Author: Ram Kumar

Soumyabrata Basu, PhD student, IFMR GSB presented a paper and chaired a session at a conference in Portugal

Ram Kumar Spotlight, Student Spotlight

Soumyabrata Basu, a PhD student at IFMR GSB, Krea University, presented a paper titled Creditor Rights and Firm’s Cost of Debt: Empirical Evidence from Indian Firms at the prestigious 33rd European Financial Management Association Conference, held at the Lisbon School of Economics and Management in Portugal. The paper was co-authored with Dr Praveen Bhagawan, Associate Professor and Area Chair of Finance, Accounting, and Quantitative Finance, IFMR GSB, and Dr Jyoti Prasad Mukhopadhyay, Associate Professor and Area Chair of Economics, IFMR GSB. In addition to presenting, Soumyabrata Basu also served as a Session Chair for one of the presentation tracks.

Sayantan Datta’s second children’s book, “Grace: One Engineer’s Fight to Make Science Education Accessible for All” listed in the Parag Honour List 2024

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

A children’s book by Sayantan Datta, Assistant Professor of Practice at the Centre for Writing and Pedagogy (CWP), Krea University, titled Grace: One Engineer’s Fight to Make Science Education Accessible for All, has been listed in the Parag Honour List 2024. 

The book has been listed in the Young Reader (7+), Non-Fiction category. Priya Dali, the creative director of Gaysi, illustrated the book, which was published by Pratham Books. The book has been translated into six other languages.

The Parag Honour List is an annual curated collection of “outstanding books in English and Hindi, for children, young readers and young adults.” An initiative of Tata Trusts, the List is one of the most prestigious honours for children’s literature in India.

The citation for Datta’s award reads, “Perhaps the first children’s book in India that chronicles a significant transgender public figure, Grace Banu. The engaging storyline, along with plentiful illustrations shape an interesting narrative, introducing children to a theme they may not have encountered often. Written by a queer-trans author, this is a significant representation in Indian CL. A great book to help children think about gender and caste realities.”

All books listed in Parag Honour List 2024 can be seen here.

Read the book for free here

Dr Proma Raychaudhury Presents a Research Paper at the ICAS:MP and CeMIS-Göttingen Workshop

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Dr Proma Raychaudhury, Assistant Professor of Politics, SIAS, Krea University presented her research paper titled Gendering political party culture in contemporary West Bengal: A study of Women’s institutional belonging in the AITC at the ICAS:MP and CeMIS-Göttingen Workshop on Metamorphoses of the Political: Bengal in the New Millennium 2.0, held in Göttingen, Germany on  19-21 June, 2024.

All About Research and Findings

Ram Kumar Student Spotlight

Deesha Jeppu, PG Diploma Student, SIAS, Krea University presented a poster of her PG Diploma Capstone thesis at the IWEC24 Conference, earlier this month. Her study finds that among Indian bird species, morphological traits related to resource needs and movement behaviour are reliable predictors of extinction risk, while reproductive traits play a lesser role. This work was carried out under the guidance/supervision of Dr Shivani Jadeja, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, SIAS, Krea University. By participating in the conference, she was able to gain valuable feedback about ways in which she could improve her study and became familiar with how to present her work comprehensively. The opportunity also allowed her to network and form valuable connections with people who work within this field.

Click here to access the poster

Deesha Jeppu, PG Diploma Student, SIAS, Krea University, also tagged butterflies as a part of her independent study course with Dr Shivani Jadeja, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, SIAS, Krea University, under whose guidance the project is being carried out with funding support from Krea University.  The fieldwork she participated in was part of an independent study guided by Dr Shivani Jadeja and was focused on observing Danainae butterfly congregations in the Western Ghats. It aimed to understand individual and population-level ecology by tagging butterflies for movement tracking and collecting morphometric data. It also monitored known congregation sites to identify key factors influencing their location and size. Deesha helped capture and tag butterflies and collect data about their congregation sites. These species are migratory and travel between the Eastern (where the campus is located, so it was exciting for her to see them on campus) and the Western Ghats. She learnt valuable skills about basic field equipment and study and data planning in ecological research. She also gained a deeper appreciation for the endurance and knowledge required to maneuver safely through the terrain they were working in.

Tracking the Flight: Citizen Scientists and Butterfly Lovers Needed to Aid Butterfly Migration Study in India

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight
Tracking the Flight: Citizen Scientists and Butterfly Lovers Needed to Aid Butterfly Migration Study in India

An article published in The Hindu highlights the work by P A Vinayan, Research Assistant, Krea University and Programme Coordinator, Ferns Nature Conservation Society. Vinayan is seeking help from butterfly enthusiasts and citizen scientists to better understand the migratory movements of milkweed butterflies in peninsular India. Studying the migratory movements of animals is crucial to understanding their ecology and possible threats to their migratory behaviour in a changing environment. Vinayan tagged milkweed butterflies (blue tigers and crows) with unique IDs in Wayanad Kerala and is now looking for resightings in the Eastern Ghats and Plains. This work is being carried out under the guidance of Dr Shivani Jadeja, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, SIAS, Krea University with funding support from Krea University.

To find out how you can support the project by helping find tagged butterflies, click here. 

To read the article in The Hindu, click here. 

Writer’s Workshop: Writing to Show off Reading with Dr Anannya Dasgupta

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Dr Anannya Dasgupta, Director, Centre for Writing & Pedagogy (CWP) at Krea University and Associate Professor of Literature, SIAS, facilitates a workshop titled Writing to Show off Reading, taking place on 21 June, 2024 at Sunnyside, Palavakkam, Chennai. This workshop is curated for children in middle school and above, to help them learn how reading can improve their writing. Through close reading exercises, they will practice writing that shows their understanding of what they read. By working on both reading and writing skills, children will become better readers and more expressive writers.

For details, click here.

Amanjit Kaur Ahuja and Sayantan Datta Speaking at the Webinar ‘Making Campuses a Safe and Inclusive Place for All’

Ram Kumar Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Amanjit Kaur Ahuja, Director, Student Services, Krea University and Sayantan Datta, Assistant Professor of Practice at the Centre for Writing & Pedagogy (CWP), Krea University, were invited to speak in a webinar organized by the Symbiosis Centre for Emotional Wellbeing on 18 June 2024. The webinar was titled Making Campuses a Safe and Inclusive Place for All. 

Amanjit drew upon her experience as an administrator to speak about the steps that administrators could take to ensure that students from different marginal backgrounds – especially queer, trans and intersex students – are able to inhabit campuses without the fear of discrimination or prejudice. In addition, Sayantan drew upon their lived experience and research documenting queer, transgender and intersex peoples’ experiences in Indian science institutes to talk about challenges that gender- and sexually marginalized students face on campuses. Both of them spoke about the need to work with the system even as they work actively towards systemic changes.

For the webinar poster, click here

Dr Sambaiah Gundimeda Publishes a Book Review of Gogu Shyamala’s ‘Nene Balanni: T. N. Sadalaxmi Batuku Katha [I Am the Strength: T. N. Sadalaxmi’s Life Story]’

Ram Kumar Research Spotlight

The June 2024 issue of Social Change (a Sage Journal) carried a book review by Dr Sambaiah Gundimeda, Associate Professor of Politics, SIAS, Krea University. Dr Gundimeda reviewed Gogu Shyamala’s Nene Balanni: T. N. Sadalaxmi Batuku Katha [I Am the Strength: T. N. Sadalaxmi’s Life Story], published in Telugu by the Hyderabad Book Trust (2011). 

“Within the patriarchal hierarchy of Hindu society, it is a rarity to find accounts celebrating the lives and achievements of dalit women. Yet Gogu Shyamala’s Nene Balanni: T. N. Sadalaxmi Batuku Katha [I Am the Strength: T. N. Sadalaxmi’s Life Story] shines as a remarkable exception, illuminating the journey of T. N. Sadalaxmi. Her story is not just inspirational, but deserving of global recognition, resonating with advocates for women’s empowerment and those who champion women’s potential in politics. T. N. Sadalaxmi’s narrative is striking for two significant reasons. First, she rose from the depths of the Mehtar caste, one of the most marginalised within the dalit community in the Nizam’s Hyderabad region, to become the esteemed first deputy assembly speaker of Andhra Pradesh. Second, her life’s mission was dedicated to uplifting marginalised communities and advocating for rights across all levels of society. Her tale is deeply intertwined with the essence of Telugu society and politics, reflecting the spirit of the Telugu nation from the late 1940s to the 1990s,” writes Dr Gundimeda. 

To read Dr Gundimeda’s book review, click here. 

Link to the book review published in the journal Social Change. 

Manavi Sharma from SIAS pens articles for ThePrint 

Ram Kumar Student Spotlight

Manavi Sharma is a second-year Politics major and Social Studies minor at SIAS, Krea University. As part of her internship with ThePrint, she has been working closely with the Editorial Team, analysing election data from the 2024 General Elections. Her work involves collecting, compiling, and analysing data using both quantitative and qualitative methods to identify trends. She is currently writing ground reports on the inclusion and conceptualisation of secularism in Indian textbooks (focusing on CBSE-NCERT) and the politics of water as the water crisis unfolds in the national capital. Interning with ThePrint has given her a deeper understanding of running a newspaper and the power of the written word, which will aid her in planning Krea University’s newspaper, Leher.

Article 1: https://theprint.in/environment/women-more-vulnerable-to-rising-temperatures-polluted-air-heat-related-deaths-on-rise-in-india/2105226/?amp

Article 2: https://theprint.in/diplomacy/what-is-the-modi-mirage-why-report-is-contesting-claim-of-indias-enhanced-global-standing/2093291/?amp

Article 3:https://theprint.in/world/how-predators-are-drawn-to-ads-featuring-young-girls-on-instagram-nyt-investigation/2103310/?amp

Article 4: https://theprint.in/world/what-7-bn-minerals-for-infra-pact-with-china-could-mean-for-democratic-republic-of-congo/2135274/