant to my life and work.
Inspired by my grandfather’s sculpting, I always played in mud and clay as a kid. Reconnecting to clay in my adult life, at Golden Bridge Pottery, Pondicherry, I learnt the ways of clay from Ray and Debby. Their generosity and ways of seeing have given me a lifelong love for ceramics and teaching too! These last 30+ years of making, teaching, and thinking through clay are represented in the ceramics on display here.
I managed to find my way to a life in art and then eventually in clay, while spending almost every day in the early 1990s at the Alliance Francaise de Madras, learning French and working on plays with Magic Lantern. This makes this venue all the more special to have this milestone celebration in.
When I was restricted from working in my studio due to health concerns after a miscarriage, I learnt to quilt with my grandmother and channeled into the fabric, my creative urge to make. As a “thank you” nod to that phase and learning, I have included a few quilted frames here.Although I more or less stopped sketching since I took up clay, the pandemic lockdowns re-kindled my urge to use pencil and paper again. I found a patient guide in the Chennai theatre and watercolour artist, Dhanushkodi. With his encouragement and guidance over Skype, I even ventured into watercolours, a medium that I had always feared. The pencil drawings and watercolour paintings here are from that period and after.
Although this is supposed to be a “solo” show, no one can truly make it alone. I am because you are. And so, there is the interactive corner, where you get to leave your mark on this show, too. Interact with the marks left by others and leave a mark of your own.
All of this put together is 50-Fifty!
50-50 of ceramics and other media
50-50 of old work and new
50-50 of the future and of nostalgia
50-50 of me and of you.
Dr Preeti Sampat, Associate Professor, Sociology & Social Anthropology, SIAS was invited to deliver a session entitled ‘Compassionate Access to Land and it’s Affordances’ at a hybrid fellowship course “Compassionate Spaces”, developed by the Institute of Palliative Medicine, Calicut, Kerala and the Kerala chapter of the Indian Institute of Architects. The fellowship is an attempt to explore inner and outer spaces, and how to make them compassionate. Dr Sampat’s session discussed land and its more than human affordances through their historically particular material and social relationalities.
A research paper entitled The Rentier Economy of Growth Infrastructures: Value Appropriation without Adequate Accumulation in India by Dr Preeti Sampat, Associate Professor, Sociology & Social Anthropology, SIAS has been published in published in Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography.
Paper abstract: This paper draws on long-term research around Dholera smart city in Gujarat; the experience with special economic zones nationally and in Goa; and national data on key accumulation processes such as manufacturing and construction. The analyses reveal three distinct but overlapping moments of rent appropriation around what author terms “growth infrastructures,” the inaugural moment of project announcement; the subsequent moment of land allotments to capital; and the third moment of development, lease, and sale. A key contradiction unfolds as growth infrastructures develop: value appropriation from land rent intensifies, but anticipated accumulation from investments remains elusive.
Dr Praveen Bhagawan, Associate Professor, Finance, Accounting and Quantitative Finance, IFMR GSB presented multiple papers in various institutions at Hyderabad.
Dr Bhagawan presented one of his papers (co-authored with my faculty colleague Jyoti Prasad Mukhopadhyay and Navya J Muricken, a faculty member at ICFAI Business School, Bangalore) titled ‘Does Female Presence on Corporate Boards matter for Firm`s Cost of Equity? Evidence from Indian Firms’ at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.
He also presented another of his papers (co-authored with my Dr Jyoti Prasad Mukhopadhyay, Associate Professor, Economics, IFMR GSB and Soumyabrata Basu, PhD scholar, IFMR GSB) titled ‘Creditor Rights and Firm`s Cost of Debt: Empirical Evidence from Indian Firms’ at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus.
The third paper presented by him ( co-authored with my Dr Jyoti Prasad Mukhopadhyay, Associate Professor, Economics, IFMR GSB and Soumyabrata Basu, PhD scholar, IFMR GSB ) titled ‘Creditor Rights and Tax Avoidance: Empirical Evidence from Quasi-natural Experiment in India’ was at University of Hyderabad.
