Author: Ram Kumar

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 0 Comment 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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Dr Chirag Dhara delivers a talk at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology

Ram Kumar 0 Comment Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Dr Chirag Dhara, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies, SIAS delivered a talk at the Prof R Ananthakrishnan Colloquium at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune on 25 February 2025. The talk was titled “Is India a good or bad performer on climate change?”

Abstract of the talk

Climate performance indices are widely used to evaluate national climate action efforts, but significant discrepancies exist among prominent indices such as the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), and Climate Action Tracker (CAT). These divergences have led to contentious public disagreements between governments and index developers in the past.

Divergences stem from methodological choices that reflect different underlying assumptions about climate performance evaluation. In particular, our analysis finds that the extent of emphasis on equity can lead to widely divergent, even contradictory, assessments by indices.

We introduce a conceptual framework to categorise performance indices based on the worldviews/perspective they encode, often unknown even to the index developer. Our results demonstrate that indices sharing similar underlying perspectives tend to produce concordant rankings. We call for an explicit articulation of perspectives encoded in indices based on our framework, and hypothesize that this would enable more constructive resolution of conflicts. 

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Dr Suchika Chopra presents research paper at IIT Bombay 

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Dr Suchika Chopra, Assistant Professor, Economics, SIAS recently presented the research paper, titled ‘Effects of Health Shocks on Time Spent in Home Production’, at IIT Bombay from 17-19 February organised by YSI INET Economics. This paper examines the non-monetary costs associated with health shocks and evaluates whether incorporating home production helps sustain effective consumption during a health shock or exacerbates its overall impact. 

Dr Vivek Tewary delivers a lecture at discussion meeting on ‘Quantitative Theory of Homogenization’ at IIT Bombay 

Ram Kumar 0 Comment Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Dr Vivek Tewary, Assistant Professor, Mathematics, SIAS recently delivered a lecture at a discussion meeting on ‘Quantitative Theory of Homogenization’ at IIT Bombay held from 17 to 22 February 2025. Dr Tewary’s lecture was titled, Schauder Estimates for Divergence-Form Systems’.

Schauder theory in regularity theory of PDEs is a perturbative method to transfer the regularity of coefficients to the solutions. These methods are classical and form a base for any and all questions of regularity such as those that pertain to homogenization where uniform estimates can be obtained.

The workshop is on multiscale methods in Mathematics particularly as they apply to questions of quantitative homogenization. Homogenization, loosely speaking, is the study of differential equations with rapidly oscillatory coefficients. The workshop showcased a collection of results (both old and new) dealing with convergence rates and uniform (with respect to a small parameter) regularity estimates. It featured lectures by Proffesor Christophe Prange of Cergy Paris Universite on Large Scale Regularity in Homogenization.

View lecture recordings, here 

Professor Bishnu Mohapatra’s Barshavatara published by Speaking Tiger Books

Ram Kumar 0 Comment Research Spotlight

We are thrilled to share Professor Bishnu Mohapatra’s most recent volume of poetry, Barshavatara, has been published in English translation as Rain Incarnations by Speaking Tiger Books. The Odia volume was published in 2022 by Paschima Publications, Bhubaneswar. Professor Mohapatra is Professor, Politics, SIAS and Director, Moturi Satyanarayana Centre for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Krea University.

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Dr Lakshmi Narayanan awarded PM Early Career Research Grant by Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF)

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Dr Lakshmi Narayanan, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies, SIAS has received funding for his proposal under the PM Early Career Research Grant scheme, awarded by Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) — a newly established initiative by the Government of India. The project, titled Early Morning Ionosphere-Thermosphere System (EMITS): Knowledge Gaps and Importance in the Low and Mid-Latitudes, aims to enhance our understanding of the outer reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere during the early morning hours.

As part of the project, a multi-frequency GNSS receiver will be installed on the Krea University campus. This instrument will track signals from navigation satellites such as GPS and NaVIC to study the state of the ionosphere. These radio signals, transmitted in the L and S bands from satellites in medium Earth and geosynchronous orbits, must propagate through the intervening ionosphere before reaching us. By analysing the minor refraction and scattering these signals undergo, researchers can gain valuable insights into the ionosphere. Additionally, archived satellite datasets will be utilised to investigate the early morning upper atmosphere and ionosphere.

The duration of the project is three years, with funding of approximately Rs 60 lakh.

Professor Madhuri Saripalle presents at the International Conference on Enabling Sustained Growth in Emerging Asia

Ram Kumar 0 Comment Faculty & Staff Spotlight

Professor Madhuri Saripalle, Professor, Economics and Chairperson – MBA Programme, IFMR GSB, participated in the International Conference on Enabling Sustained Growth in Emerging Asia, held on 7-8 February at the School of Economics, University of Hyderabad. She presented her paper titled Agricultural Transformation in Telangana: A Case Study of Paddy Cultivation, which is part of an ongoing project supported by the IFMR Fund for research in Humanities and Social Sciences.

MBA student Ananya Manikandan wins LIBA’s Chrysalis 2024–25 and her article gets featured in ABVSME JNU’s Management Manuscripts

Ram Kumar 0 Comment Student Spotlight

Ananya Manikandan, MBA Cohort of 2025, IFMR GSB secured first placein CRE-AI-TIVE Writing at Chrysalis 2024–25, a national-level inter-collegiate competition organised by the Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA), Chennai, on 12 February 2025.

The contest featured two rounds: Round 1 involved creating a 10–25-line poem using AI text-generation tools, a 100-word AI usage note, and five prompts; round 2 challenged participants to write a 1000 – 1200-word story from two given lines, testing creativity and critical thinking. 

Additionally, Ananya’s article, India’s Fintech Revolution: How Startups Are Reshaping the Financial Landscape, was recognised as the “Article of the Quarter” in the inaugural edition of Management Manuscripts, a quarterly magazine by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee School of Management & Entrepreneurship (ABVSME), JNU, Delhi. The magazine, launched in collaboration with Gyanmancha – The Literary Society and Hariyali – The Sustainability Club, features 12 articles per issue on diverse management and interdisciplinary topics.

Kashish Ramesh is nominated for Entrepreneurial Excellence at Founders Conference, Singapore 2026

Ram Kumar 0 Comment Student Spotlight

Kashish Ramesh, Cohort of 2023 – 2027, SIAS has been nominated for the Entrepreneurial Excellence Award at the Founders Conference in Marina Bay, Singapore (2026), becoming the youngest nominee in the event’s history.  

The nomination highlights her entrepreneurial initiatives, Quope and Cadet & Blu. Kashish founded Quope in 2021, a non-profit inspired by organisations like the Social Media Safety Organization in California, dedicated to combating social media addiction and promoting safer digital spaces. She also launched Cadet & Blu, an inbound consulting agency focused on writing-led strategies and supporting small and women-led businesses.  

Pursuing a double major in Economics and Data Science, Kashish leads the Business Club, where she encourages students to pursue their ideas and fosters entrepreneurial spirit within the campus community.  

For more details about the conference: https://www.founders2conf.com/
Kashish has also authored a book that can be purchased here:

Krea University