Author: Ram Kumar

​A paper co-authored by Dr Suresh Govindapuram published in the Energy Nexus journal.

Ram Kumar Research Spotlight

​A paper co-authored by Dr Suresh Govindapuram, Assistant Professor of Economics, IFMR GSB titled Assessing Energy Efficiency of Indian Chemical Industry: Examine the Role of Innovation and Regional Heterogeneity has been published in the Energy Nexus journal.

This study aims to measure energy efficiency levels and the impact of technological innovation and regional heterogeneity on energy efficiency. Hence, the team uses Indian chemical industry data covering 85 firms from 2003-04 to 2018-19. First, they employ the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) to measure total factor energy efficiency (TFEE). Second, they use truncated regression to assess the effect of innovation and other factors. Their time-varying TFEE has a mean level of 0.84. Most firms can improve their energy efficiency by 15%. Hence, a substantial energy-saving opportunity exists in the case of the chemical industry in India. The second-stage results suggest that firms’ innovative capability accumulates over time, enabling them to achieve higher energy efficiency. Additionally, older firms perform better than younger ones in terms of TFEE. However, having facilities at different locations reduces energy efficiency, while the number of products produced does not significantly impact energy efficiency. The study emphasises the need to consider regional heterogeneity and technological gaps when developing strategies to enhance energy efficiency at the firm level. The findings have significant implications for regulating the manufacturing sector, providing insights for policymakers and industry practitioners to design effective strategies to promote energy efficiency.

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Dr Vivek Tewary and Sayantan Datta have been awarded the “Small Research Grant” by FAST India towards development of their upcoming book

Ram Kumar Research Spotlight

Dr Vivek Tewary, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, SIAS and Sayantan Datta, Assistant Professor of Practice, Krea-CWP, have been awarded a ‘Small Research Grant’ by the Foundation for Advancement of Science & Technology (FAST) India under their India Science Book Fellowship scheme. The award will support the duo in writing their popular science book tentatively titled Equations of Life: How the Living World Speaks Mathematics, and Why We Should Learn to Listen. 

About Equations of Life: Equations of Life invites readers to wonder at the world of mathematical biology by focusing on the story of five mathematical equations that changed the course of biology, mathematics – and, at times, the world. These equations describe various biological phenomena at different scales: from molecular interactions within a single cell to movement of a large number of organisms in response to a signal. This book asks readers to consider an uncomfortable proposition: that the language of mathematics – artificial in many ways, and carefully crafted into abstraction by human beings – might be, at times, our best chance at uncovering the mysteries of the living world, a messy but beautiful marvel of nature.

About the India Science Book Fellowship: FAST-India’s India Science Book Fellowship is an incredibly competitive fellowship that seeks to support the writing of non-fiction popular science books by scientists, science writers, and communicators.

Dr Praveen Bhagawan presents a paper at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Dr Praveen Bhagawan, Associate Professor, Finance, Accounting and Quantitative Finance, IFMR GSB presented a research paper (co-authored with Dr Jyoti Prasad Mukhopadhyay, Associate Professor, Economics, IFMR GSB and PhD scholar Soumyabrata Basu ) titled ‘Creditor Rights and Tax Avoidance: Evidence from Quasi-natural Experiment in India’ at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC). After the presentation, he also interacted with PhD students of IIMC and provided feedback on their papers.

Dr Praveen Bhagawan presents at the 2025 Vietnam Symposium in Entrepreneurship, Finance, and Innovation (VSEFI2025)

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Dr Praveen Bhagawan, Associate Professor, Finance, Accounting and Quantitative Finance, IFMR GSB presented one of his research papers (co-authored with Dr Jyoti Prasad Mukhopadhyay, Associate Professor, Economics, IFMR GSB and Navya Muricken, faculty member at ICFAI Business School, Bangalore) ‘Does Female Presence on Corporate Boards matter for Firm`s Cost of Equity? Evidence from Indian Firms’ at the 2025 Vietnam Symposium in Entrepreneurship, Finance, and Innovation (VSEFI2025), which was held on 10 and 11 July 2025 in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Dr Sayandeb Chowdhury co-authors a chapter in World Cup! History, Politics, and Art of the Beautiful Game

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Dr Sayandeb Chowdhury, Senior Assistant Professor, Literature, SIAS has co-authored a chapter with Dr Rajendran Narayanan, Azim Premji University, in Daniel Noemi Voionmaa edited World Cup! History, Politics, and Art of the Beautiful Game (Vernon Press, 2025). Bringing together studies of footballing history in the subcontinent, planetary sociology of fandom, literary and cinematic texts, and anecdotal and experiential observations, the chapter provocatively conceives the idea of ‘fanship’, an imagined citizenship that fans of a footballing minion seek of a footballing powerhouse during the carnivalesque heterotopia of the football World Cup, and what that means in a country incrementally in the stranglehold of ultra-jingoism, cricketing and otherwise.

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Sayantan Datta authors an editorial in Indian Journal of Medical Ethics

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Sayantan Datta, Assistant Professor of Practice, Krea-CWP has authored an editorial titled Recording sex and gender data in clinical settings published by the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics. In the editorial, they highlight potential issues in the collection of sex data in clinical settings, and suggest that an accurate, ethical, and transgender- and intersex-affirmative medical practice entails the mandatory collection of both sex and gender data, and in more than two categories.

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Professor Govindarajan T R delivers various talks on his academic visit to Canada

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

On his academic visit to Canada, Professor Govindarajan T R, Visiting Professor, Physics​ delivered a talk on ‘Fuzzy dark matter and primordial black hole’​ at McGill University, Montreal on 15 July 2025 and ‘Overluminous Supernovae and Hubble tension’ at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo on 21 July 2025.

Fuzzy dark matter and primordial black hole
The center of most galaxies have a super massive black hole whose presence has remained a mystery. Now we have evidence that galaxies existed as early as 400 million years after the big bang. At the same time 90% of galaxy mass is made up of dark matter. This also posed problems in identifying the nature of the particle which does not interact with normal matter except through gravity. But it aids in the formation and stability of the galaxy. Ultralight particles are one of the promising candidates. We propose one such candidate which can at the same time provide some link to understand the supermassive black holes through providing seeds for ​ primordial blackholes.

​Overluminous Supernovae and Hubble tension
Type Ia supernovae (SNe\,Ia) serve as crucial cosmological distance​ indicators due to their empirical consistency in decline rates with peak​ luminosity. This facilitates finding $H_0$. Nevertheless, a statistically​ significant difference persists between $H_0$ values derived from early and late-time measurements, a phenomenon known as the Hubble tension.​ Furthermore, recent observations have identified a subset of over-luminous SNe\,Ia, characterized by peak luminosities exceeding the nominal range and faster decline rates. These discoveries raise questions regarding the reliability of SNe\,Ia as standard candles in measuring cosmological distances. We present the Bayesian analysis of over-luminous SNe\,Ia and show that they yield lower $H_0$ estimates, exhibiting closer concordance with $H_0$ estimates derived from early-universe data. This investigation potentially represents a step​ toward addressing the Hubble tension.

SIAS Alum Inika Khosla’s Capstone Published in Cambridge Journal of Human Behaviour

Ram Kumar Student Spotlight

We are delighted to share that Inika Khosla, Alum, SIAS Cohort of 2020 – 2023, has had her Psychology capstone dissertation published in the Cambridge Journal of Human Behaviour. Titled Exploring Community-based Alcohol Rehabilitation in India: A Case Study of a Community Rehabilitation and Support Centre, the paper was guided by Dr Sabah Siddiqui, Assistant Professor of Psychology, SIAS.

Sara Abraham pens an article for Frontline- The Hindu

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

​Sara Abraham, Visiting Faculty, SIAS has authored an article titled Tamil Nadu’s migrant worker survey: Missing the crucial questions, and answers for Frontline – The Hindu. The article discussed a survey undertaken by the Tamil Nadu government to understand the work and living conditions of 811 inter-State migrant workers in Chennai and its surroundings. The author shares how the survey finally acknowledges millions of invisible workers but ignores illegal recruitment networks and employer violations that keep them poor.

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