Author: Ram Kumar

Dr Proma Raychaudhury pens an op-ed in Anandabazar Patrika

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Dr Proma Raychaudhury, Assistant Professor, Politics, SIAS recently published an op-ed in Bengali at Anandabazar Patrika, an analysis of the Trump-Zelensky interaction through the performative approach to populist politics. Read here.
Dr Raychaudhary also delivered an invited lecture at Adamas University’s Guest Lecture Series on Exploring Women’s Participation and Representation in Indian Politics on 10 March 2025. She also delivered an online talk at a public forum on political science called Rashtrabiggan Charchakendra on 15 March 2025. Watch the talk

Dr Sambaiah Gundimeda publishes an essay in the Frontline

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Dr Sambaiah Gundimeda, Associate Professor, Politics, SIAS has published an essay, Telangana’s SC subclassification risks reinforcing old inequities in Frontline (10 March 2025).

About the Essay

Following the Supreme Court’s verdict on the sub-classification of SC reservations, the Telangana government took the initiative to implement this by categorising 59 Dalit castes into three groups based on their socio-economic and educational status. While the move aims to ensure more equitable distribution, concerns persist about dominant sub-groups potentially monopolizing the benefits.

To achieve true justice, Gundimeda suggests a merit-based equity model that considers factors such as generational access, educational background, and employment history. This model would prioritise the most disadvantaged individuals within each sub-group. Additionally, he advocates for gender justice by proposing a sub-quota for women within each category.

While Telangana’s decision is significant, its long-term success hinges on the careful and nuanced implementation of this policy to prevent further marginalization. The proposed model could serve as a framework for other states, ensuring fair representation while addressing the structural inequalities that Ambedkar envisioned in his approach to reservations.

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IFMR GSB MBA Student Ananya Manikandan Secures Second Place in Fiesta’25 – FMS Delhi

Ram Kumar Student Spotlight

Ananya Manikandan, an MBA student at IFMR GSB secured the Runner-up position in Vitarka, held as part of Fiesta’25 by FMS Delhi. The competition featured two rounds: Article Writing, where Ananya demonstrated analytical and articulation skills through thought-provoking articles, and Extempore, where she engaged in spontaneous speaking on contemporary societal issues.

As a part of the prize, Ananya has been awarded an internship opportunity with Mobile Creches, a non-profit organization dedicated to early childhood care, education, nutrition, and healthcare for children of migrant and construction workers

Professor Anil Srinivasan receives the Anjali Khandwalla Memorial Award

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Professor Anil Srinivasan, Visiting Professor of Practice, Literature and the Arts, SIAS, received the iconic Anjali Khandwalla Memorial Award. The award, instituted and presented by Dr Pradeep Khandwalla, former Director of IIM Ahmedabad, is given annually to an outstanding teacher or educator. Nominations are submitted by scholars, and the jury consists exclusively of teachers and professors. The  event was held at MICA, Ahmedabad which is Professor Srinivasan’s alma mater.

Dr Sayandeb Chowdhury writes for The Wire and Sangbad Pratidin

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Dr Sayandeb Chowdhury, Senior Assistant Professor, Literature, SIASwrote about the sophistication of a psychoanalytical approach to stardom, and the unique daring of its leading actor in Satyajit Ray’s Nayak (The Hero, 1966), starring the Bengali screen icon Uttam Kumar, which was re-released after a digital restoration across the country on February 21 2025. 

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The same film occasioned a piece in Bangla about the idea of the public in popular culture. For readers who can read Bangla, head here 

Dr Rangachary Kommanduri publishes paper in the Neurocomputing journal

Ram Kumar Research Spotlight

Dr Rangachary Kommanduri’s paper titled, ‘STAD-AI: Spatio-temporal Anomaly Detection in Videos with Attentive Dual-Stage Integration’ has been published in the Neurocomputing journal (Q1, Impact Factor = 5.5).

This work presents STAD-AI, a novel framework for video anomaly detection that combines spatio-temporal attention-based feature extraction with an attentive U-Net architecture for precise anomaly prediction.

Dr Kommanduri is Visiting Assistant Professor, Data Science at SIAS.

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Dr Chirag Dhara delivers a talk at IISER Pune

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Dr Chirag Dhara, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies, SIAS delivered a talk at IISER, Pune based on their recently published paper, ‘A scalability-centric perspective on global human development within environmental limits’ on 28 February 2025. The talk was delivered as part of the ECS Seminar and was titled, ‘What levels of development can humanity “sustainably” aspire to?’

Dr Srajana Kaikini authors a book chapter as part of the book Nation, Region, Modernity: The Art of K. Venkatappa, Routledge India (2025)

Ram Kumar Research Spotlight

Dr Srajana Kaikini, Assistant Professor, Philosophy, SIAS has penned a book chapter ‘The Plant Studies of K. Venkatappa : The Artist’s Kinship with Nature, Truth, and Rationality’ is published as part of the book Nation, Region, Modernity: The Art of K. Venkatappa, Routledge India (2025) edited by Deeptha Achar and N Pushpamala. In her chapter, Dr Kaikini situates the philosophical bearings of Venkatappa’s aesthetic and his pre-occupation with truth, nature and scientific precision by tracing his creative kinship with his contemporaries—C V Raman, the scientist, James H. Cousins, the theosophist and B G L Swamy, the botanist. 

Critical Review of the Book:

‘Bringing together a stellar group of scholars, this inter-disciplinary volume reminds us of the aesthetic importance for the study of both Indian modernity and the history of modern Indian art of K. Venkatappa as painter, sculptor, musician, art educationist, and much more.

The first comprehensive and definitive analysis of this largely overlooked but significant Telugu-origin artist of Karnataka, Nation, Region, Modernity: The Art of K. Venkatappa deftly demonstrates how the nation lives in and through the region, but also, frequently, at the expense of the region. The volume also valuably offers a model of how to engage with the lives and legacies of pioneering figures of the past in a manner that is both a necessary corrective and a critical celebration.’

—Sumathi Ramaswamy, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of History, Duke University, USA

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