Lectures - Wednesday Talks 2005

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

21 December 2005
Speaker: Ms Indira Vijaysimha, Managing Trustee, Poorna
Topic: Creating an educational alternatiave Poorna
Abstract:
In 1993 a mother and three children took the somewhat unusual decision to move away from traditional schooling and work from home. This was the beginning of a rather interesting exploration of school education and possible alternatives. Today, Poorna is the name of a Learning Centre (a school in many ways), where the reflective processes of teaching and learning continue to be explored without becoming overly routinized. The story of Poorna can be told in many ways, from many points of view. As in all retellings the tale will sound different depending on the narrator and the audience. I shall be making an attempt on Wednesday to present before you an honest, but necessarily personal account of this experiment from a participant's view point a participant who has been intensely engaged with the process.

14 December 2005
Topic: The Many Dimensions of Water Scarcity in India and the World
Speaker: Prof. Joseph Alcamo, Center for Environmental Systems Research, University of Kassel, Germany, Visiting Professor, NIAS
Time: 9.30 am
Venue: NIAS Lecture Hall
Abstract:
Water scarcity is real but difficult to solve because of our poor understanding of its many dimensions. On one hand, water scarcity has to do with our inability to furnish a large fraction of the human population with a minimum amount of water for their daily needs. On the other hand it is also concerned with providing enough water for food production on irrigated farms, for cooling thermal power plants, and for satisfying water requirements of factories. On top of this complex demand-side situation is an equally complex supply-side situation caused by seasonal and year-to-year variations in precipitation and the costs and impacts of large water projects. Although the issue of current water scarcity is difficult to resolve, the situation of future water scarcity is still more complicated. Growth in population and income, as well as changes in technology and climate, are causing rapid changes in the water demand and supply situation in India and the world.

Using new tools such as integrated modeling, global data bases, and scenario analysis, we are beginning to sort out and better
comprehend the current and future dimensions of water scarcity. The news coming from applying these tools is a mixture of good and bad. For example: · Water withdrawals from India's largest water user, irrigated agriculture, are stabilizing. · Meanwhile, a huge new demand for water supply infrastructure will come from domestic and industrial water users. · New water infrastructure will provide welcome local water services but is likely to be accompanied by an enormous increase in the discharge of wastewater into surface waters causing new water contamination problems and threats to aquatic ecosystems. · Improving water use efficiency can significantly slow down the increase in pressure on Indian water resources caused by population and economic growth. · Total annual water availability in India is likely to increase under climate change, but more frequent droughts over large parts of the country are also possible. While we have many new insights about water scarcity in India and the world, many more urgent questions about its physical, engineering, economic, and social dimensions remain unresolved and need to be tackled by researchers in an integrated and multi-disciplinary fashion.

About the Speaker:

Joseph Alcamo is Visiting Professor (October, 2005 through March, 2006) at the National Institute of Advanced Studies on the Indian Institute of Science campus in Bangalore. His permanent position is Director of the Center for Environmental Systems Research at the University of Kassel, Germany, where he is Professor of Environmental Systems Research.

Over the last thirty years Alcamo has been one of main developers of global and regional integrated models of the environment. He has led the development of the WaterGAP model, one of the first models of the global water system, which has been used in numerous international assessments of global water scarcity. At the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands he led the development of the IMAGE 2 model, the first spatially-explicit integrated model of global climate
change. Results from the IMAGE 2 model were used in negotiations of the Kyoto Protocol to the Climate Convention.
In the past he has been a Guest Lecturer and Scholar at Stanford University; a Public Policy Scholar at Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C.; Research Scholar at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis, near Vienna, Austria.; and Project Leader at the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands. Some current scientific activities: · One of two Chairmen of the Global Water System Project, a joint research program of the four main international global change research programs (IGBP, IHDP, WCRP, Diversitas). · Co-founder and Professor of the International Max Planck Research School for Earth Systems Modeling. · Convening Lead Author, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) · Coordinating Lead Author, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment For his contributions to the development of global modeling, and for his applications of global models to policymaking, Alcamo was the co-winner of the 1998 Max Planck Research Prize, an international prize jointly awarded by the Max-Planck Society and Humboldt Foundation of Germany. He was the first environmental scientist to win the award. J. Alcamo has published four books on the analysis of international environmental problems: · J. Alcamo, R. Leemans, G.J.J. Kreileman, (editors and co-authors). 1998. Global Change Scenarios of the 21st Century. Pergamon/Elsevier Science. Oxford. 296 pp. · J. Alcamo (editor and co-author). 1994. IMAGE 2.0: Integrated Modeling of Global Climate Change. Kluwer Academic Publishers. Dordrecht, Boston. 314 pp. · J. Alcamo (editor and co-author). 1992. Coping With Crisis in Eastern Europe's Environment. Parthenon Publishing Group, Canforth, U.K. 325 pp. · J. Alcamo, R. Shaw, L. Hordijk. (editors and co-authors). 1990. The RAINS Model of Acidification: Science and Strategies in Europe. Kluwer Academic Publishers. Dordrecht, Boston. 402 pp.

7 December 2005
Speaker: Dr. Wim Hordijk, Ph.D. Visiting Researcher, Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Karunya Nagar, Coimbatore - 641 114 Tamil Nadu, India
Title: An Introduction to Evolutionary Computation
Abstract: Evolutionary Computation (EC) deals with computational methods that incorporate ideas and principles from natural evolution and genetics. More specifically, it includes a class of so-called evolutionary algorithms (EAs), which are stochastic search algorithms that can be used to search for good solutions to difficult problems. These algorithms try to evolve better and better solutions, as opposed to constructing one from scratch, and are particularly suitable for problems for which no known efficient (polynomial-time) algorithm exists, and for which exhaustive search is impractical. These evolutionary algorithms are fairly simple and general, and can be applied to a wide range of optimization problems.

One particular example of an evolutionary algorithm is the genetic algorithm (GA). It maintains a population of candidate solutions to some given problem, and constructs new populations by selecting the best solutions from the current population and recombining parts of them to create new candidate solutions that will constitute the next generation.Over time, the population as a whole will thus contain increasingly better solutions. GAs have been used successfully to solve difficult optimization problems, and they frequently outperform other search and optimization methods. Furthermore, they have also been used as simple
models of evolutionary processes, and can thus be used to study specific aspects of (natural) evolution itself.

In this presentation, I will give an introduction to evolutionary computation, in particular genetic algorithms. The underlying
biological principles (genetics and evolution) will be explained first, and then it will be shown how these principles can be used to construct computer optimization algorithms such as the GA. Some examples of application areas and the advantages and disadvantages of GAs will also be discussed.

About the speaker:
Wim Hordijk, Ph.D., is a Visiting Researcher at Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Karunya Nagar, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.

Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA, 1999 B.Sc. in Operations Research, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1994

He has worked on various projects at research institutes and universities in several different countries, eg.,France, New Zealand, Brazil, Austria, USA. Most projects have involved research combining ideas from biology, physics, mathematics, and computer science, such as evolutionary computation, emergent computation in cellular automata, bioinformatics, computational biology, etc. Personal interests are: history, travel, and trekking. Professional Experience Research & Consulting · Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Coimbatore, India, Visiting researcher (07/05-12/05) · LIRMM, Montpellier, France Postdoctoral researcher (10/04-04/05) · University of Canterbury, Dept. of Math & Stats, Christchurch, New Zealand Postdoctoral researcher (03/03-12/03) · Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de Física, São Carlos, SP, Brazil

30 November 2005
Speaker: Dr Sonika Gupta, Post-Doctoral Fellow, NIAS
Topic: The Internet and Democracy in China
Abstract: The growth of the Internet in the United States has been accompanied by a debate on its emancipatory potential in ushering in democracy in an authoritarian state like China. The optimism underlying this debate borders on technological determinism that make a causal connection between Internet penetration and a political change towards democracy.
The Internet is perceived to be a truly global medium, which is more difficult to control than other media. The number of Internet users in China is growing steadily with more students, intellectuals, professionals, the business community and average urban Chinese gettingon to the information super-highway and participating in the transnational flow of information. This could well result in building a global network of support for demanding political change in China and could present a challenge to the Chinese Government. However, these conditions need to be examined more closely.

This paper will explore the following questions in context of political democratization in China? Is the Internet inherently a democratic space? Is it more difficult to control than other media? Is the medium the message? What role does the Internet play in organized protest in China today? And finally, has increased Internet access impacted up upon handling of political dissent by the Chinese Communist Party?

30 November 2005
Special Lecture
Speaker: Dr. Gautam Chatterjee
Topic: The Ethical Foundations of Economic Science

Dr. Chatterjee has studied Economics at Jadavpur University, Delhi School of Economics, University of Essex. He has studied
Philosophy at Brown University and at Harvard University. He has taught several subjects over a 33 year long teaching career -Economics, International Relations, Political Science, History, Philosophy, Religion, Mathematics and Physics at Simmons College and Wheaton College in Massachusetts, USA

23 November 2005
Wednesday Talk
Speaker: Dr P K Shetty
Topic: Genetically modified crops and the future of Indian Agriculture

Abstract
Recent research and advances in use of genetic engineering techniques for producing Genetically modified crops hold enormous promise for improvements in yield and also foods that are more tasty, nutritious or healthier. Development of such transgenic plants has led to a debate in different sections of society on risks and benefits of these techniques to human health and the environment. This presentation will bring out various developments in genetically modified crops and its relevance to Indian agriculture.

26 October 2005
Wednesday Discussion Meeting [Guest Lecture] @ 4.00pm.
Speaker: Ashok Panikkar, Director, Meta-Culture
Topic: Conflict Transformation and Dialogue
Abstract:
This will be an introductory presentation on the role of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and Mediation as conflict management tools. In an increasingly complex world, organizations and communities and societies have to deal with difficult communi! cation and cultural challenges. Mediation and ADR, while relatively new concepts in India, are becoming increasingly popular in the many parts of the world, North and South America, Europe and parts of Asia and Africa. Communities and
organizations have found them to be valuable conflict management methodologies.

Decision makers are often faced with challenging and difficult conversations with colleagues, subordinates and even members of the public. These can be as simple as refusing a colleague or subordinate a request or demand; the allocation of vital resources; or addressing disputes that arise because of religious, political or social differences.

This presentation will intro! duce participants to the state of the field of ADR and the potential for the application of these methodologies in responding effectively to disputes and conflicts. The presentation will focus on the roles of third party neutral mediators and facilitators who can help parties who are engaged in disputes arrive at mutually acceptable settlements. By incorporating these methodologies and developing useful communication skills, decision makers can build healthy working relationships within their teams and communities.

About the Speaker

Prior to this, while in India he directed a communication design consulting business and a non-profit educational center conducting workshops in critical and creative thinking. Ashok has a Master~Rs degree in Critical and Creative Thinking from the University of Massachusetts, Boston and advanced training in Conflict Resolution from leading institutes in the US.

He has presented well received papers and keynote addresses at professional seminars and conferences in India and the US and was elected to the board of the New England- Associ! ation of Conflict Resolution (NE-ACR) for the year 2004-2005.

19 October 2005
Wednesday Talk
Speaker: Dr Sundar Sarukkai, Fellow, N I A S
Topic: Indian Philosophy and Philosophy of Science
Abstract:
This talk will summarize certain salient features of the speaker's recently published book "Indian Philosophy and Philosophy of
Science". Some issues that will be considered are: the relation between Indian philosophical categories and modern science, the nature of Indian logic, some aspects of pramana theory and finally the effability thesis

28 September 2005
Speaker: Dr Supriya Roy Choudhury, Institute for Social and Economic Change Bangalore
Topic: Globalization, Labour and Activism: A Political Economy Perspective
Abstract:
Globalization  impact on labour needs to be seen both in terms of marketization policies, and new technologies. The central impact of course has been in terms of the casualization process. This is an important structural factor in the marginalization of labour politics. But the disempowerment of the workforce is also due to the broader political environment. Agencies which represent labour - unions, and increasingly, NGOs   are unable either to redefine labour interests appropriately in the new economy, or to find the political vocabulary for inserting labour as an important category in the emerging economy.

About the speaker:
Supriya Roy Chaudhury is a political scientist at the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore. Her interests are in political theory, labour, and development issues.

21 September 2005
Speaker: Prof S Ranganathan, Department of Metallurgy
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore & Hon. Professor, NIAS
Topic: Nanotechnolgy: The Second Industrial Revolution
Abstract:
Nanotechnology is making enormous changes across the world in the past decade. It is often hailed as the second industrial revolution and is termed as a disruptive technology. It also has the power to transform society particularly in India. The lecture will address the following themes.
1 Synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials
2 Novel properties of nanomaterials
3 Industrial applications
4 Effect on electronic industries
5 Effect on life sciences
6 Health, safety and ethics issues
7 Educational reforms mandated by the new science
8 Convergence of nano-, bio-, info- and cognitive sciences
7 The Indian scenario

31 August 2005
NIAS Literary and Heritage Forum
'Poetry of the everyday'
Poetry reading and talk by Ms. Anjum Hasan

About the Talk

Anjum Hasan's talk will locate her poems in her interest in everyday situations and local contexts. She grew up in Shillong and her poetry is peopled by the figures and landscapes of a small-town milieu. What does it mean to write poetry that draws attention to the unnoticed details and textures of day-to-day existence? She will read out poems that capture different aspects of her poetic world - childhood, middle-class existence, small town characters and the idea of home. She will also present samples from the work of poets who have inspired and influenced her.

In addition to sharing her poems, Anjum Hasan will discuss, with reference to her own and others' work, her views on aspects of the poet's craft, such as what determines the choice of detail in a poem, the question of tone, the search for an individual style, concerns about technique, and the larger question of why one should write poetry at all.

About the Speaker

Anjum Hasan currently lives in Bangalore where in addition to working as a writer and critic she is Programme Executive at India Foundation for the Arts. Anjum Hasan's poetry has been published widely in journals in India and abroad. More recently her work has appeared in the anthologies Confronting Love (Penguin, 2005), Reasons for Belonging: Fourteen Contemporary Indian Poets (Penguin, 2003) and Anthology of Contemporary Poetry from the North-East (NEHU, 2003). Her debut collection of poems will be published later this year by the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi.

17 August 2005
Speaker: Dr M G Narasimhan
Topic: On Universal Grammar
Abstract:
In this talk the speaker will introduce the concept and try to demonstrate its relevance in understanding a very complex
phenomenon called "Langue".

10 August 2005
Speaker: Dr (Mrs) Malavika Kapur
Topic: Scaring the living daylights out of you: An analysis of our fascination with horror!
Abstract:
Some of us are fascinated by horror in literature, visual media and in real life. The presenter explores the world of
horror in literature, in the television and the cinema. She will be narrating a few stories in brief to illustrate some
ethical and psychological aspects. She will also focus the changes in the presentation of horror from the olden days
to the present. In contrast, the research on effects of violence in the visual media on the children will also be high lighted. She welcomes a lighthearted discussion from the floor from those who LIKE and those who ABHOR horror.

About the speaker
Prof. Malavika Kapur is a Clinical psychologist. She was till recently the Professor and Head of the Department of Clinical Psychology at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore. As a professional she has several books and national and international publications to her credit. The mysteries of the human mind have always fascinated her as a psychologist and a creative writer. Writing fiction offers her a perfect blend of psychology and creative fantasy. Her anthology entitled "The lost soul and other stories" has been published by the D. K Publications, New Delhi. She has also published her short stories in magazines such as Imprint and Heritage. Her adventure story entitled Adventures at Kudremukh was published in 2004. One of her stories, Nessy of Lochness, for children has been awarded a prize by Children's Book Trust in 2002. She is a prolific reader with deep interest in performing arts and is an inveterate traveler. She lives in Bangalore with her husband Prof. R. L. Kapur. She is the daughter of renowned Kannada writer and Jnanapeeta award winner Dr Shivarama Karanth.

20 July 2005
Wednesday Talk
Speaker: Prof K Ramachandra, Hon. Visiting Professor, NIAS
Title: We and the Prime Numbers
Abstract:Some results on Prime Numbers will be stated. In particular EULER RIEMANN CONIECTURE will be stated in a simple language intelligible to students of tenth standard.
P.S: The person who proves EULER-RIEMANN CONIECTURE gets million dollars, as announced somewhere.

13 July 2005
Wednesday Talk
Speaker: Dr A. R. Vasavi
Topic: Involutions in rural India?: Understanding contemporary conditions
Abstract:
Although difficult to generalize on a pan-India basis, ontemporary rural India exhibits characteristics of involution in which retention and change in key structures and practices are evident. Altered economic practices, new political mobilization, decentralized administration, the new village agents, migration patterns, the conjoining of sanskritisation with consumerism etc are some of the processes implicated in the making of this involution. Attention to these will enable us to understand some trends such as the agrarian crisis, the problem of institution building, and the altering family forms in rural India. The implication of these involutions for enabling both transition and transformation of rural India will be raised.

29 June 2005
Speaker: Dr Sangeetha Menon
Topic: By the Consciousness Couch: Odd, Regular and Inexplicable Experiences
Abstract:
The history of consciousness studies, if we take a closer look, is the history of Odd, Regular and Inexplicable Experiences and their explanations. Though today much of the discussion on experience,in neuroscience, holds on a building block approach, we know that the complexity of experience is not amenable to segregated explanations for one kind of sensation. Even if we hope that the mechanisms for generating various sensory experiences can together explain the basic feature of consciousness called experience, concepts of self, free will, reinforcement of self-help and positive attitudes will not allure a purely neural explanation. This is being evidenced by recent neuropsychiatric literature.

The neurology and phenomenology of unusual condition of deafferentation in patients who have extreme difficulty with movement because of the lack of senses of touch and proprioception below the neck are explained to understand how they experience and project their agency (Jonathan Cole, 1995). The two books by Jonathan Cole entitled About Face
(1998) and Still Lives (2004) look at the social and personal difficulties faced by patients with unusual experiences and how they manage to reconcile and make progress with the help of ~Ssheer effort, will power and an ingenious collection of motor tricks~T. What is interesting about this kind of neuropsychological literature is the shift in focus from third-person neural data to first person qualities of will power and self-effort as pertinent to cope up with such conditions and help achieve some (neural and experiential) progress. Certainly this suggests advancement from the basic view of Rylean behaviourism and identity
theory of mind that equates all mental processes with brain processes.

In this lecture I will speak about different kinds of experience that fall in the class of consciousness- like the normal day to day experiences, experiences (delusions) of patients with neurological disorders, psychedlic experiences, near-death experiences, spiritual experiences, god-experiences, aesthetic experiences etc. This might help to see if there are any lingering characteristics of the 'self' in these different experiences.

22 June 2005
Speaker: Mr Leo Saldanha, Coordinating Environment Support Group
Title: Mega Ambitions, Mega Projects, Mega Impacts: A study of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project About Speaker:
Leo Saldanha is with the Coordinating Environment Support Group (www.esgindia.org), and is an activist researcher involved in critically examining and often challenging a variety of infrastructure projects and public policies adversely impacting social and environmental justice concerns.

15 June 2005
Speaker: Dr Sharada Srinivasan
Topic: Unravelling the making of Kalaripayattu martial art weapons: Some preliminary archaeometallurgical and historical insights

Abstract:
Kalaripayattu is a celebrated martial art tradition of the state of Kerala in southwestern India which thrives today in the region of the Malabar and which is now experiencing a resurgence of interest through tourism and through contemporary dance practitioners. Although some anthropological studies on Kalaripayattu have been made by scholars such as Philip Zarrili, there have been few technical studies of the sword blades used in Kalaripayattu and little authentic documentation of the making of the sword blades itself. This paper touches upon some preliminary explorations into some of historical and metallurgical aspects of the sword making traditions of Kalaripayattu and attempts to place it within the larger framework of what is generally known about iron and steel heritage in southern India, a region that was well known for the production of the traditional wootz crucible steel, while also exploring it within the context of other rare metal crafts of Kerala such as the making of metal mirrors also documented by the speaker. The paper draws upon preliminary fieldwork undertaken in October 2004 by the researcher in north Malabar to some of the traditional gurukkuls or schools. Travel was supported by a grant from the India Foundation for Arts.

8 June 2005
Speaker: Mr Arvind Kumar
Topic: India and East Asia

Abstract:
East Asia more particularly South East Asia and China are increasingly becoming important for India. The talk will highlight the evolving strategy and interest on part of India towards East Asia. It would also assess and analyse the politico-diplomatic part and look into the rationale and need behind articulating a definite strategy towards the region. Does India form a part of East Asia's radar screen would also be debated. An attempt would be made to highlight the change in the international system and the reasons for growing global importance of both India and China. The presentation will also look into the major challenges being confronted by India and East Asia. An assessment would be made on India's strategic and security interests in East Asia.

1 June 2005
Wednesday Talk
Topic: Have We, as Indians, Actually Delivered What We Are Capable of
Speaker: Dr Amit Chatterjee, Tata Steel, Jamshedpur
Abstract:
Although India may be a developing nation, it is different from others in this category in so far as it has a rich and illustrious history. Indeed, India is one of the oldest civilisations in the world. In the field of metals India had made significant impact in
yesteryears e.g. wootz steel -- the first high quality steel -- was made in India; the famous Iron pillar in Delhi was built in fourth-fifth century AD, etc. These are still considered to be metallurgical wonders.

India has also been the birthplace of many individual giants who were trail blazers in the past. J.N. Tata started a textile mill in India, even after he was told by experts that the local weather was not suitable for growing cotton. He also pioneered the steel industry in India though the British were not very favourably disposed to the idea. The Indian Space Research Organisation, which till now has designed/ built 32 satellites and three generations of launch vehicles, was the outcome of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai's vision. Traditionally, therefore, India has been a country with a history of many successful innovations. Of late, however, two Indians appear to have come into reckoning. One has a severe inferiority complex and is unwilling to be creative because it thinks it is incapable of doing so. It perceives that being looked upon as the back office of the world is the ultimate compliment. The other is still confident about its capability, dreams big dreams, and then goes ahead to translate the dreams into reality. Examples of both these schools of thinking will be presented in the talk.

It is clear that it is not the lack of inherent capability in Indians that is hindering India's growth today. It is probably a lack of
will and a proper environment, which are the real impediments. If India wants to emerge as a knowledge power in the years ahead, the strength of Indians in science/technology/engineering has to be exploited.

India's future depends on what we decide to become and on our will to succeed. Our capability is definitely not in doubt; history lends credence to this claim.

About the Speaker:

Dr.Amit Chatterjee (60) is Adviser to the MD, Tata Steel. He graduated in Metallurgical Engineering from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in 1966 and obtained his Ph.D. and D.I.C.(Met) degrees from the very well known Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, in 1970. He then worked for two years in Thyssen, Germany, before he joined Tata
Steel in mid 1972. He rose to the post of Jt. Director, R & D and in 1982, was 'Seconded' by Tata Steel to Ipitata Sponge Iron Limited for 5 years as its Managing Director. 'Ipitata' was based on the Tisco Direct Reduction (TDR) process developed through Dr. Chatterjee's sustained efforts spanning two decades.

27 May 2005
Wednesday Talk
Topic: Gender Equity Program For Science and Technology
Speaker: Dr B K Anitha
Abstract:

The past few decades has registered a growing demand for trained professionals in the field of science and technology worldwide. The gap between the number of trained professionals needed and students entering the science stream is increasing and has been receiving attention from planners and policy makers from the developed and developing countries. In an attempt to close this gap, several countries are not only taking measures to attract and retain talent in science as a whole, but also undertaking specific measures to attract those sections of the population hitherto under represented in the scientific community.
Recent trends show a slow but a steady rise in the number of the Hispanic, Asians, Blacks and also women who are opting for a career in science. The focus now is not only to increase the quantity and quality of these professionals, but to create a diverse pool of trained professionals. An effort to address the low representation of women in science and technology in particular has received significant attention.
India as a country is making a significant contribution to this pool of scientists and engineers. The challenges of the growth and development of science and technology in India is no different. If one were to examine the steering of major scientific enterprises in the country or for that matter the leadership in important scientific and technological institutions the absence of women in leadership roles is conspicuous. Further, the minuscule number of women scientists and engineers in these organizations renders the problem of women in science more complex. This is an issue of serious concern and merits attention.

The proposed study under the Gender Equity Program for Science and Technology attempts to highlight the rationale and reasons for the gender imbalances in the scientific community. It seeks to analyse the reasons for the low presence of women in science with a focus on institutional factors while acknowledging that societal factors also contribute to the phenomenon. A comparative study of the institutions of excellence will be undertaken for this purpose. It further seeks tosuggest realistic measures to promote gender equity amongst the scientific community in India.

25 May 2005
Speaker: Dr H K Anasuya Devi
Topic: A software product on OCR: Optical Character Recognition for Ancient Scripts

Abstract:

Myself along with my team members shall be making a presentation of Software Product on OCR- Optical Character Recognition for Ancient Scripts. The software product is a consortium of different modules integrated into one. This has reference to the Archaeological findings and use of Epigraghic texts of rock inscriptions towards building a Knowledge Based System. We are in the process of completing the project on Knowledge Based Processing of Epigraphy Texts -Phase-II, which is in its final stage.

There will be a demo of the product for about 20 minutes in our office at JRD Tata Auditorium, 1st Floor, A4, after the presentation.

4 May 2005
Topic: Little Republics: A Series of 3 Films
Film Screening and Discussion
Chair: Dr Carol Upadhya
Speaker and Film Director: Sri Gautam Sonti
Abstract:
With the adoption of the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution of India in 1993, one-third of all seats in panchayats were reserved for women. Seats were also reserved for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe populations. This far-reaching policy of positive discrimination has been sabotaged in many parts of the country by male family members, upper caste men and politicians who field proxy candidates. The films revolve around the experiences of a few elected scheduled caste and scheduled tribe women in the Telangana Region. Through an ethnography of four villages, we examine the way in
which power is controlled and misused - in the home, community and outside world.

Background note on the director and the film:

Gautam Sonti has been making video documentaries for many years. He is associated with two projects of the Social and Anthropology department at NIAS: District Quality Education Programme, Chamrajnagar (Dr. A.R.Vasavi and Dr. Padma Sarangapani); NIAS-IDPAD Consultation on IT and ITES Sectors, Bangalore (Dr. Carol Upadhya and Dr. A.R.Vasavi)

Little Republics was selected for the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) 2004, but was subsequently withdrawn by the director as a protest against the back door censorship that was introduced by the authorities. Subsequently it has been screened in different cities as part of the Vikalp package - films that were either withdrawn from or rejected by MIFF.

In this meeting two films, Caste and Family, will be screened which will be followed by discussion.

Part 1: Caste Officially Anjavva is the Sarpanch (village head) of Hanmajipalli village, but ask anyone where the Sarpanch lives and they will point to Malla Reddy's house. She is a scheduled caste woman and he an upper caste man. Since the Sarpanch's seat was reserved for a scheduled caste woman, Malla Reddy fielded Anjavva. He now runs the show himself. In his own
words, "Anjavva is Me, I am Anjavva". How does he control power in Hanmajipalli?

Part 2: Family Aruna and Navanita have been elected from Munimoksham village. Though both belong to scheduled castes, there is little interference from uppercastes - this is a communist party controlled village. Does this mean that Aruna and Navanita are actually in power? Why are Aruna's husband Chukkayya and Navanita's brother-in-law Ramulu always around when there is a meeting or when contract work is undertaken?

Language: Telugu with English subtitles

Duration: 25 + 20 minutes
Director/ Producer: Gautam Sonti
Executive Producer: Nandini Prasad
Research/ Interviews: Usha V. Rani and JyotsnaEnquiries: Andhra Pradesh Mahila Samatha Society
Plot 39, Arvind Nagar Colony
Domalaguda, Hyderabad 500029
Phones: 040-27600258, 27630057

27 April 2005
Speaker: Prof Timothy Poston
Title: How to put our hands into Virtual Reality, not deep into our pockets
Abstract:
VR systems are exciting, but mostly still in labs. They are not environments for productive work, due to simulator sickness, large space requirements and other discomforts -- not least a price ranging from thousands to lakhs of US$$. Much of this comes from the 'stick your head in it', or immersion, fixation of the VRtists. An excellent 'put your hands in it, and achieve something' VR system could be built for a retail price of a few thousand rupees. I will describe how to do that.
About Prof Timothy Poston:
Prof Poston is an interdisciplinary, intercontinental scientist who has worked in many countries and whose coauthors range from archaeologists to brain surgeons. His Ph.D. was in Mathematics from the University of Warwick (UK). He reached India in 2003, worked for a year with GE's Research Centre in Bangalore, and is now the Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee Professor at NIAS.

20 April 2005
Speaker: Ms Indira Vijaysimha, DQEP,
Topic: Reading the classroom (Into the black box)

Abstract

The current debates about quality in education make it necessary for us to understand the site of every day teaching and learning, namely the classroom. The essentially private and closed space of the classroom then becomes the site where the actual implementation (or lack of) educational plans and policies takes place. As a teacher and teacher trainer I have often been struck by the complexity of the classroom space. It is almost impossible to capture the various dimensions of a classroom adequately. What you see depends very much upon what you look for - this is not just a banal statement of observer bias, but a reflection of the very real difficulty involved in studying a classroom. Some dimensions on which observations can be made are the following: pupil interactions, pupil teacher interactions, nature of teacher interactions, activities of the pupils, content of the lesson, use of teaching aids and management of time by the teacher. All these observations seem to flow more or less from a positivist framework, where the role of the teacher is seen to that of effectively transacting the curriculum. classrooms can also be studied from sociological, cultural and psychological perspectives and these will in turn result in observations made through a different set of lenses.

The baseline study done by the DQEP team in Chamrajnagar indicated that children were failing to read in significant numbers and thus our classroom observations were done with a view to understand the teaching of Kannada in the primary school and design possible interventions to improve teaching. We have deliberately as well as unwittingly chosen to reduce the obvious complexity of the space to manageable dimensions keeping the scope of our project in mind. My talk consists of a discussion of our observations.

13 April 2005
NIAS LITERARY FORUM at 4.00 pm
Theme: Short stories of Bohumil Hrabal
Speaker: Naureen Aziz
<naureen.aziz@gmail.com>
About the theme:
The presentation is based on a few short stories of Bohumil Hrabal. Excerpts will be read out to initiate the thrust of the
discussion. These stories are translated from the Czech by Micheal Henry Heim. The myriad angles, which can be discovered in the 'palavering' of the characters of these stories, will be the focus of the presentation.

About the Speaker:
Naureen Aziz teaches at Dept of English, Jyoti Nivas College. She has just completed 10 years of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. She has started a research study of the works of Bohumil Hrabal.

6 April 2005
Speaker: Dr Prabhakar G Vaidya
Topic: Can Heart Attack be Predicted?
Abstract:
For the last few years we have been looking at new ways to analyze ECG data. Our recent results seem to give a clue about a well known paradox: "why do some people with a normal looking ECG get heart attacks? In this lecture a hypothesis is made that a heart attack is exacerbated by a lack of synchronization in cardiac cells. We will show that some normal ECG's have tale tell signs of potential de-synchronization.

30 March 2005
Speaker: Dr Asiya Siddiqi
Topic: Tata's partner Kahandas, and the friendship of Premchund
Abstract:
The commercial economyof preindustrial India was one of the most developed for its times. Did rising entrepreneurs such as Jamsetji Tata draw on its resources? Tata's biographers ignore the question. I draw attention to it by examining the career of Kahandas Narandas of Ahmedabad. We observe the structure of an old established firm and the benefits Tata derived from the connection. The famous broker Premchund Roychund was involved in their dealings.

23 March 2005
Speaker: Dr Carol Upadhya
Title: Producing the Global IT Professional: Corporate Culture in a Multinational Software Centre
Abstract:
The presentation outlines some of the findings from our ongoing study of software engineers in Bangalore. A major aim of the study is to explore the transformations in identity, sociality, and culture through the close study of the working and non-working lives of Indian 'techies' who, because of the nature of their work in the software outsourcing industry, can be said to constitute a new kind of global workforce. Most Indian IT professionals are closely tied into the global economy not only through frequent travel for 'on-site' assignments, but also through virtual systems of organization and communication as they work on offshore projects. In this talk I focus on just one aspect of the work experience of software engineers - the pressure to conform to a 'global corporate culture'. The management of offshore workforces in India presents specific problems for multinational companies (most of which are based in the
U.S.), which are handled through a variety of strategies. One such strategy is the creation of a specific 'corporate culture' into which
employees are sought to be absorbed. Drawing on a case study of one company, the presentation details the techniques through which both a 'global' corporate culture and a specific company culture are transmitted from the American parent company to its Indian subsidiary, and examines how it is received by Indian software engineers

16th March 2005
Speaker: Prof S Ranganathan
Title: A Brief History of the Periodic Table and its Variants
Abstract
The urge to understand matter in terms of its constituent elements is as old as civilization itself. Brief references to the
Panchabhoota, the atomism of Kanada expounded in the Sankhya philosophy and Democritus in Hellenistic Philosophy will be shown to lead to Dalton's hypothesis of Atoms in September 1803, though scepticism of the existence of atoms remained for a further century.

The discovery of metals over ten millennia was often accidental and was followed by the systematic isolation of elements over two centuries and then by the synthesis of elements in recent history. The classification of these elements into the Periodic Table was a monumental achievement by Dmitri Mendeleev in 1871; awesome in its scope as newly discovered elements fell into place. In 1984 David Pettifor ran a string through this table so that the formation of intermetallics can be depicted in Pettifor Maps. In 2003 the speaker showed in a dramatic fashion that many multinary intermetallics , including quasicrystals can be regarded as pseudobinary intermetallics. As most minerals have elements in the ionic state, yet another Periodic Table has been devised with ionic charge as a discriminator. Bruce Railsback in September 2003 drew this table which enables at one glance to see geological as well as biological processes

9 February 2005
Wednesday Talk

Speaker: Dr. Padma M Sarangapani
Topic: Learning the Baiga Way: A study of three pedagogic sites

Abstract:
The Baiga are an ancient tribe living in the forested areas of Central India around the Maikal Hill ranges. Between 2000 and 2002 I spent 6 months doing field work in two Baiga villages to study and understand childhood socialisation and informal and formal patterns of learning. Of particular interest was the question of how this tribe is able to pass from generation to generation their indigenous knowledge of healing. In this presentation i will be drawing on three pedagogic sites--the family, the peer group
and guru-chela, to explore what may be considered as the key features of the Baiga learning tradition and contrast this with the learning tradition of school. The study highlights on the importance of an anthropological approach to the study of learning.

2 February 2005
Speaker: Dr P K Shetty
Topic: 'Insecurities' in Food Security

Abstract:

While India is among the largest agricultural producers in the world in terms of total area in operation, its per capita output is very low in comparison with many countries in the developing and developed world. Though it has achieved self-sufficiency in food grains there is an urgent need to improve productivity in all crops to meet future challenges. One of the important stumbling blocks seems to be the yield losses due to insect pests and diseases. This presentation reveals results obtained from detailed fieldwork carried out in different agro-ecological regions in the country on plant protection strategies used to overcome the
problems of crop pests and enhance agricultural production.

19 January 2005
Speaker: Anindya Sinha
Topic: Monkeys of the Deep Forest: Discovery of a Primate in Arunachal Pradesh

12 January 2005
Wednesday Talk
Topic: Positive Ageing
Speaker: Prof Felicia Huppert, Dept of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
URL http://www.psychiatry.cam.ac.uk/pages/profiles/huppert.html
Abstract
Researchers have long operated on the assumption that by studying disorder we would understand effective functioning. However, there is a growing recognition that subjective well-being, good health and successful and adaptive behaviour cannot be understood simply in terms of the absence of disorder. A major conceptual shift is required to develop a science of positive ageing and its determinants across the life-course.

This lecture will review recent data and work in progress which aims to identify the determinants of positive ageing. The factors associated with subjective psychological well-being, maintained cognitive function, physical health and survival will be reviewed, along with an examination of the role of social and biological factors as causes, consequences and mediators of positive outcomes. Several major population-based studies of the ageing process will be described, which combine genetics and neurobiology with psychological and other behavioural measures. It will be concluded that further advances in the research and promotion of positive ageing require a multi-faceted approach which should include: knowledge about how to protect the brain as well as the body from age-related changes,; recognition of the importance of psychological well-being and positive social relationships; and analysis of the association between ageing and the external environment.

About the Speaker

Felicia Huppert is Professor of Psychology in the Dept of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. She is a neuropsychologist whose principal research interests are understanding the ageing process, and the scientific study of well-being. Her work is multi-disciplinary, covering psychology and neuroscience, genetics and social science. Prof Huppert has been a principal investigator on major UK longitudinal studies, including the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and the 1946
birth cohort study.

She is Director of the Cambridge Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Ageing (CIRCA) and Chair of the European Network for Positive Psychology. Her most recent publications are concerned with positive aspects of mental health and the factors associated with mental and physical flourishing. She recently organised a Royal Society Discussion Meeting on "The Science of Well-being integrating neurobiology, psychology and social science" which was published in September, 2004.

5 January 2005
Speaker: Shantha Mohan
Title: Water: Perspectives, Issues and Concerns

Abstract:
The presentation makes an analysis of the country's existing water resources, competing demands, its temporal and spatial variations, the problems, weaknesses and failures in addressing the supply and demand for the resource and the response to meet them effectively. The two main approaches adopted are that of "Water Resource Development" and "Water Resources Management". While the former proposes to meet the ever rising demand for water through solutions in supply by constructing large dams and reservoirs and linking of rivers. The aim is to transfer water from a season of abundance to one of scarcity and from "water surplus" to "water short areas". The latter stresses on the efficient management of the resource with focus on the sustainability and equity dimensions. Finally, some of the critical areas of concern and integrated water resource management (IWRM) as a multidisciplinary approach to understand these concerns will be discussed.