Lectures - Wednesday Talks 2004

Wednesday Talk Co-ordinator, Dr Sangeetha Menon smenon@nias.iisc.ernet.in
Time: 9.30 Venue: NIAS Lecture Hall
Literary, Arts and Heritage Forum Time: 4 pm

29 December 2004
Literary Forum
Speakers: Sharada Srinivasan and Sangeetha Menon
Topic: Story Reading -Two selected stories from "Collected Stories" authored by Shashi Deshpande
(2004, Penguin Books) Vol.2.
The context of the stories are two events from the Mahabharata.
The stories are entitled: "Hear me Sanjaya..."
and
"And what has been decided?"

15 December 2004
Speaker: Dr Sarita Seshagiri, NIAS, sarita_seshagiri@yahoo.com.sg
Topic: "Decision-making in rural development NGOs - a case study on AWARE (Action for Welfare and
Awakening in Rural Environment)
Abstract:
Non-government organisations (NGOs) are becoming more and more significant in India, due to the country's overburdened state, poverty, democracy and plural society. The state cannot reach the poor, whilst the market with its profit motive does not have the incentive to empower them. Therefore, autonomous, civil society institutions like NGOs are seen as fostering people's participation through a bottom-up approach.
This makes the study of NGOs significant. The purpose here is to explore how NGOs in India decide to fulfil goals. For this, the study examines how external factors (influences of the state, donors and beneficiaries) and internal factors (NGOs' leadership style, personnel, and organisational structure) influence their decisions. It also examines how NGOs pursue their objectives when faced with these influences. Government agencies, donors and beneficiaries can be hostile. In fact, the government exerts pressure through its acts and statutes. Donors also constrain by placing a premium on their monetary assistance to NGOs. They expect quick results and their aid structures are insensitive to beneficiaries' socio-economic problems. Beneficiaries too constrain NGOs through hostility, and lack of motivation in project participation.
Consequently while making decisions on rural development, NGOs have to adopt the best strategy to confront these pressures. Effective decisions are needed for these organisations to prove their worth as complements to the government or state, whilst maintaining accountability among stakeholders. Inability to do so would mean failure of rural development programmes and the country's development as well. Hence, NGO decisions are crucial.
The focus here is on decisions made by one rural development NGO in India, i.e. AWARE (Action for Welfare and Awakening in Rural Environment). it examines how AWARE, despite influences or constraints from various stakeholders tries to achieve objectives through its decision-making process. The study also considers the mode and criteria of decision-making
within this NGO.
Through this study, it has been observed that whenever stakeholders are involved in decisions, it provides NGOs with more feedback and more exposure to various opinions. However, the success of an NGO depends on how it is able to reconcile diverse opinions and preferences. Also favourable influence of internal and external factors is conducive, whilst their negative influence can constrain decisions and lead to compromise of goals.

About the Speaker:

M.A. (Political Science) - Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi), M.Phil (Political Science) - Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi),PhD. (Political Science) - National University of Singapore (Singapore), Topic of PhD. Thesis - "Problems of Decision-making in rural development NGOs - a case study from India"

8 December 2004
Speaker: Prof Tim Poston, Visiting Professor, NIAS,
Topic: A Digital Surgical Flap Planner Project

Abstract:

Surgeons replacing skin need to cut it from somewhere else on the body. (In fact they cut more than skin, creating a 'flap' including blood vessels, better able to survive.) When cut, it changes shape, and shrinks: some, more than others. The experienced surgeon allows mentally for these changes, cutting enough to stretch over the wound but without waste and needless damage to the donor site. While new surgeons gain experience, patients are hurt. I will discuss a recently started project that aims to make measurements and predictions that are inevitably less than correct, but hope to guess better than a new surgeon. Making something like this is as much a story of communication across the multiple wide gulfs between engineers, programmers, mathematicians and surgeons as it is a story about equations and gadgets.

1 December 2004
Speaker: Dr. N. Ramkumar
Title: Managing teachers' Discomforts from the Perspective of Vipasana Meditation

Abstract:

Professional development of teachers involves teachers to change their existing teaching strategies. The change of teaching strategies brings certain discomforts to teachers, which are expressed, in the form of anxiety and mental stress. These discomforts tend to act as barriers, which prevent classroom innovations. Therefore teachers need to manage their discomforts in a productive way. The management involves teachers to be aware of their discomforts, to identify their negative emotions and to accept certain discomforts during classroom innovations. This management of teachers' discomforts requires certain tools. It is in this context Vipasana meditation, as one such tool to manage teachers' discomforts, is being explored.

Dr. Ramkumar works in SSA unit under District Quality Education Project in Chamarajanagar District. He has a Ph. D degree (in education) from M.S.University , Baroda. His areas of interest are Teacher Education, Elementary Education and Science Education.

10 November 2004
Speaker: Ms Sindhu Radhakrishnan
Title: Neighbours in distress: Wildlife conservation in India and Sri Lanka
Abstract
India and Sri Lanka share cultural and geological ties; many millions of years ago, Sri Lanka was a geological extension of the Indian peninsula, and as a result of this, many components of Sri Lankan flora and fauna have close affinities with those found in southern India. Western Ghats mountains in southern India and tropical southwestern Sri Lanka are recognized together as a global biodiversity hotspot and many endemic species that are found here face severe threats of extinction. The crucial importance of conducting long-term behavioral, ecological and demographic studies on such endemic and other species in order to develop stable conservations strategies to ensure their survival cannot be over-emphasized. Towards this end, Sindhu Radhakrishna and Anindya Sinha propose, in collaboration with Charles Santiapillai (Peradeniya University ) and.S. Wijeymohan (University of Jaffna), to initiate an Indo-Sri Lankan research and training program in wildlife biology and conservation. The talk will focus on the objectives of this research program and the primate project that will conducted in the first phase of this program.

3 November 2004
Topic: Ethical Issues in Psychotherapy
Speaker: Dr R L Kapur, Emeritus Professor, NIAS

Abstract
Freud believed that in psychoanalysis, he was only engaging in medical science and that science was value free. But on another occasion, he is also believed to have said that psychoanalysis allows a person to engage in the chief tasks of life that is to work and to love. This is not a value free statement.

It is not that work and love are unworthy values but they do contain some cultural and political assumptions. No form of psychotherapy, including psychoanalysis and indeed any therapy is value free.

Most of us will agree that value orientations of the therapist and the patient are important while determining who needs and might benefit from psychotherapy, the making of choice between pharmacological versus communication based treatment, the depth to which the therapist may dig into the inner life of the patient and responsibility to what is discovered through this process. Some of us will perhaps also wonder how the interests of the patient, the family and the society at large are balanced in course of therapy and see this as an important ethical question. But how many of us will admit to the fact that (in spite of our protests to the contrary), the therapist's own values creep into the very shaping of the therapeutic process and hence the need at least to be aware of them?

It will be the aim of the author during his presentation to take the fellow therapists through an inquiry into the kind of questions raised above, finally leading to the most fundamental ethical questions related to the diagnostic process itself and the definition of mental disorder. The presentation will be illustrated with ethical dilemmas the author had to face during his growth as a therapist.

20 October 2004
Topic: Technology Priorities for India - An Economic Perspective
Speaker: Prof S Chandrashekhar, Visiting Professor, NIAS & Faculty, IIM-B
Abstract:
Nations decide on priorities for technology in different ways and based on a number of criteria. For a country like India post 1991 the economicdevelopment agenda is becoming increasingly important. Technology is an important input into the development process - be it supported by the government or pushed by industry. The question of how we allocate resources to different areas, sectors and industries is quite important. The talk describes a method for identifying priorities. It applies the methodology to the Indian economy and tries to provide a framework for identifying technologies that can have a major economic impact on the economy.

About the speaker

I have a degree in Metallurgy B.Tech from IIT Madras and PGDM from IIM Calcutta. I worked in ISRO for over 20 years and was involved in all major satellite and launcher projects of ISRO including the IRS, INSAT PSLV/ GSLV Programmes. I was also involved in all international cooperation activities with the US, EUROPE, Soviet Union etc and represented ISRO / INDIA in major international policy and treaty making organisations like the UN Outer Space Committee. At IIM the focus of my work is largely linked to the role of technology in a busienss context. As part of the Corporate Strategy group I address issues of technical change and performance, innovation, Technology priorities and choices, evolutionary approaches to looking at technological change and technology diffusion, Industry life cycle , technology life cycle and organisation life cycle model. Also do some work on telecommunications, as well as national security issues from an internal / economic focus.

6 October 2004
Topic: Social Institutions in Development Strategy
Speaker: Prof. Vijay Padaki
Abstract:
The seminar is based on the work of Prof. Padaki and his team at The P&P Group in developing a body of theory and methodology for effective trans-organizational processes. While the field of Organizational Development (OD) has some facility for strengthening a single group or organization, most (if not all) development interventions require effective collaborative processes across several groups, organizations, stakeholders. The term Institutional Development (ID) refers to the emerging body of theory-methodology for strengthening such organizational collectives.

The work in India in ID is reported in the book publication: Padaki, Vijay and Vaz, Manjulika. Institutional Development in Social
Interventions. Sage, 2003.

About the speaker:

Dr.Vijay Padaki is a director of the P and P Group, a Bangalore-based management consultancy and research centre which specialises in organisation and institutional development. He is also a keen theatre person and has written and directed several
plays. His most recent book is , " Institutional Development in Social Interventions: Towards Inter-organisational Effectiveness".

29 September 2004
Wednesday Literary Forum
Reader: Ms. Hema Ramakrishna will read from her book "The Legacy"
About the book
The Legacy is a work of non-fiction, part autobiography, part memoir, an amalgam of two different texts describing the life and death of the two sisters, Rajamma and Saroja. Part 1 deals with the death of the author's mother and the impact it has had on her, the author herself. Part 2 is about the brief life and death of the older sister Rajamma, as narrated by Saroja. Though the major theme of both Parts 1 and 2 is the experience of death itself, we are lead by degrees to believe that in this instance, a case for rebirth exists. 'The Legacy' was published in Srilanka by Vijitha Yapa Publications.
About the Author
The author is 58 years old and this is her first publication. She currently divides her time between Colombo where her husband works, Bangalore, which is home and the U.S.A where her two children reside. She taught French for a period at the Alliance Francaise de Bangalore. But her first love is still reading, she is specially interested in myths from all over the world, which, she feels, illumine 'the royal road to the unconscious' along with dreams.

22 September 2004
Speaker: Prof. S. Balachandra Rao
Topic: Computational efficacy of Samanta Chandrashekara Simha's astronomy

About the Speaker

Prof. S. Balachandra Rao is an Honorary Senior Fellow at NIAS & Honorary Director, Gandhi Centre of Science and Human Values, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

Abstract
Samanta Chandrashekara Simha is a celebrated traditional Indian astronomer from Orissa. The Samanta, who flourished towards the end of the nineteenth century, was a self-trained astute astronomer who was completely insulated from Western knowledge.

In the present paper we have made an attempt to highlight some computational aspects of Samanta's text and compared the results with those of modern astronomical procedures as also of the popular Karana text, Grahalaghavam of Ganesa Daivajna (epoch: 1520 AD). As a test-case, the latest total lunar eclipse is worked out based on the Samanta's procedure.

15 September 2004
Speaker: Prof K Ramachandra
Topic: Work of I M Vinogradov and H Maier and H L Montgomery

Abstract:
The work of these mathematicians will be explained in a layman's language.

1 September 2004
Literary Forum

Reader: Mr Akshay Ahuja
Topic : A Reading of George Orwell's Essay, Politics and the English Language

Abstract
Orwell's 1946 essay examined the relationship between sloppy writing and the distortion of political realities. He argued that, in his time, since "political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible," vague and euphemistic language had to be used to blind both writers and the public to the truth of events. George Orwell, described by Lionel Trilling as the "conscience of his generation," was a pen name for Eric Blair. Born in India in 1903, he served with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, fought in the Spanish Civil War, and gained worldwide fame for his novels Animal Farm and 1984 before his death in 1950.
The reading will be followed by a discussion on how valid Orwell's observations are today, and the different ways in which governments use the English language in the service of obfuscation.
About the Speaker:
Akshay Ahuja has given a previous lecture on NIAS on poverty and education. He has a degree from Rice University in Literature and Political Science, and writes and works in Washington, DC.

18 August 2004
Speaker: Ms Leena Pascal
Title: Art and Education
Abstract:
The presentation is an attempt to understand the social context of children's art and how it reflects children's worlds. The talk will also highlight the importance of art in education and the role of school in promoting art as a part of learning.
About the speaker:
The speaker has a psychology background and has worked with children and their art in both formal and non-formal school settings in Bangalore and Rotterdam.

11 August 2004
Speaker: Dr M G Narasimhan
Topic: Innateness
Abstract:
The talk will be a sort of (mis?) guided tour of the concept through philosophy, linguistics and cognitive science.

4 August 2004
Wednesday Talk
Speaker: Dr. Sharada Srinivasan
Topic: India's legendary wootz steel: discussing a book in progress
About the talk
The lecture will discuss a book in progress being written by Dr. Sharada Srinivasan, NIAS and Prof. Ranganathan, NIAS, and Hon. Professor, Dept. of Metallurgy, IISC, supported by Tata Steel as part of the death centenary celebrations of J.N. Tata, founder of TataSteel.

The talk will touch upon the purpose of the book which is intended to be a popular, rather than a strictly scholarly monograph, which can appeal to a wider audience including students to engage their interest in subjects like materials science and steel research. The book also aims bring home to a wider audience the need for more support for work on materials and cultural heritage in India, which has generally been a neglected area, which has resulted in several lacunae in our understanding of history of technology in India with much scope for work in the field of research, documentation and preservation of material culture.

The talk will briefly outline how the book seeks to highlight the fact that India seems to have led the world in developing a high tradition of making high-grade steel in south India, the relevance of which can be seen not only from the tales of its export for making patterned 'Damascus' blades, but also from is pivotal role in developments in 19th century metallurgy, with implications for research even in modern times as an advanced material in the field of superplasticity and also nanomaterials, the material of the future.

However, there is a need for support for more systematic archaeometallurgical research to convert the circumstantial evidence for India's primacy and skills in this technology (some of it uncovered by Dr. Sharada Srinivasan at some production sites) into hard archaeological evidence . While such Indian traditions declined in the colonial period, under JN Tata India emerged once again as a major producer of steel. The speaker would read some excerpts from the book and also touch upon some illustrations commissioned for the book by Paul Fernandez, well known illustrator of a book on 'Bangalore' by Peter Colaco.

28 July 2004
Wednesday Talk
Title: Materialist turn in contemporary science studies: Pickering, Galison and Ihde
Speaker: Dr Srikanth Mallavarapu
Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Abstract:
This talk will focus on concept of in-commensurability and its implications for science studies.

21 July 2004
Wednesday Talk
Speaker: Mr Narayan Sharma, Guwahati, Assam
Topic: Stepchildren of the Seven Sisters: Ecology and Conservation of the Primates of Northeastern India
Abstract:
Northeastern India is very rich in primate diversity and represents one of the highest biomass densities of primates anywhere in the world. A total of nine (or ten?) species have made this region their abode. But these primates are facing tremendous threats from various factors ranging from habitat loss in the form of logging and shifting cultivation, habitat fragmentation to wanton killing for meat and aphrodisiacs. A lack of proper scientific studies and well-conceived management plans are also contributing to their dwindling populations. This talk will highlight the present status and the uncertain future of the northeastern Indian primates, with particular reference to research and conservation programmes being developed in NIAS.

7 July 2004
Wednesday Talk
Literary Forum of NIAS presents
Poetry Reading by Ms. Deepti Diwakar
On "The Tree of Verse: Explorations of a poet's consciousness"
Introduction as given by the Poet:
With poetry transcending daily consciousness and exploring the unknown and perhaps synthesizing art and philosophy, the poet unravels the mystery of her poetic inspirations. As Octavio Paz the Nobel laureate says, poetry is the 'other' voice, far from that of say, marketing. She will provide glimpses into a poet's psyche and take the audience on a journey of poetic consciousness and read from her book 'The Tree of Verse'.
About the Poet:
Deepti Diwakar won the President's Award for Literary Excellence from National Authors' Registry, USA and is listed in Who is Who in theWorld, Marquis Publishers, New Jersey. She is an Architect who studied Design at UCLA, California, and earned her MA from San Francisco University in Radio-Television. Diwakar has performed Bharathanatyam worldwide and was awarded Bharathanatyam Maharathnam from World Development Parliament of West Bengal. She teaches Healing Meditation in California and presently works as a contributing journalist for The Times of India.

30 June 2004
Speaker: Dr Uttam Sen
Title: Aspects of non-military dimensions of security

Abstract:
The need has been felt since the end of the Cold War for a broader definition of security than its traditional statist dimension. The subject has its roots, among others, in the work of W E Blatz who ultimately projected the case for (individual) self-sufficiency. Its current definition as "safety from chronic threats..." (UNDP 1994) has been expanded to include provision of economic fundamentals. Though traditional security retains its pre-eminence there has been a growing demand, even among its practitioners, for a more comprehensive approach to supplement the pursuit of national security interests and State survival. This translates into security inclusive of the quality of life of the people. A discussion would include the development of the idea and its consequences in the current context.

About the Speaker:
Dr. Uttam Sen is currently an independent security affairs analyst based at Bangalore. He Joined journalism through selection to the Times of India journalism scheme, worked in The Statesman and Economic Times, Calcutta, and with the Deccan Herald, Bangalore, as leader writer and assistant editor. He holds a Ph.D. from Calcutta University and M.A. in Sociology from Delhi School of Economics (DSE), Delhi University. He was also awarded Advanced Centre scholarship at the DSE. He was a member of the (eastern region) Fulbright board. For the Deccan Herald covered, among other events, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Edinburgh and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) negotiations at the UN's Conference on Disarmament (CD) at Geneva (leading to one's current interests) and political happenings in Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar. He has a number of publications to his credit and delivered a number of talks at India and Abroad. In addition, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Henry L. Stimson Center, Washington, D.C.

23 June 2004
Topic: Strategy, Foreign Policy and Technological Choices in Southern Asia
Speaker: Mr Arvind Kumar, Associate Fellow, NIAS

Abstract:
The term Southern Asia implies the regions of South Asia and also includes China in the north, Afghanistan in the West and Myanmar in the East. The talk will focus on India, China and Pakistan specifically. An attempt will be made to provide with a theoretical framework on the matters related to strategy and foreign policy and their linkages. The threat perception of
China, India and Pakistan suggests that all the three are vulnerable. It might also be because of the change in global defence arrangements, which has taken place after September 11th event in 2001. Such changes have certainly direct bearing on the security of the countries falling in Southern Asian region. How strategy and foreign policy of India and Pakistan gets affected through third party's dominant role will form a major part of debate.

The role of technology becomes paramount in establishing the linkages between strategy and foreign policy of any country. It gives an extra edge in deciding about the future course of strategy and foreign policy. In the current era of strategic uncertainty and high vulnerability, what technological choices are left before India, China and Pakistan will form a part of discussion.

16 June 2004
Speaker: Prof. Malavika Kapur
Topic: Promotion of Psychosocial Development of Rural School Children

Abstract:

The Government schools, particularly in the rural areas, continue to provide the children with education of abysmally poor quality. This is due to the paucity of funding, poor infrastructure and poor teacher-pupil ratio. This has resulted in poor motivation to provide quality education among the teachers, pupils and the community alike.

The present study is an attempt at providing intervention in the rural schools to promote the psychosocial development of the children in the most economic and effective manner. The study attempts to CREATE and EVALUATE programmes adopting child-to-child methods. The sample consisted of 1088 children from class 1 to 9 in 15 schools, in one cluster of schools in H.D. Kote Taluk. Psychological assessment was carried out before and after the intervention consisting of 20-30 sessions. The results will be discussed briefly, followed by a video demonstration of the programme.

9 June 2004
Speaker: Mr Trevor Steele
Title: Esperanto: Utopia or Realisable Dream?
Abstract:
Esperanto is the only planned language to go beyond the stage of a project and become a fully-fledged language. The speaker suggests that the periodof its appearance was auspicious, but that the character of the inventor (Zamenhof) was a bigger factor. The structure of the language will be sketched, and an example of prose and poetry given. The more polemic part of the talk will present a comparison of the reigning candidate for the role of a world language, English, with Esperanto (Sanskrit will also be touched on).The talk will conclude with three reasons why the speaker believes Esperanto deserves the role of humanity's common second tongue.
About the speaker:
Trevor Steele is an Australian who has lived and worked, mainly as a teacher of languages, on every continent. His most recent position was that of Director General of the Universal Esperanto Association in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. At present he and his wife Katja are in India teaching Esperanto, en route to a new teaching career in Australia.

2 June 2004

Speaker: Dr B K Anitha
Topic: Engendering Institutions of Science - A Myth or Reality
Abstract:

After more than a century of attempts by women to enter science, a male bastion, the scientific workforce today does not reflect the gender distribution seen in society. The vertical segregation within a discipline still assigns women to low status positions in comparison to men; and patterns of horizontal segregation across disciplines assign particular areas of inquiry as "women's" and others as "men's" fields. Do women as a group opt out of certain disciplines? It may be interesting in this context to examine the structural and societal factors that contribute to this process. Are these institutions of excellence aware of this exclusion? Is it possible to study this process as a rise in higher education and expanded employment opportunities on the one hand and the growth, bureaucratization and professionalisation of the discipline on the other? The talk focuses on some critical questions about the participation and career paths for women in science and technology.

26 May 2004

Speaker: Prof Dilip Ahuja
ISRO Professor of Sci & Tech Policy Studies
Topic: Flip-flop Behaviour by Individuals and Organizations

Abstract:
The motivation for this talk comes from seeking an explanation for the observed construction, removal and re-construction of speed breakers at the same locations in Bangalore. Other examples are presented where flip-flop (or oscillatory) behaviour is displayed-the decisions of some NRIs about where to live, some aspects of the relationships between Mahatma Gandhi and ashram women, and one instance from fiction. A model is proposed that attempts to "explain" flip-flop behaviour. Instances are cited where this model "fails" and where it might provide possible insights. By merging fiction and non-fiction, this talk attempts to combines the regular Wednesday morning and the Literary Forum talks.

19 May 2004

Speaker: Dr H K Anasuya Devi, Fellow, NIAS, (hka@nias.iisc.ernet.in) & her students from SIT, Tumkur
Topic: Part - I: FNN Approach to Brahmi Recognition with Results Part - II: GUI for Brahmi

Abstract:
Part I:
Fuzzy logic is the science to quantify non-random uncertainty (imprecision, vagueness, fuzziness) in physical processes, which are close to the real world problems. Epigraphy is the study of the inscriptions engraved on materials such as stones, rocks, on manuscripts, palm leaves, coins, copperplates, silver-plates. Some of the characters in these inscriptions have worn out with time. This makes the reading and recognition of characters ambiguous and difficult. It is in this context the use and application of fuzzy concept makes it relevant to the analysis of the epigraphy texts, beginning with Brahmi script.

Brahmi script is lucid and contains more characters than in English. Its character set contains 30 consonants and 5 vowels. Using combinations of this set, any number of valid characters can be formed. The size of the characters is not uniform. This makes the problem of identification of Brahmi Characters all the more complicated.

The images containing Brahmi Scripts are scanned and stored as a bitmap. This input is fed into the 3 sub-modules, namely (1) Character recognition module, (2) Syntactic analyzer module and (3) word processor for generating the final product. One of the most important aspects of character recognition is extraction of individual characters from the script image file, using Pattern Recognition techniques. Fuzzy Sets and Rough Sets in combination with Neural Networks are used for resolving the
ambiguity between the closely resembled characters. For example - "sa" and "ta".

Part - II
GUI for Brahmi
Presentation by final year B.E, Computer Science, students of Siddaganga, I.T Tumkur.
An editor for GUI framework as a user-friendly package for Brahmi script analysis will be demonstrated.

12 May 2004
Speaker: Prof. Prabhakar G Vaidya
Topic: The Hopes, Dreams and Delusions of the Mathematical Modelling Unit at NIAS, IISc Campus

Abstract:

There is a fond hope, expressed by J.R.D, Tata and others that Mathematics can play the role of the 'best supporting actor' in a wide range of subjects from Politics to Biology. At the minimum, Maynard Smith claimed, that Mathematics will help us understand the 'consequences of our assumptions'.It is my suspicion that these sort of hopes led to the dream in the mind of Professor Narasimha. What has happened to the dream? This talk will begin by describing, without too many Mathematical details, the achievements and failures experienced by the Mathematical Modelling Unit in the last five years.I would discuss what possible avenues lie ahead and seek a feed back from, a wide range of audience. It is hoped that at least some of the delusions (for which I take full credit) would be cleared by the feedback.

28 April 2004
Wednesday Talk
Topic: The Role of lotus in the religious art of Hinduism and Buddhism
Speaker: Dr. Santona Basu

Abstract:
The depiction of lotus in the Hindu and Buddhist art of ancient India is the visual interpretation of thoughts contained in the ancient Indian scriptures starting from the earliest of Indian literature, viz. The Vedas. Lotus flower as the seat or pedestal of a divinity in art goes back to the Vedic conception, where lotus is seen as the support of the creation. Thus lotus comes to signify the cosmic lotus and in art one sees Hindu or Buddhist deities sitting or standing on an open lotus.

The idea of lotus as a seat continues in the Buddhist iconography. But there the negative relation of the lotus to water, a symbol of non-attachment to the sensual world, is the prevalent thought. Besides this, lotus as a seat goes back to the Vedic idea, where the lotus is imagined as a support of divinities. These two ideas - one Vedic and the other Buddhist - fired the imagination of the artists to carve lotus-seats or pedestals for the Buddha and the Buddhist deities.

Highly polished stone pillars with lions atop lotus capitals are metaphysical symbols of the "Axis of the Universe" and figuratively
represent the Buddha and his preaching of the Law. The notion of the "Axis of the Universe" or the "Cosmic Pillar" is a Vedic notion that was adapted for the Buddhist sculptural imagery and iconography and we have pillars with lotus capitals.

The mythical wish-granting creeper, kalpalata, was non-existent in the nature. The sculptors expressed that idea in the shape of lotus scrolls, lotus also being a symbol of prosperity from the Vedic times. Lotus scroll or kalpalata embodies the idea of fulfilling the wishes of prosperity of a devotee.

Lotus petals or tongues of flame on the nimbus of a deity first appeared in Buddhist art and later on it was adopted by Hindu iconography and was made statutory by the writers of the manuals of Hindu iconography.

In order to be able to appreciate the role of the lotus in Hinduism it is necessary to understand its position in the Vedic literature. Some of the iconographic conceptions of Buddhism, particularly of Mahayana Buddhism are influenced by Vedic thoughts, e.g. the influence of Hindu icons, which have their roots in the Vedic notions, can be seen in the fashioning of the deities of Mahayana Buddhism with lotus seats symbolizing the cosmic lotus. On the other hand, some iconographic innovations in Buddhist art were adopted by Hindu iconography as in the case of nimbus around the head of a deity.

About the Speaker

SANTONA BASU born (1938) and brought up in Uttar Pradesh did her post-graduation in Sanskrit from Agra University in 1959. Her second rank in the university got her a UGC fellowship. This was followed by a fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), which enabled her to study Indology at Goettingen University, Germany, under the well-known Buddhist scholar Prof. Dr. E. Waldschmidt from 1961 - 64. She did her Ph.D. from Agra University in 1974.The same year she with her family again left India for Germany. This time she worked as a freelancer in the Bengali department of the Voice of Germany (Deutsche Welle), Cologne and as police and court interpreter in Bonn. She came back to India in 1985. She knows English, Bengali, Hindi and German. She has published articles including research articles in English and Bengali and translated Hindi and Bengali short stories into German and German short stories into Bengali. Her book The Lotus Symbol in Indian Literature and Art is based on her thesis. She also lived in Nigeria for 2 years.

April 21, 2004
Wednesday Talk
Speaker: Dr Padma M Sarangapani
Topic: Improving school quality: What has been tried and what works
Abstract:
There have been a small but significant number of efforts to improve the quality of government schools in the country. This presentation is based on about 22 case studies which commissioned to study efforts in different parts of the country by Sutradhar, a Bangalore based NGO, in which we have tried to understand issues of what has been tried and what works.

7 April 2004
Speaker: Ms M B Rajani
Topic: East India Company Paintings and Textile Trade
Abstract:
The illustrated lecture will explore how the Company paintings of the British East India Company of the 18th - 19th centuries came to made, the development of various styles of paintings with a focus on their depictions of textiles, constumes and local customs and the purpose whichthese paintings fulfilled for their patrons. The lectures will especially discuss with slides the Company paintings from the region of Tanjore and Trichnopoly in Tamil Nadu from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Ms M B Rajani is working as Project Assistant on a TISCO funded project in Archaeometallurgy with Dr Sharada Srinivasan of the Culture, Cognition and Consciousness in NIAS. She did her MA in 2003 from the Surrey Institute Art and Design, University College, Farnham, UK in the year 2003. Her research interests have been in East India Company Paintings, Textile technology and craft traditions.

Ms Rajani would like to do her Ph.D., on the subject through the aegis of NIAS and hence participation of NIAS Faculty would be appreciated.

March 31, 2004
Speaker: Dr Shridhar K Chari, Research Associate, NIAS
Topic: The politics of accommodation - India and the international system

Abstract
A major foreign policy and security issue confronting an emerging power like India is how the existing power structure of the international system will respond to the country's increased economic and military strength. This response will have elements of "accommodation" "containment" or even "confrontation" and the talk will explore various factors in this dynamic, using elements of the foreign policy of the most powerful state in the system, the United States, as one possible focus point.

24 March 2004
Wednesday Talk
Speaker: Prof K Ramachandra, Honorary Professor, NIAS
Topic: Some Important Discoveries during the past 20 years in theory of numbers
Abstract:
Usually, important discoveries can be explained to a layman without much preparations. Attempt will be made to put it in a language, which could be understood by a layman.

24 March 2004
Wednesday Talk
Speaker: Dr Anindya Sinha
Title: Chronicles of Lives Foretold: Social Traditions and Cultural Selection in Wild Bonnet Macaques

This will be the second part of my talk on behavioural inheritance among bonnet macaques, the first part of which was delivered on Wednesday, March 17. During this talk, I will also show two short video clips on some unusual behaviours observed among the bonnet macaques in the Bandipur National Park recently.

17 March 2004
Wednesday Talk
Speaker: Dr Anindya Sinha, Fellow, NIAS
Title: Of Memes and Macaques: Behavioural Inheritance in Primate Social Systems

Abstract:
Mechanisms of social learning allow higher animals to acquire information from the behaviour of others, and through their own modified behaviour such information can be transmitted between individuals and across generations. Variation in such socially acquired and transmitted behaviours is unlikely to be under direct genetic control since individuals who are closely related genetically can have and pass on very different behaviours; this is also true for cultural traditions that such behaviours may have generated.

Behavioural information transfer of this nature thus represents another form of inheritance that operates in mammals and birds in tandem with the more basic genetic system.

This talk will examine the rles that behavioural inheritance and socially transmitted cultural traditions play in the structure and dynamics of primate societies, with particular reference to bonnet macaques, a primate species endemic to peninsular India. Three principal consequences will be considered: the rle of phenotypic flexibility in social evolution, the origin of individual behavioural traits and social traditions, and the possibility of cultural selection acting on stable traditions.

3 March 2004
Title: Changing agricultural practices in India - Insight from a field study
Speaker: Dr P K Shetty, Fellow, NIAS
Abstract:
Indian agriculture has undergone considerable transformation during the past four decades. The adoption of modern technological practices such as improved irrigation, high-yielding varieties, agro-chemicals and farm mechanization have made notable contribution towards raising the food production. However, there are several constraints for further increase in production due to increasing number of small farms, agro-chemical pollution, soil erosion and desertification. In addition, the intensive cultivation of the high-yielding varieties, monoculture of commercially important crops, overlapping of cropping seasons and repeated and over application of plant protection chemicals, has resulted in high incidences of pests and diseases in agro-ecosystems. The increasing losses due to crop pests are the major limiting factor for sustaining agricultural production. This talk reveals many interesting facts obtained from a field study on the problems of input driven agriculture, resurgence of pests and diseases, unsustainable agricultural practices, the socio-economic and health externalities in a few agro-ecological regions in the country.

11 February 2004
Speaker: Sundar Sarukkai, NIAS
Title: "Inberence"

7 January 2004
Speaker: Prof S Balachandra Rao, Honorary Senior Fellow, NIAS
Topic: Grahalaaghavam and Karanakuthuhalam, Two Indian Astronomical handbooks