Category: Research Spotlight

Dr ​​Lakshmi Narayanan, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies, SIAS has been awarded the Krea Research Fellowship 2025-26 for a project entitled ‘Multi-wavelength Airglow Imaging with Low-cost cameras (MAIL)’ with a support of Rs 3,50,000/-. The previous year Dr Narayanan developed low-cost cameras to observe a broad band of near infrared emissions known as OH airglow. This is a sequel to that project. In the present project, the team will try to measure individual airglow spectral lines (contrary to the broad band emissions) from the edge of space.

An article titled Flow in The Living Tradition of Kabir in Malwa by ​Dr Dipanjali Deka has been published in the August Issue of Hakara bilingual online journal, centred on the theme of Flow. In the essay she examines flow, memory, and the question of “living” in the oral song tradition of Kabir, through the reading of a musical exchange between renowned folk singer Prahlad Singh Tipanya and his Guru, Chenaji Maru.
हाकारा । hākārā (ISSN 2581-9976), a peer-reviewed journal, is included in the University Grants Commission (UGC) CARE-LIST.

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Dr Debankur Saha, Assistant Professor, Marketing, Area Chair – Marketing, IFMR GSB has recently published a paper titled The Call of the Wild: What Draws Birdwatching Tourists to Eco-Avitourism? (co-authored with Prof. Anirban Chakraborty, IIM Lucknow), in Current Issues in Tourism (ABDC–A / Scopus–Q1, Impact factor – 4.6, Cite Score – 15.5).

The study explores the motivations and behaviours of birdwatching tourists within the ecotourism framework, offering insights that can guide policymakers and planners in designing conservation-focused, responsible tourism experiences.

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A research paper entitled The Rentier Economy of Growth Infrastructures: Value Appropriation without Adequate Accumulation in India by Dr Preeti Sampat, Associate Professor, Sociology & Social Anthropology, SIAS has been published in published in Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography.

Paper abstract: This paper draws on long-term research around Dholera smart city in Gujarat; the experience with special economic zones nationally and in Goa; and national data on key accumulation processes such as manufacturing and construction. ​T​he analyses reveal three distinct but overlapping moments of rent appropriation around what ​author term​s “growth infrastructures,” the inaugural moment of project announcement; the subsequent moment of land allotments to capital; and the third moment of development, lease, and sale. A key contradiction unfolds as growth infrastructures develop: value appropriation from land rent intensifies, but anticipated accumulation from investments remains elusive.

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​A paper co-authored by Dr Suresh Govindapuram, Assistant Professor of Economics, IFMR GSB titled Assessing Energy Efficiency of Indian Chemical Industry: Examine the Role of Innovation and Regional Heterogeneity has been published in the Energy Nexus journal.

This study aims to measure energy efficiency levels and the impact of technological innovation and regional heterogeneity on energy efficiency. Hence, the team uses Indian chemical industry data covering 85 firms from 2003-04 to 2018-19. First, they employ the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) to measure total factor energy efficiency (TFEE). Second, they use truncated regression to assess the effect of innovation and other factors. Their time-varying TFEE has a mean level of 0.84. Most firms can improve their energy efficiency by 15%. Hence, a substantial energy-saving opportunity exists in the case of the chemical industry in India. The second-stage results suggest that firms’ innovative capability accumulates over time, enabling them to achieve higher energy efficiency. Additionally, older firms perform better than younger ones in terms of TFEE. However, having facilities at different locations reduces energy efficiency, while the number of products produced does not significantly impact energy efficiency. The study emphasises the need to consider regional heterogeneity and technological gaps when developing strategies to enhance energy efficiency at the firm level. The findings have significant implications for regulating the manufacturing sector, providing insights for policymakers and industry practitioners to design effective strategies to promote energy efficiency.

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Dr Rakesh Sengupta, Assistant Professor, Psychology, SIAS, has authored an article titled Modeling Visual Working Memory Using Recurrent On‑Center Off‑Surround Neural Network with Distance‑Dependent Inhibition and it has been published in Scientific Reports (Nature). In this work, the author introduces a hierarchical model of visual working memory (VWM) that mimics the architectural and dynamic complexity of the visual system.The network combines top-down feedback, recurrent on-center/off-surround dynamics, and distance-dependent inhibition to simulate how feature specificity evolves—from coarse object-level representation all the way down to detailed feature encoding.

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