Author: Ram Kumar

SIAS students conduct research guided by Dr Swayam Sampurna Panigrahi

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

SIAS alum Tanishka Nandakumar and student Hriday Shankar are conducting a research under the guidance of Dr Swayam Sampurna Panigrahi, Assistant Professor, Operations, IFMR GSB and have presented the working paper on Recycling of Lithium Ion Batteries: The Key to Sustainable EV Growth at ” SOM 2024: XXVII Annual International Conference of Society of Operations Management “, Institute of Management Technology (IMT) Ghaziabad held from, 19-21 December 2024. The same research was also presented at the “FLAME Undergraduate Research Day 2025” held at FLAME University, Pune, on 19 March 2025.

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Prajwal Parajuly, Assistant Professor of Practice, Creative Writing, SIAS continues to pen frequent articles in The Hindu.

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Prajwal Parajuly, Assistant Professor of Practice, Creative Writing, SIAS continues to pen frequent articles in The Hindu.

In Author Prajwal Parajuly dusts off his badminton skills and discovers the joy of losing gracefully the author talks about his stint at the badminton court.

In How pets, art, and strangers shaped Author Prajwal Parajuly’s Chennai home life, Parajuly talks about inhabiting a Chennai space where art, noise, and occasional mayhem make solitude feel strangely overrated.

In Author Prajwal Parajuly writes a love letter to Chennai on its 386th birthday , the author grumbles, marvels, and ultimately falls for Chennai.

In Author Prajwal Parajuly discovers that happiness in Sri City begins with a functioning kitchen Prajwal Parajuly morphs into Martha Stewart as he tackles dampness, insects and shattered glass.

In Author Prajwal Parajuly chases the perfect dumpling and finds it in Chennai, the author finds that  Chennai might just hold the answer to his steamed-bun prayers.

In Prajwal Parajuly hates Chennai’s airport, cabs and parks. What about the weather? Prajwal Parajuly has to contend with its airport’s packed golf cars, chaotic cab drivers and befuddling secret passes for walks in the park.

In Author Prajwal Parajuly tries Chatti in New York and eats his words, Prajwal queuesup for tender coconut pudding and ghee rice in New York’s Chatti, the first foreign foray of Chef Regi of the Kappa Chakka Kandhari fame.

In his article Author Prajwal Parajuly’s newly minted fondness for train journeys, , Prajwal writes about some of the experiences encountered while commuting by train.

In Author Prajwal Parajuly finds joy in dosa-less dinners and disappearing laundry the author discusses how Sri City may not have a beach, a bar, or reliable laundromats, but offers something rarer; discipline, dodgy poker, occasional rocket launches, and a slow life. 

In Is Madras Club the best club in the country? Author Prajwal Parajuly thinks so, Prajwal makes a case for why the Madras Club is without question the Number One club in the country.  

In Author Prajwal Parajuly luxuriates in door delivery at Sri City  talks about his first few weeks at Sri City. Of how amid late Amazon deliveries, salvation comes in the form of a park and a walking track which may be turned into a building any day.

In Author Prajwal Parajuly on why chutney, not idli, is his go-to dish, Parajuly on his love for Murugan Idli’s chutneys, Parajuly proclaims his undeterred love for Murugan Idli’s chutneys.

In Author Prajwal Parajuly discovers the organised charm of Sri City, he pens a delightful account of stepping into Sri City — a strangely cosmopolitan experience marked by the discovery of good ramen, slithering snakes, and the feeling of living in a bizarre little American sliver of India.

​​Dr Rakesh Sengupta publishes a paper at the interface of quantum computing and neuroscience

Ram Kumar Research Spotlight

Dr Rakesh Sengupta, Assistant Professor, Psychology, SIAS, has published a paper titled Mapping additive recurrent neural networks to quantum neural networks. It is a work at the interface of quantum computing and neuroscience. In this work, the author maps classical OCOS RNN dynamics into a quantum Hamiltonian (with decay, activation, and tunable interactions) and study its open‑system behavior under amplitude‑damping and dephasing. Key findings include sustained oscillations in Pauli expectations, slow purity decay, and exploration of the dynamics that go beyond classical RNN fixed‑point behavior.

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Krea University hosts Convocation 2025

Ram Kumar News
Krea University hosts Convocation 2025

Krea University’s Convocation 2025 witnessed the graduation of 400 students from across undergraduate, masters and doctoral programme. Professor Ram Ramaswamy, Former Vice Chancellor, University of Hyderabad and Honorary Professor, Department of Physics, IIT Delhi was the Chief Guest at the ceremony.

On June 14, Krea University hosted its fourth Convocation ceremony at The Music Academy, Chennai. The event witnessed the graduation of the UG Cohort of School of Interwoven Arts and Sciences (SIAS) (2025), the 2-year MBA Cohort of IFMR Graduate School of Business (GSB) (2025), the 3-year L&T MBA Cohort of IFMR GSB (2025) and the PhD Cohort of IFMR GSB (2025).

Krea University’s Convocation 2025 also witnessed the conferral of the of the Doctor of Science, honoris causa (D.Sc.), upon Professor Vivek Borkar, Emeritus Fellow, IIT Bombay, and the Doctor of Letters, honoris causa (D.Litt.), upon Dr Geetanjali Shree, author and novelist.

The graduating students were conferred with degrees in the presence of  Chancellor of Krea University, Lakshmi Narayanan along with members from the Governing Council and Board of Management at Krea such as Tara Thiagarajan, Roxana Daver, Paula Mariwala, Vidya Vencatesan, Amitava Saha, Kapil Viswanathan, S Mahalingam, and Rajeev Mecheri. Dean of SIAS, Dr Prithvi Datta Chandra Shobhi, Dean of Research, Professor Sivakumar Srinivasan and other faculty members were also present.

In his address to the graduates, Chancellor Lakshmi Narayanan said, “By the coming decade, we will see the liberal arts, the sciences and the management graduates at the forefront of industries that blend human intuition with technological prowess – where art meets algorithm, where creativity meets data science, and ethical reasoning grounds innovation. Whether in business, ecology, education, public service, the arts, or tech – you will be there, making a difference.”

Addressing the graduates, Professor Ram Ramaswamy said, “The value of a liberal education cannot be underestimated. When one lives a relatively long adulthood, fifty years or more for most of us here, one needs to be engaged with the world around us in an intense manner and one needs also to be equipped to respond to changes, and the longer one lives, the more drastic the changes tend to be. We have to be more than passengers.”

Professor Akhila Ramnarayan​ pens a review essay in Scroll.in

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Professor Akhila Ramnarayan​, Visiting Professor of Practice, Literature and the Arts, SIAS has penned a review essay on Robert Macfarlane’s new book, titled ‘Is a River Alive?’: Radical resistance and solidarity between humans and the natural world​ in Scroll.in.

Robert Macfarlane is internationally renowned for his writing on nature, people, and place. He is the Professor of Literature and the Environmental Humanities, and Fellow of Emmanuel College, at the University of Cambridge.

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​Dr Jayaram Ramakrishnan publishes in the bi-monthly flagship journal of the MSME & Startup Promotion Board of ICMAI

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

​Dr Jayaram Ramakrishnan, Professor of Practice, IFMR GSB, has authored an article on Cost Management for manufacturing SMEs – A Framework. The same has been published in MSME Tidbits, t​he bi-monthly flagship journal of the MSME & Startup Promotion Board of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICMAI), in their June edition.

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