Rising temperatures are pushing Indian cities to the limits of human comfort, with residents in rooftop rooms particularly affected by extreme heat trapped under concrete roofs. To address these challenges, the project “Ultra-Low Cost Solutions for Overheating and Sleep
Disruption in South Asian Homes” was initiated with support from a Mittal Institute Faculty Research grant.
Watch the event video from “Sun, Wind, and Biomass: India’s Path to a Sustainable Future,” a Harvard Climate Action Week book talk with Prof. Michael B. McElroy, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies at Harvard University, and Prem Shankar Jha, Former Visiting Fellow, Harvard-China Project; author and journalist. Co-sponsored by the Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy, and Environment and the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University.
Researchers supported by a Mittal Institute grant and affiliated with the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability argue that protecting workers across the Global South from hazardous heat must not stop when they leave the job, as many low-wage workers return to homes that stay dangerously hot overnight. Their work was published in the BMJ and featured in an article by the Salata Institute.
Two India Fellows, Rinan and Nobonita, at the Mittal Institute, explore water through the lenses of governance, gender, and narrative has opened new ways of understanding this crisis. Instead of starting with scarcity as a number, their works ask us to see water as lived experience: shaped by boundaries, by politics, and by stories.
International students make up more than a quarter of Harvard’s community, and many arrive searching for a sense of belonging. To help create that connection, Thomas Elliott, Programs and Administrative Coordinator at the Mittal Institute, is launching “International Tea”—a new gathering designed to bring students together and foster community. The first tea will be held on October 22nd and is open to invited Graduate Students and Fellows from regional centers. We spoke with Thomas about how this initiative came to life and what he hopes it will offer.
The Mittal Institute is delighted to welcome Rose Sebastian—a researcher with longtime interests in cultural studies, critical museum studies, and modern India—as the Mittal Institute’s Jamnalal Kaniram Bajaj Fellow. She is also a fellow with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Program on Science, Technology, and Society. Rose spoke with the Mittal Institute about her postdoctoral research project, where she is exploring science museums in post-independence India.
Nepal is acutely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, grappling with rising temperatures and an increasing frequency of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and landslides. These environmental stresses pose significant threats not only to infrastructure and livelihoods, but also to cultural heritage, biodiversity, and long-term habitability. To better understand the human dimensions of this crisis, Professor Eugene Richardson, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is leading a research project that examines how local communities in Nepal perceive climate risks. His project, “Climate Change, Loss and Damage, and Habitability in Nepal,” is one of the inaugural recipients of the Mittal Institute’s new Faculty Climate Grant program.
To better understand the significance, characteristics and performance of informal enterprises, particularly those operated by women, a project entitled “Enterprises in India” was launched with support from a Mittal Institute Faculty Research grant. The project is by Martha (Marty) Chen, Associate of the Mittal South Asia Institute at Harvard University and former professor at Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and Renana Jhabvala, President of SEWA Bharat, who have worked together for over 40 years – bridging activism, statistics, research and policy – to support livelihoods and enterprises in the informal economy, both in India and around the world.
Jinah Kim, the George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asian Art, Department of History of Art and Architecture, and Professor of South Asian Studies in the Department of South Asian Studies at Harvard, runs the Mapping Color in History (MCH) Project, a digital research platform that brings together the scientific data drawn from existing and ongoing material analyses of pigments, especially in Asian painting, to enable historical research. She has been working with the MFA from the beginning of the project and shared more in this Q&A about the collaboration and the exhibit now on display.
Sachin Kumar, the Mittal Family Climate Fellow, studies Artificial Intelligence, particularly the intersection of AI technology and societal impact. His research focuses on leveraging AI/ML to solve urban and societal challenges, specifically urban governance, climate change and sustainability. Currently serving as an Assistant Professor at the Cluster Innovation Centre, University of Delhi, he is also the Executive Officer of the University of Delhi Foundation. We spoke with Dr. Kumar about his research and what he hopes from his Mittal Institute fellowship.
Hitesh Vaidya, the Mittal Institute’s newest Visiting Artist Fellow, is a visual artist and cultural practitioner based in Bhaktapur, Nepal. Vaidya’s practice explores how everyday objects, spaces, and rituals quietly shape collective memory, bridging traditional culture with contemporary life. Drawing on the lived histories of Bhaktapur, Kathmandu, and Patan, Vaidya interprets the city through its domestic rhythms, communal architectures, and interpersonal relationships. We spoke with him about his work and what he hopes to explore during his fellowship.
For our Alumni Spotlight we spoke with Aprajita Rana, a tri-qualified lawyer, with an experience of over 15 years in advising clients in diverse areas of law, including corporate, commercial, technology, media and telecommunication, data protection and privacy and e-commerce, with a core focus on employment law.