A new publication by Professor Madhuri Saripalle, Professor, Economics and Chairperson – MBA Programme, IFMR GSB has been published in the Asian Journal of Technology Innovation. Titled, Driving productivity: a comparison of the Indian automobile manufacturers and component suppliers, the study analyses the factors influencing productivity within the Indian automobile industry, specifically examining the component manufacturers and the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). AJTI is the official journal of the Korean Society for Innovation Management and Economics (KOSIME), the Asia Association of Learning, Innovation and Coevolution Studies (ASIALICS) and the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI).
Dr Vivek Radhakrishnan, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, SIAS was invited to participate in a symposium on ‘Why Read Kant Now?’ organised by the Goethe-Institut Mumbai and the German Department of Mumbai University on 29 and 30 November, 2024. Dr Radhakrishnan gave a talk titled, ‘How ‘Humean’ was Kant?’ at the symposium. He also moderated the inaugural keynote by Professor Rajendra Dengle (Retired Professor of German, JNU) and the special lecture by Professor Heiner Klemme (Professor of Philosophy, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle).
Dr R S Sathya Saminadan, Associate Professor of Practice, IFMR GSB presented his paper, ‘Marketing to Aliens’, at the NGSC – 2024 Conference at IIM Jammu on 22 and 23 November, 2024. The paper explores strategies for effective intergalactic marketing, combining creativity with established principles of marketing. It underscores the importance of adaptability and ethical considerations in marketing to diverse and unfamiliar segments, a concept that resonates with contemporary challenges in business strategy.
Dr Venkata Srinu Bhadram, Assistant Professor of Physics, SIAS was invited to give a talk at the International Conference on Advanced Ceramics for Sustainability (Cera4S-2024), held at IIT Madras from 28 – 30 November 2024. In his talk titled, ‘Extreme Pressure as a Route to Discover New Metastable Materials’, he discussed the pivotal role of high-pressure techniques in discovering new metastable phases of ceramic materials, such as transition metal nitrides, oxides and high-entropy complex oxides. He highlighted how combining high-pressure experimental methods with machine learning approaches has the potential to drive transformative advancements, offering sustainable solutions for materials-based technologies.
Professor Anil Srinivasan, Visiting Professor of Practice, Literature & the Arts, SIAS penned a piece for The New Indian Express (TNIE) titled, Till we respect the environment, December will be season of sorrow for Chennai. In this column TNIE invites prominent citizens to pen their experiences and suggestions that can help mitigate the impact of rain. The article straddles experiences of environmental changes with an imperative need to respect the environment with absolute and unfettered dedication.
Dr Proma Raychaudhury, Assistant Professor of Politics, SIAS has published a peer-reviewed article titled, Gendering Loyalty in Indian Electoral Democracy: The Trinamool Congress and Its Construction of a Female Constituency in West Bengal in Economic and Political Weekly (Vol 59, Issue 48, pp.87-95) as part of a Special Issue on General Elections 2024.
Through a consistent surge in their salience and distinguished by their autonomy, female voters have become an indispensable constituency in Indian electoral democracy in recent decades. Through a constructivist approach to populist political representation, this paper studies the conceptual terrain of the relationship between voter loyalty and populist democracy in the context of female voting and partisan support in contemporary West Bengal. This paper explores how the leadership of the All India Trinamool Congress in the state constructed a “loyalist” constituency of female voters who are beneficiaries of state-sponsored welfare schemes while exercising the logic of “othering” to exclude female critics and dissidents of the regime from such a constituency. Through interviews with grassroots workers of the AITC, this paper also analyses the gendered expectations that underscore the populist constituency of the “loyal female voter” in West Bengal.
A research paper by Vijaya C, Senior Faculty Associate of Finance, Accounting, & Quantitative Finance, IFMR GSB has been published in in the Journal of Indian Business Research. Titled, Tracking Smart Beta indices during different market phases: A “smarter” option for passive investors?, the paper is co-authored with Professor Thenmozhi, Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras.
Dr Madhavilatha Maganti, Associate Professor of Psychology, SIAS and Dr Sayantan Mandal, Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology, SIAS will be presenting research papers at SAFAL-2024, one of the more prestigious and competitive cognitive science and psycholinguistics conferences organised by the Association of Cognitive Science at IIT Bombay. Also presenting at the conference is second year SIAS student, Aarthi Venkatesh. Four papers from the Psychology research lab have been selected for this prestigious conference.
Dr Maganti, and Mandal recently presented their latest research findings on anti-local linear search-algorithms as neurocomputational models for vowel harmony in natural language at the 2024 WECOL conference in Fresno, California. A paper-length treatment of the same is to be published by WECOL in February, 2025.
Dr Maganti was also invited as a guest speaker by Allahabad University on 20 November, 2024 where she spoke on infant cognition.
Dr Maganti also presented a talk on ‘Multi-vulnerability assessment of young children and caregivers in Indian cities’ on 25 September 2024 at the India Habitat Center, New Delhi, at the launch workshop of Nurturing Neighbourhoods 2.0 program conducted by the Van Leer Foundation and World Resources Institute. The Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge is an initiative aimed at piloting and scaling strategies to enhance urban living for infants, toddlers, and caregivers.
Dr Maganti at the launch of the workshop of Nurturing Neighbourhoods 2.0 program
Nickhil Sharma, Visiting Faculty at SIAS, recently appeared on BBC Norfolk Radio to talk about his research on smart meters in Great Britain. On 11 November 2024 he participated in an interview with BBC Norfolk Radio, where they explored the rollout of smart meters in Great Britain. Despite being one of the most expensive government-initiated programs in British history, these internet-enabled energy meters have faced criticism for failing to meet targets and not performing as expected. During the interview, Nickhil shared insights from his doctoral research on why the meters might not work, how to identify potential issues, and discussed his research on how overly optimistic narratives that present technologies as quick fixes for complex problems—like optimising household energy use—often fall short. He emphasised the importance of researchers, citizens, policymakers, and technology developers being cautious about perpetuating such narratives.
Turzo Nicholas Mondal, Doctoral student in Anthropology, SIAS and Dr Annu Jalais, Associate Professor of Anthropology, SIAS presented their paper at the International Symposium on ‘ Precarious Water Futures and End(s) of World(s)- an Integrative Dialogue Across Disciplines and Societies’ organised by Käte Hamburger Center for Apocalyptic and Post Apocalyptic Studies (CAPAS), Heidelberg University, Germany. The conference was held at the India International Centre, New Delhi. They also participated in a stimulating round-table discussion on the Sundarbans with other Sundarbans experts.
