Author: Ram Kumar

Professor Jayaram Ramakrishnan co-authors article in Agri Bulletin

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight


Professor Jayaram Ramakrishnan, Professor of Practice, IFMR GSB, has co-authored an article titled ‘Costing Approach Adopted for MSP Fixation: A Practitioner’s Perspective’ with Dr Lakshmi Padmakumari, Assistant Professor, Finance and Accounting, Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA). The article has been published in Agri Bulletin, the quarterly flagship journal of the Agriculture Cost Management Board of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICMAI), in its March 2026 edition (Volume 4).

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Dr Rakesh Sengupta’s paper published in the ACOIT 2025 proceedings

Ram Kumar Research Spotlight

A paper by Dr Rakesh Sengupta, Assistant Professor, Psychology, SIAS, titled ‘Evaluating Continuous-Time Recurrent Neural Networks for State-Dependent EEG Forecasting’ has been published in the proceedings of the 2025 2nd Asian Conference on Intelligent Technologies (ACOIT).

About the Research
The paper explores how short-term brain activity (EEG signals) can be more accurately predicted using lightweight AI models. Such forecasting is critical for real-time neurotechnologies, including Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) and neurofeedback systems. The study benchmarks a Continuous-Time Recurrent Neural Network (CTRNN) against both classical methods and complex deep learning models. It finds that even a compact, highly interpretable CTRNN can effectively capture the non-linear dynamics of human brain activity, offering a competitive alternative to “black-box” AI models in real-time BCI applications.

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Dr Suchika Chopra Dr Sabah Siddiqui author an opinion piece in The Hindu

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Dr Suchika Chopra, Assistant Professor, Economics, SIAS, and Dr Sabah Siddiqui, Assistant Professor, Psychology, SIAS, have authored an opinion piece in The Hindu titled ‘India must use the AYUSH opportunity’. The article argues that India should strategically scale AYUSH globally by leveraging policy momentum and trade opportunities, while strengthening scientific validation, regulation, and credibility for sustained global acceptance.

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Dr Sayandeb Chowdhury presents paper and chairs session at international conference

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Dr Sayandeb Chowdhury, Senior Assistant Professor, Literature, SIAS, participated in South Asia Literature, Culture & Politics, an international conference organised by Janki Devi Memorial College, University of Delhi, at the India International Centre on 17–18 March 2026. He presented a paper on propaganda cinema titled ‘Statecraft as Pulp Fiction’. He also served as a Chair for a session on Literary Culture, Translation, and Intellectual Practice.

SIAS UG Cohort Present Research at FLAME Undergraduate Research Day 2026

Ram Kumar Student Spotlight

On March 14, 2026, two groups of undergraduate students from SIAS had their abstracts selected for presentation at the second iteration of FLAME Undergraduate Research Day 2026, held at FLAME University, Pune.

The first group, comprising Amandeep Singh (2023–27), Arush Menon (2024–28), Priyam Deorah (2023–27), Ria Vahab (2022–26), and Yashasvini Raj (2023–27), presented under the theme ‘Society, Law, and Education’ with their paper titled ‘Spaces That Remember: Labour, Gender, and Conditional Belonging in Liberal Arts Universities.’

The second group, consisting of Jharna Bamel and Tanushree Jain (2023–27), presented under the theme ‘Clinical, Developmental, and Social Psychology’ with their paper titled ‘The Negotiations of Dialogic Self: Transitioning from High School Environment to a Residential University.’

Krea-CWP faculty conduct workshop on interdisciplinary academic writing

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Dr Anannya Dasgupta, Director, Centre of Writing and Pedagogy (Krea-CWP) and Associate Professor of Literature, SIAS, and Sayantan Datta, Assistant Professor of Practice, Krea-CWP, conducted a two-day workshop titled Key Practices of Interdisciplinary Academic Writing on 17–18 March 2026. The intensive workshop introduced participants to essential practices in academic reading, writing, and presentation, equipping researchers with tools to communicate their work effectively across disciplines.

The workshop was organised by the Department of English, Mepco Schlenk Engineering College (Autonomous), Sivakasi, in collaboration with Chennai Mathematical Institute, The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, and Krea-CWP. Research scholars from different disciplines from the host institution, as well as several other regional institutions of higher education, attended the workshop.

Dr Chirag Dhara authors an opinion piece in Scroll.in

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Dr Chirag Dhara, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies, SIAS, has authored an opinion piece in Scroll.in titled ‘India’s summer forecast is a warning that extreme heat can affect democracy’.

In the article, he highlights the risk of what he terms “inequitable climate disenfranchisement,” pointing to how intense heatwaves during upcoming Assembly elections could impact voter participation.

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Dr Ramadas N publishes a research paper in Physical Review A

Ram Kumar Research Spotlight

Dr Ramadas N, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Physics, Division of Sciences, SIAS, published a research paper titled Minimal decomposition entropy and optimal representations of absolutely maximally entangled states in Physical Review A.

Abstract

Understanding and classifying multipartite entanglement is fundamental to quantum information processing. This work focuses on absolutely maximally entangled (AME) states, a class of highly entangled states characterized by their maximal entanglement across any bipartitions. To analyze and classify AME states, we employ the minimal decomposition entropy, defined as the minimum R\'{e}nyi entropy $S_q$ associated with the state’s decomposition over all local product bases. This quantity identifies the product bases in which the state is maximally localized, thereby yielding optimal representations for analyzing properties of AME states.

The team develops an efficient algorithm for computing the minimal decomposition entropy for finite $q>1$ and compare AME and Haar-random states for ( q = 2 ) and ( q = \infty ) in qubit, qutrit, and ququad systems. For ( q = 2 ), AME states of four qutrits and ququads show lower minimal entropy than generic states, indicating sparser optimal forms. For ( q = \infty ) – related to the geometric measure ofentanglement – AME states exhibit higher entanglement. The algorithm also simplifies known AME states into sparser representations, aiding in distinguishing genuinely quantum AME states from those constructible from classical combinatorial designs. The results advance the classification of AME states and demonstrate the utility of minimal decomposition entropy as both a local unitary invariant and a tool for state simplification.

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Dr Smriti Sharma publishes an article in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies

Ram Kumar Research Spotlight

Dr Smriti Sharma, Postdoctoral Fellow, Sociology and Social Anthropology, SIAS, published an article titled Packing Pareshani or Healthcare? The Affective Dimensions of Digitalisation in India’s Health Sector in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies.

In this article, author examine how digitalisation in the health sector seeks to standardise care in the name of effective service delivery. Author analyses the affective dimensions of operating a digital portal within the publicly funded health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat Yojana, by conceptualising the emic term, pareshani. In Hindi, pareshani encompasses a wide range of meanings, including worry, trouble, tension, helplessness, frustration, distress and exhaustion. Based on fifteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in a private hospital and the public insurer’s headquarters in Haryana, the author show how the intermedial specificity of pareshani undergirds payments and patient treatment. She argues that understanding the affective force of digital portals requires examining how pareshani becomes embedded in intermediaries’ everyday navigation and negotiation of bureaucratic standards and procedures that shape clinical work. More broadly, author reflect on what these affective dynamics reveal about the digital bureaucratic state and its modes of governing healthcare.

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