Dr Sabah Siddiqui, Assistant Professor, Psychology, SIAS presented a paper at the IACS 2025 Conference in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand on July 24, 2025. The paper was titled ‘Faith Healing and Distributed Subjectivity’.
Dr Siddiqui also wrote a commentary piece on the Anti-Superstition Law titled Superstition, Science, and the limits of Law that was featured by Mad in South Asia Expert Opinions blog.
Dr Suresh Govindapuram, Assistant Professor of Economics, IFMR GSB presented a paper on Women’s Financial Inclusion and Economic Development: Evidence from India at the 23rd Annual Conference and 30th Anniversary of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies from 22-25 July 2025 at Luxembourg.
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.
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.
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, 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, 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.
Professor Chandrasekaran N was a speaker at Annual Regional Director’s Conclave 2025 organised by Institute of Directors. He spoke on the discussion topic, Impact Assessment: The Backbone of CSR Accountability.
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.
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.