Announcements Archives • Page 29 of 43 • The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute

Discovering the Ritual Dimension of Hinduism in Nepal

Apr 24, 2019 | Announcements, Faculty, Nepal, News

Currently in its third year, the Mittal Institute’s Nepal Studies Program — led by Professor Michael Witzel, Wales Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard — continues its work engaging with scholars and practitioners in both Cambridge and Nepal. With each year of the program focusing on a different topic and led by a different faculty member, Witzel has journeyed into an exploration of Hinduism in Nepal and the important role of rituals, from the Vedic period to modern times.

Devaki Jain: India’s Challenges and the Growing Feminist Movement

Apr 18, 2019 | Announcements, India, News

Devaki Jain is an Indian economist and writer who has made significant contributions to feminist economics, social justice, and women’s empowerment in India. In 2006, she was awarded the Padma Bhushan — the third-highest civilian honor from the Government of India — for her contributions to society.

How Can We Shrink the Voter Gender Gap in Pakistan?

Apr 18, 2019 | Announcements, News, Pakistan

Sarah Khan, a Postgraduate Associate at Yale MacMillan Center, recently visited Harvard to discuss her team’s field experiment in Lahore during the 2018 Pakistan General Elections and their work to understand the gender gap in voter turnout in Pakistan. “The question that we’re interested in as it pertains to Pakistan is: what explains — and relatedly — how can we close the large and persistent gender gap in voter turnout in Pakistan?” Khan asked.

Powering the Personal Health Record: Catalysts and Barriers in India

Apr 11, 2019 | Announcements, Faculty, In Region, India, News, Social Enterprise

On April 3rd, the India Digital Health Net (IDHN), a multidisciplinary research and development initiative established to support an Application Programming Interface-enabled (API) federated health data architecture in India, convened a workshop in New Delhi to learn from the several initiatives across the country that are building components of what may ultimately become India’s health tech grid. The workshop was organized with support from the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute and the Asia Center. Dr. Satchit Balsari (Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) and Professor Tarun Khanna (Harvard Business School) served as co-chairs of the event.

5 Ways to Promote Scientific Advancement in India

Apr 11, 2019 | Announcements, In Region, India, News

Are we doing enough to promote science in India? Do we understand its link to the economy? And what needs to be done to promote learning and collaboration in India?

These were some of the questions we set out to answer during our first-ever Annual India Symposium, “Science & Society,” in New Delhi on April 4, 2019. We brought together five panel sessions containing Indian and foreign scientists, government representatives, and industry leaders to discuss, debate, and brainstorm ideas that can advance scientific learning and understanding in India.

In South Asia, Who Is the Ideal Educated Girl?

Apr 10, 2019 | Announcements, India, News, Pakistan

In Pakistan and India, the figure of the “educated girl” has emerged over the past few decades, linked to the countries’ politics, educational reform, and campaigns for development. But what is the true meaning behind this idealized figure of Muslim women and girls?

Shenila Khoja-Moolji is an Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Bowdoin College, where she examines the relationships between race, gender, religion, and power across nations and with particular attention to Muslim populations. She recently authored the book Forging the Ideal Educated Girl: The Production of Desirable Subjects in Muslim South Asia, where she takes an in-depth exploration of her research into the history and culture surrounding the figure of the “educated girl” in postcolonial Pakistan and colonial India.

Understanding Meritocracy in India and China

Apr 9, 2019 | Announcements, Faculty, In Region, India, News

On April 5, 2019, Professor Tarun Khanna, Director of the Mittal Institute and Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School, traveled to Ashoka University to give a talk to students on meritocracy in India and China.

“I spent an energizing April morning with students and faculty at Ashoka University, one of India’s newer liberal arts universities a couple hours outside of New Delhi. Our conversation unfolded very much like a Gen.Ed class discourse does at Harvard,” Professor Khanna said.

Reinterpreting Buddhist Sculpture Across India and Sri Lanka

Apr 4, 2019 | Announcements, Arts at SAI, News

Professor Catherine Becker of the University of Illinois, Chicago recently visited the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard to give a talk to faculty, students, and visitors. Her discussion, entitled “Propagating The Sacred: Considering Acts of Reproduction in Buddhist Sculpture in India and Sri Lanka,” brought together strains of her earlier research on the early Buddhist art of Andhra and her more recent interests in the contemporary presentation of India’s heritage sites.

How Can We Solve India’s Scientific Challenges?

Apr 3, 2019 | Announcements, In Region, India, News

In the build-up to our Annual India Symposium on April 4, 2019 in New Delhi, the Mittal Institute organized four brainstorming sessions to bring together academics and industry leaders to discuss some of the scientific and technological issues India faces, and the potential solutions to these problems. Four group of experts, who will compose four of the panels at the Annual India Symposium, huddled together to discuss topics related to agricultural advancement, the life sciences, STEM education, and digital health.

Exploring the Centuries-Old Ruins of Bangladesh

Apr 3, 2019 | Announcements, Arts at SAI, Bangladesh, In Region, News

Though it might have been the jetlag, my recent field trip to the Paharpur World Heritage and archaeological site in Naogaon District in northern Bangladesh did not feel like my first visit. As a second-year graduate student in the department of History of Art and Architecture, I had written a seminar paper on the vast Buddhist monastery last fall for a class on esoteric Buddhist art and had spent days hunched over site plans, maps, and photographs of the ninth-century complex.

Students and Teachers Take on Robots in India

Mar 28, 2019 | Announcements, Blog, In Region, India, News, Social Enterprise

The Toolkit team develops low-cost Toolkits that can be used in underserved classrooms in India, their ultimate goal to educate students in cutting-edge soft robotics research through hands-on, cognitive learning. After years of development in the US, the team took its first step in India this week and conducted its first workshop in Delhi with a group of educators and students.

How Does Caste Impact America?

Mar 27, 2019 | Announcements, Community, Faculty, News, South Asia in the News

Last week, WGBH News Senior Investigative Reporter Phillip Martin led a panel discussion in his series “Caste in America,” speaking with Mittal Institute Director Tarun Khanna, alongside Suraj Yengde, Laurence Simon, Kavita Pillay, and Swami Venkataraman, about the role of caste in the United States. Martin’s series “explores the discrimination Indian immigrants face in the United States as a result of this ancient hierarchical system of human classification,” with this particular segment evolving to encompass a study of caste in general, touching on its impact in other countries and its relationship to race.

Category : Announcements