Category : In Region

Podcast: The Prevalence of COVID-19 in India

Mar 4, 2021 | Announcements, COVID-19, Faculty, India

In the third episode of The COVID Chronicles podcast, Dr. Satchit Balsari speaks with Manoj Mohanan, Associate Professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. Mohanan’s team’s recent paper, published in Lancet Global Health, reports that seroprevalence (the number of individuals in a population who test positive for a specific disease based on serology specimens) in Mumbai varies from 55–61% in the slums, to 12–19% in non-slum settings.

Sajeda Amin: Women’s Empowerment in Bangladesh

Mar 4, 2021 | Announcements, Bangladesh, In Region, News

We spoke with one of the experts who participated in the “Economic Development: From ‘Basket Case’ to Emerging Economy” panel, Sajeda Amin, Senior Associate at the Population Council in New York, about her years of work with women’s empowerment in Bangladesh. Sajeda Amin conducts intervention research on empowerment programs for girls and women and writes about the role of education and work opportunities in girls’ and women’s lives. She has designed and implemented interventions to prevent violence and child marriage by empowering adolescent girls and has studied their outcomes in Bangladesh, India, Mali, Malawi, and Niger.

Rounaq Jahan: Unmaking and Upholding Bangladesh’s Founding Principles

Feb 25, 2021 | Announcements, Bangladesh, In Region, News

We spoke with one of the speakers who will participate in the “Political Development: Making, Unmaking, and Rebuilding of Founding Principles” panel, Rounaq Jahan, Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue in Bangladesh, about the political history of Bangladesh, and what needs to be done to push forward in the future. Previously, she served as a Professor of Political Science at Dhaka University and a Senior Research Scholar and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University.

Podcast: How Has COVID-19 Affected the Lives of Children in India?

Feb 25, 2021 | Announcements, COVID-19, Faculty, India, News

In the second episode of The COVID Chronicles podcast, Dr. Satchit Balsari speaks with Enakshi Ganguly, child rights activist and the co-founder of HAQ: Centre for Child Rights. In July 2020, Ganguly was part of the 11-member expert committee set up by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on human rights, especially those of marginalized and vulnerable sections of the society. Ganguly led the discussion related to the advisory on the rights of children.

The 2020–2021 Visiting Artist Fellowship Magazine

Feb 24, 2021 | Announcements, Arts Program, Bangladesh, Fellows, In Region, India, Nepal, News, Pakistan

The profound and inspirational work of our artists has not stopped despite the COVID-19 pandemic. In this magazine, we spoke with each of our fellows to discuss the inspiration behind their career as an artist, what they hope to learn during their time as a Visiting Artist Fellow, and their thoughts on the artwork they have each presented in this magazine. In the magazine’s pages, you will read the artists’ thoughts on these subjects in their own words, and we hope that it will inspire you to enter their world and see their work through their eyes.

Where Are They Now? Seed for Change Winners Umbulizer, Gramhal, and Meet

Feb 18, 2021 | Announcements, In Region, India, News, Pakistan, Social Enterprise, Students

The Mittal Institute’s annual Seed for Change (SFC) competition aims to develop a vibrant ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship in India and Pakistan, offering grant prizes to interdisciplinary student projects that have the potential to positively impact societal, economic, and environmental issues in India and Pakistan. We recently spoke with a few of our past winners of the SFC competition — the teams of Umbulizer, Gramhal, and Meet — to learn how their social enterprise initiatives in Pakistan and India have grown since the time they one.

Podcast Series: The COVID Chronicles with Dr. Satchit Balsari

Feb 18, 2021 | Announcements, Faculty, In Region, India, News

The India In-Focus podcast is back with a special mini-series, “The COVID Chronicles,” which examines the science, policy, and societal response to COVID-19 pandemic in India. Over the course of this seven-part series as we count down to the one-year mark of the nationwide lockdown in India, our host Dr. Satchit Balsari, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School, speaks with experts across numerous industries. In each episode, Dr. Balsari explores with his guests the key issues surrounding India’s response to the pandemic and the challenges that lie ahead.

Advancing COVID-19 Education and Fighting Misinformation in India

Feb 11, 2021 | Announcements, In Region, India, News, Students

Through the Mittal Institute’s 2020 Seed for Change Exploratory Grant program, recipients Sahana Bail and Kanishk Mittal set out to create a preventive COVID-19 health education program in India. Their three goals are to educate students of the program about the benefits and logistics of proper mask use and hand hygiene, early recognition of COVID-19 symptoms and what to do if a child has it, and bust the myths related to the intersection of food and COVID-19.

Alumni of the Crossroads Emerging Leaders Program Describe Its Impact

Feb 11, 2021 | In Region, News, Students

Last week, the Mittal Institute collaborated with Network Capital to hold an information session for the upcoming 2021 Crossroads Emerging Leaders Program (CELP), where Harvard faculty and industry members discussed the impact of the program. Numerous former Crossroads students, who now belong to the vast alumni group network of the CELP program, joined the virtual event to share their experiences from their cohorts and the impact that it had on their education and careers.

Apply for the 2021 B4 Young Scientist Development Course on Big Data

Feb 9, 2021 | Announcements, B4 Program, India, News

Each year, the Mittal Institute’s B4 Program hosts workshops that bring together talented Indian students and experts in the life sciences. The goal of these workshops is to introduce students to important issues in the life sciences through lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on learning opportunities. From March 14–21, 2021, the B4 Program will host a 7-day course, “Online Workshop on Big Data in Life Sciences and Healthcare,” organized by IBAB, Bangalore under the aegis of the Building Bharat-Boston Biosciences (B4) Program funded by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. Learn more and apply by March 2, 2021.

Understanding the Dynamics of Evolution and Drug-Resistant Pathogens

Feb 4, 2021 | Announcements, B4 Program, Fellows, In Region, India, News

“As human health is increasingly threatened by emerging pathogens, multi-drug-resistant infections, and therapy-evading cancer cells, our understanding of the dynamics of evolution is of growing importance,” writes the research team of Ramya Purkanti, one of the Mittal Institute’s 2016–2017 B4 Fellows.

Naqsha Nigar: M(app)ing the Lost Heritage of Lahore

Feb 4, 2021 | Announcements, In Region, News, Pakistan, Students

By Asmer Asrar Safi, Hamid Nawaz, Hajra Malik, and Ramsha Bilal. Lahore is a city rife with unexplored heritage sites and cultural landmarks locked between urban developments. Yet, the unavailability of tourism services means that Lahore has been unable to fully reap the benefits of being a popular tourist destination in Pakistan. It is to bridge this gap that our team set out to create a third-party, tourism facilitation service app, “Naqsha Nigar,” predicated on creating preset and customizable tour plans for the average smartphone user.