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Why Do Indians Shun Science?

START
Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 08:00am

END
Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 09:30am

VENUE
Webinar

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8:00 AM ET // 6:30 PM IST
Join via YouTube: https://youtu.be/imxGZh0NkCk
Add to Google Calendar: http://shorturl.at/dxyCR

It might be odd to aver that Indians shun science — in a country that is lauded as a fount of software engineering, has just touched the heavens with Mangalyaan, and will likely make most of the vaccines for the world.  But, the fact remains that India dramatically underinvests in science, to its detriment. Perhaps worse, we seem to eschew a scientific mindset to promote instead a variety of other modes of reasoning: parochial concerns, religious sentiment, and tradition.

While these have their place, in this talk Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School and Director of the Mittal Institute, will illustrate the costs of our apparent science-phobia by briefly discussing benefits of higher scientific literacy which we could tap into in three disparate Indian settings: the moribund market for jobs among youth, a polluted environment, and crumbling art and architectural heritage. To be clear, this is not a diatribe against the humanities and the social sciences, but rather it is an attempt to direct attention to a costly societal myopia. 

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Tarun Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School and Director of Harvard University’s Lakshmi Mittal & Family South Asia Institute. For over 25 years, he has studied entrepreneurship as a means of economic development. He currently teaches courses related to creativity in emerging economies. An online version, Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, one of Harvard’s most popular, has been taken by ~600,000 students in over 200 countries. A recent book, Trust, and an earlier one, Billions of Entrepreneurs, chronicle creative ventures in China, India and beyond.

In 2007, he was nominated to be a Young Global Leader (under 40) by the World Economic Forum. In 2009, he was elected a Fellow of the Academy of International Business. In 2016, he was recognized by the Academy of Management as Eminent Scholar for Lifetime Achievement in the field of International Management. The Government of India appointed him to lead several national committees connected to entrepreneurship and higher education. In 2020, he was asked by The Lancet, the world’s leading medical journal, to co-chair a commission to re-imagine the future of India’s health system.

Outside Harvard, he serves on the boards of the Washington-based global power company, AES Corporation, the global adtech company and India’s first unicorn, InMobi, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, PRS India, a non-profit dedicated to India’s parliamentary governance, is a cofounder of Axilor, a Bangalore-based incubator, and of several ventures across the developing world.

Art and Science of Heritage Conservation: Finding the Right Balance, Part 2

START
Thu, Dec 17, 2020 at 09:00am

END
Thu, Dec 17, 2020 at 10:15am

VENUE
Webinar

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Join via Zoom: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/92896152942
Join via YouTube: https://youtu.be/ekNo4vZwkLA

6:00–7:15 AM PT // 9:00 AM–10:15 AM ET // 7:00–8:15 PM PKT // 7:30–8:45 PM IST // 8:00–9:45 PM BST

This event is the second in a 2-part series. View Part 1 here.

As part of the Mittal Institute’s Program for Conservation of Culture, this webinar will focus on the status of art conservation science in South Asia today. The panelists will explore how to develop and carry out a leading art conservation science program in South Asia.

This event is co-hosted by the Mittal Institute and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) museum in Mumbai, India. 

Moderator

  • Anupam Sah, Head of Art Conservation, Research, and Training, CSVMS, Mumbai

Speakers

  • Vinod Daniel, Board Member of International Council of Museums and Chairman of AusHeritage
  • Anusha Kasthuriarachchi, Department of Archaeology, Colombo
  • Jinah Kim, Professor of Indian and South Asian Art, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University
  • Bijaya Kumar Shahi, Founder Chairperson, ICOM, Nepal;
  • Manager Singh, Director General, National Research Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural Property, Lucknow
  • Sharada Srinivasan, Professor, School of Humanities, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru

To add this event to your iCalendar, click here: https://bit.ly/2UsQRCA

 

Reimagining India’s Health System: A Lancet Citizens’ Commission

START
Fri, Dec 11, 2020 at 06:30am

END
Fri, Dec 11, 2020 at 07:30am

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Webinar

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Join via YouTube Live: https://bit.ly/rihslaunch 

 

The Lancet Citizens’ Commission on Reimagining India’s Health System is an ambitious, cross-sectoral endeavor to lay out the roadmap to achieving universal health coveragefor the people of India. The Lancet is a leading international medical journal that has paved the way for medical reforms and global health discussions around the world.The Commission on Reimagining India’s Health System will be the first participatory report of its kind to be published by the journal.

A guiding principle for this Commission is that structural change towards UHC can only be attained through consultative and participatory engagement with the diverse sectors involved in healthcare and, most importantly, with India’s citizenry. The Commission has already brought together leaders from academia, the scientific community, civil society, and private healthcare to spearhead this effort. We now aim to go beyond the traditional boundaries of expertise to actively engage stakeholders whose voices have rarely been heard in previous reports: those who deliver healthcare and those who receive it. We envision our efforts be underpinned by a Citizens’ Commission, an unprecedented attempt to gather insights from across the country through grassroots surveys, public consultations, and online discussions.

The launch event on December 11th aims to formally announce the Lancet Citizens’ Commission to the public. It will consist of a panel discussion among three leading voices in healthcare, followed by a conversation among co-chairs, commissioners and the public on the Commission’s aim and the Indian health system more broadly.

Co-Chairs

  • Tarun Khanna, Director, Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University
  • Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson, Biocon Ltd. 
  • Vikram Patel, Professor of Global Health, Harvard Medical School
  • Gagandeep Kang, Professor, Christian Medical College, Vellore

Speakers

  • Pamela Das, Senior Executive Editor, The Lancet
  • K. Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Advisor, GoI
  • Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, WHO
  • V.K. Paul, Member, NITI Aayog

Art and Science of Heritage Conservation: Finding the Right Balance, Part 1

START
Thu, Dec 10, 2020 at 11:00am

END
Thu, Dec 10, 2020 at 12:15pm

VENUE
Webinar

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Join via Zoom: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/92896152942
Join via YouTube: https://youtu.be/sr9oSHiX62I

8:00–9:15 AM PT // 11:00 AM–12:15 PM ET // 9:00–10:15 PM PKT // 9:30–10:45 PM IST // 10:00–11:45 PM BST

This event is the first in a 2-part series. View Part 2 here.

As part of the Mittal Institute’s Program for Conservation of Culture, this webinar will focus on recent developments in science and the impact of these developments on the field of art conservation. It will also delve into the current understanding about materials and techniques in the conservation of antiquities. 

This event is co-hosted by the Mittal Institute and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) museum in Mumbai, India. 

Moderator

Panelists

  • Alison Heritage, Project Manager, Strategic Planning and Research, International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), Rome
  • Narayan Khandekar, Director, Straus Conservation Center, Harvard Art Museums
  • Austin Nevin, Head of Department of Conservation, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London
  • Stefan Simon, Director, Rathgen Research Laboratory, Staatliche Museen, Berlin

To add this event to your iCalendar, click here: https://bit.ly/2UsQRCA

 

Business, Voters, and Distributive Politics in Developing Democracies

START
Fri, Dec 4, 2020 at 12:00pm

END
Fri, Dec 4, 2020

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Webinar

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Register for the event: https://bit.ly/32yhBGS

Gautam Nair, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, will explore the impact of business on developing democracies and inequality.

Gautam Nair is a a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he is a faculty affiliate of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Center for International Development. His research is in comparative and international political economy, and focuses primarily on the politics of democracy and redistribution. He has been published in The Journal of Politics and International Organization. His work is supported by the National Science Foundation, the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, and the Leitner Political Economy Program at Yale.

This seminar series is co-sponsored by the Watson Institute at Brown University, the MIT Center for International Studies, the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.

More Info: http://southasianpolitics.net/

Consequences: South and Southeast Asia and the 2020 U.S. Election

START
Thu, Dec 3, 2020 at 12:00pm

END
Thu, Dec 3, 2020 at 01:00pm

VENUE
Webinar

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Location: Online, via Zoom

Register to join the webinar here: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_b-fBxaQxT96uKpkNd5LpfA

Panelists:

Mattias Fibiger, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

Erik Kuhonta, Associate Professor of Political Science, McGill University

Doreen Lee, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Northeastern University; Visiting Scholar, Harvard University Asia Center

Ashutosh Varshney, Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences; Professor of Political Science; Director; the Center for Contemporary South Asia, Brown University

Chair/Moderator: James Robson, James C. Kralik and Yunli Lou Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations; Victor and William Fung Director, Harvard University Asia Center; Chair, Regional Studies East Asia, Harvard University

Asia Beyond the Headlines Seminar Series, Harvard University Asia Center; co-sponsored with the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute

Gandhi’s Gift: Successful Mass Nonviolence and India’s Decolonization

START
Fri, Nov 20, 2020 at 12:00pm

END
Fri, Nov 20, 2020 at 01:30pm

VENUE
Webinar

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Register for the event: https://bit.ly/3ixS06q

Rikhil R. Bhavnani, Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, will discuss his latest work exploring the structures and history of non-violent civil disobedience during the Indian struggle for democratic self-rule.

In this presentation, Bhavnani will focus on his joint work with Stanford’s Sumitra Jha, which you can read here “Gandhi’s Gift”.

Rikhil R. Bhavnani is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and a faculty affiliate at the La Follette School of Public Affairs, the Elections Research Center and the Center for South Asia.

Professor Bhavnani’s research and teaching focus on inequalities in political representation, the political economy of migration, and the political economy of development. His research is particularly concerned with causal identification, and is focused on South Asia. Bhavnani is the co-author, with Bethany Lacina, of a book on the backlash against within-country migration across the developing world, published by Cambridge University Press. His articles have been published or are forthcoming in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, World Politics, the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, and other outlets.

Prior to starting at UW–Madison, Professor Bhavnani was a visiting fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University. He has worked at the Center for Global Development and the International Monetary Fund, and received a PhD in political science and an MA in economics from Stanford University, and a BA in political science and economics from Yale University.

This seminar series is co-sponsored by the Watson Institute at Brown University, the MIT Center for International Studies, the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.

More Info: http://southasianpolitics.net/

Book Talk: Rahul Mehrotra’s “Working in Mumbai”

START
Fri, Nov 13, 2020 at 01:30pm

END
Fri, Nov 13, 2020 at 02:30pm

VENUE
Webinar

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Rahul Mehrotra will present his new book, Working in Mumbai, with panelists Eve Blau and Mark Lee.

Working in Mumbai is a critical reflection on thirty years of the practice of RMA Architects. Rahul Mehrotra weaves a narrative to connect his multiple engagements in architectural practice, including teaching, research, documenting, writing, and exhibiting since the establishment of the practice in 1990. The book is structured around the subjects of interior architecture, critical conservation, and work and living spaces that straddle the binaries of the global and the local as well as the rural and the urban.

While the book is a portfolio of the selected works of RMA Architects, the projects are curated so as to unravel and clarify the challenges faced by architects in India and in several parts of the “majority” world where issues related to rapid urbanization and the impacts of global capital are among the many that dispute conventional models of practice. Working in Mumbai is used emblematically to interrogate the notion of context and understand how the practice evolved through its association with the city of Bombay/Mumbai.

This Graduate School of Design (GSD) series offers the opportunity for faculty to discuss their recent publications, their research, or their thoughts on teaching. It serves as a forum in which faculty can share and discuss their research and projects while in process, in addition to finished publications. 

How to Join

Register to attend the next lecture here. Once you have registered, you will be provided with a link to join the lecture via Zoom. This link will also be emailed to you. If you have any questions regarding this event, contact lgregory@gsd.harvard.edu.

Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu.

This event is organized by the Frances Loeb Library and South Asia Institute.

Arts of South Asia at the MFA: Through and Beyond Binary Thinking

START
Thu, Nov 12, 2020 at 10:00am

END
Thu, Nov 12, 2020

VENUE
Webinar

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Join via Zoom: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/99365376325
Join via YouTube: https://youtu.be/VZ7KTlRy5y0

Laura Weinstein, the Ananda Coomaraswamy Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art at the MFA, will present a new publication from the MFA that explores the South Asian collection while examining and critiquing binaries based in Western Enlightenment thought that have historically been applied to art from India and its neighbors.

Moderator

  • Jinah Kim, George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asian Art, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University
     

 

Models of Innovation: Education in South Asia

START
Wed, Nov 11, 2020 at 09:30am

END
Wed, Nov 11, 2020 at 10:30am

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Link to join Webinar: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/96334907470 

Register to receive updates on this webinar series: https://bit.ly/34FdVUZ 

In this interactive session, four organizations will showcase their innovative models of education delivery in times of the pandemic. These success stories, from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan, bring together learning from all corners of the region and illustrate how the shared challenge of quality and access can be mitigated through partnership, research, and resilience.

Moderator:
Emmerich Davies, Assistant Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Speakers:
Ayaz Aziz, Manager (Online Education), Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center
Nishant Pandey, CEO, American India Foundation
Rumee Singh, Founder, Katha4Nepal
Haroon Yasin, Co-founder and CEO, Taleemabad

Date: 11 November 2020
Time: 9:30–10:30a EST //8:00–9:00p IST // 7:30–8:30p PKT // 8:15–9:15p NPT // 8:30–9:30p BST