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Category : Announcements


India Seminar Series: “It’s Complicated – Unpacking the Material Consequences of Political Reservation in Bihar”

M.R. Sharan, a PhD candidate at the the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, presented joint work with Chinmaya Kumar, University of Chicago, on elections in Bihar at a seminar on May 29, 2018. Sharan and Kumar’s work investigates how political reservation in favor of Scheduled Castes (SCs) in Bihar affects inequality in private wealth and access to public goods.

2018 Summer Grant Recipients

The Mittal Institute has awarded 22 grants to support student projects over the Summer Session 2018. These include 17 graduate students and 5 undergraduate students who will travel to India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, and Pakistan for research and internships.

Seed for Change Winner Green Screen

The Mittal Institute’s Seed for Change Program (SFC) aims to develop a vibrant ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship in India and Pakistan through an annual competition. Through SFC, grant prizes are awarded to interdisciplinary student projects that positively impact societal, economic, and environmental issues in India and Pakistan. We spoke to Gina Ciancone from “Green Screen,” the winning team for India. She discussed the genesis of the project and gave advice to students thinking about entering next year’s competition.

The Jana Swasthya Project at the 2015 Kumbh Mela

Three years ago, we launched the Jana Swasthya Project at the 2015 Kumbh Mela in Nashik and Trimbakeshwar, India. It was comprised of two components: a large-scale digital disease surveillance program, EMcounter, and a mass screening program for oral health, hypertension and diabetes offered to pilgrims, sadhus, security forces, and all visitors.

New Podcasts: “Culture Eats Technology” and “How Scientists And Economists Get Things Done (And Save Lives)”

A fascinating conversation from our 2018 Symposium between Professor Ashok Gadgil (UC Berkeley), Professor Tarun Khanna (The Mittal Institute; Harvard Business School) and Professor Asim Khwaja (Harvard Kennedy School) – they talk about how difficult it is to solve life-or-death problems, even with great resources, and the kinds of things you have to do in order to get things done. The podcast is published in two parts. 

Year in Review Publication

Every year the Mittal Institute publishes an annual report that chronicles the highlights of the academic year. This report showcases the breadth of interdisciplinary faculty and student research projects, programs and events that The Mittal Institute supports related to South Asia both at Harvard and In-region.

Seed for Change 2018 Winners Announced

Congratulations to Green Screen and Umbulizer, the winners of our 2018 Seed for Change Competition. Umbulizer, the winner of Seed for Change Pakistan, will receive $15,000 to further develop a reliable, low-cost, and portable device that can provide continuous ventilation to patients in resource-limited healthcare settings. Green Screen, winner of Seed for Change India, will receive $40,000 to produce a zero-electricity, modular ventilation panel made from an agricultural waste byproduct and designed for the slums of New Delhi, India.

Q + A: Tracing the Tracks of Diaspora Hinduism

In anticipation of her upcoming book, The Mittal Institute Research Affiliate Vineeta Sinha sat down with us to discuss her work on the Hindu Diaspora in Singapore and her thoughts on being a woman in academia. “Sitting on recruitment and reviewing committees and on management boards, I have witnessed that even my lone presence as a woman tempers the tone of the discussion and prevents loaded and blatantly sexist and even racist questions to be raised — even if it is just for political correctness,” she says.

Ten Minutes with Professor Vikram Patel

In the developing world, 95% of people with a clinically significant mental illness receive no treatment at all, and it costs the global economy an estimated trillion dollars a year. Vikram Patel is a distinguished Indian psychiatrist and The Pershing Square Professor of Global Health at Harvard Medical School. The Mittal Institute’s Hasit Shah caught up with him before our 2018 Symposium, where Professor Patel was one of the key speakers.