Satchit Balsari, Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Steering Committee member of the Mittal Institute, co-authored a comment in The Lancet on evidence-based, affordable interventions to manage COVID-19 in India. His co-authors include a range of other medical professionals: Zarir Udwadia, Department of Pulmonary Medicine, P.D. Hinduja Hospital and Medical Research Center, Mumbai, India (ZU); Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Breach Candy Hospitals & Research Centers, Mumbai, India; Ahmed Shaikh, Department of Emergency Medicine, New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY, USA; Abdul Ghafur, Department of Infectious Diseases, Apollo Cancer Hospital, Chennai, India; and Sushila Kataria, Department of Internal Medicine, Medanta Hospital, Gurgaon, India.
The Mittal Institute recently concluded the 2020–2021 Visiting Artist Fellowship, which annually brings four mid-career visual artists to Cambridge to engage with Harvard faculty and students, participate in art exhibitions, and perform research using Harvard’s intellectual resources to further their art practice. Due to COVID-related programming changes this year, the fellowship was reimagined, bringing 13 of the top applicants from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal to the virtual world for a series of four online seminars curated to support the artists’ long-term practice. In these courses, the artists participated in thought-provoking discussions centering on art history, creative writing, urban design, and more, with both their peers and the expert facilitating the class. For the final installment of the VAF Lecture Series, the Mittal Institute welcomed Asim Waqif, a Delhi-based artist whose international work revolves around architecture, ecology and design.
The Swasth Alliance has announced the launch of a partnership of community-based organizations, frontline clinicians and leading scientists from India and the Indian diaspora to develop a community of practice committed to advancing evidence-based COVID-19 care, contextualized to rural India. The partnership, the Swasth Community Science Alliance (CSA), will provide a suite of timely clinical resources for use in rural and urban settings, all vetted for scientific accuracy.
In response to the alarming resurgence of COVID-19 in India, authors drawn from the The Lancet Citizens’ Commission on Reimagining India’s Health System and its network of fellows have proposed eight urgent recommendations in an article in The Lancet.
On May 13, the Lancet Citizens’ Commission on Reimagining India’s Health System held a joint webinar with the Lancet COVID-19 Commission India Task Force on “The COVID-19 Crisis in India: What is the Way Forward?” The webinar, the first in a new series, engaged academics, practitioners and the public about the recent COVID-19 pandemic surge in India. The discussion focused on the short and long-term actions that are needed to address the impact
With a focus on innovation and entrepreneurship in India and Pakistan, the Mittal Institute’s annual Seed for Change competition aims to award Harvard students with grant prizes for interdisciplinary student projects that positively impact societal, economic, and environmental issues. Learn more about the funded projects.
In a conversation with the Mittal Institute this week, Naiza Khan, a visual artist who splits her time between London and Karachi, explored the impact of the pandemic on her creative processes and methods of making art. This past year, COVID-19 drastically changed the landscape of possibilities for modes of working and presented new opportunities to engage in making work alongside other artists.
With the support of the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard Graduate School of Design student Emma Lewis carried out three weeks of remote research with the Ladakh Nuns Association (LNA) in Leh, Ladakh. Her core intention was to begin recording the experiences of Tibetan Buddhist nuns working at the intersection of healthcare, conservation, and climate change response in Ladakh.
Our political class must set aside differences to act quickly and with compassion to ensure economic security and well-being of the vulnerable, as we fight back second wave of Covid-19, says Vikram Patel in an Op-Ed for The Indian Express.
A fundraiser by South Asian students in the US in support of India’s fight against Covid-19. The fundraiser is running in partnership with GiveIndia, which works closely with organizations on the ground to address critical needs. The platform provides transparent information on fund disbursement and accepts USD, INR and other currencies.
On Monday, April 19, a panel of experts came together to discuss innovations in the public health sector, translating health research into practice, and the challenges of creating an enabling environment for these innovations to thrive.