Dr. Partha Pratim Majumder |
Prof. K. R. Sreenivasan |
Dr. Ramachandra Guha |
| Prof. Stephan Fauve |
| Dr. Suvarnalata Rao |
| Prof. Srinvasa Varadhan |
| Brahmakumari Sister Shivani | |||
The series of lectures organized during the Golden Jubilee year featured some very well-known and versatile personalities from different domains of life. Here are some glimpses of the lectures held.
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Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta is the president of the Centre for Policy Research, an independent, non-partisan research institute and think tank in New Delhi. Educated at Princeton and Oxford, he has taught at Harvard and Jawaharlal Nehru University. He has done extensive public policy work and has published widely in the fields of political theory, intellectual history, constitutional law, politics and society in India and international politics. His most recent publications include, ‘The Burden of Democracy’ and an edited volume ‘India’s Public Institutions’. His forthcoming work includes a book on Constitutionalism in Modern India and a book on India’s Great Transformation. He is also co-editor of the Oxford Companion to Politics in India.
He gave two insightful talks on Meritocracy and its Discontents and the Future of Democracy in India.
Meritocracy and its Discontents
27th January 2010
‘Emerson once famously
said that the only thing that one person can receive from another
is provocation and not instruction’, these were the opening
lines of the lecture on meritocracy. The purpose of the talk was to
provoke the audience to think about the theme of meritocracy in democratic
life, something that we often talk about but whose implications we
do not frontally confront.
Contrary to the expectations of many the entire talk focused on the
complexities associated with the system of meritocracy rather than
the arguments for or against the meritocratic system. It was highly
impressive to hear Dr. Mehta unravel the myths associated with the
idea of meritocracy and put forth a clear and in depth analysis of
the system which is the need of the hour.
What makes the idea of meritocracy so attractive are the principles
of non-discrimination, equality and justice associated with it. We
consider it as a system where jobs, opportunities and responsibilities
are allocated on the basis of merit. A meritocratic society rewards
those who show their talent and competence ensuring equality and justice.
But these principles hold true only partially.
He quoted several examples
drawing the attention of the audience towards the unintended consequences
of the ideology of meritocracy that we don’t often realize.
Like the Singaporean society that has become the meritocracy of exams
rather than that of talent. This proves that the criteria to choose
merit must be broader than the conventional notion of exams. The biggest
challenge for a meritocratic society is to create a structure that
ensures equal opportunities to the relevant pool of candidates to
compete in and reservations is a way of doing so.
He ended his talk by stressing the fact that even though this concept
gets legitimized and a lot of people move up the ladder there will
still be no structural transformations and with increasing structural
inequalities in a society how can enough support be garnered for meritocracy?
Future of Democracy in India
28th January 2010
We take a lot of pride in saying that India is a democratic country, an emerging power, but underneath this democracy lie several serious issues that need the undivided attention of the government. In fact what is alarming is not the number or the seriousness of these issues but the approach of the government towards them. Perhaps this is the reason that Arundhati Roy has called Democracy ‘Demon-crazy’ in her latest collection of essays: ‘Listening to Grasshoppers’. Therefore, the most debatable question today is, what is the Future of Indian Democracy - vibrant or bleak?
Dr. Mehta began his talk with a famous Sufi saying ‘Those who speak about the future are lying even when they speak the truth’. Rather than predicting the future of democracy he uncovered some of its interesting tendencies and its composition.
At present India is witnessing the best of times with extraordinary economic growth. Compared to 1900-1947 when the per capita GDP growth was -0.1 Indian economy today is booming at 7.2%. And due to this unprecedented growth it is for the very first time in modern Indian history that people are beginning to see the possibility of change. Though it doesn’t give the whole picture this growth has certainly changed the intellectual and mental horizons of the people. Dr. Mehta showed how the lifestyle and the aspirations of even the most impoverished people in India have undergone a drastic change.
He agreed that this democracy has several shortcomings, for instance, the issues of naxalism, poor higher education, corruption and poverty that paint a grim picture of Indian democracy. But one must think of it in a comparative perspective. Democracy has emerged stronger in the past 10 - 15 yrs. The government’s expenditure is increasing, welfare schemes like NREGAs of the order of 100,000 crores are being doled out. Bihar alone has given contracts for 17,000 kms of roads in the month of December, 2009 which is astonishing.
But, yes, state governments
have failed to invest in their capacities and the biggest challenge
that we face today is at which levels of government what decisions
should be taken. Therefore, we must look towards multilevel governance
and devolving powers to new institutes.
CONVERSATIONS
Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta shares his thoughts on the functioning of Indian democracy, problems associated with it and the state of higher education in India in a candid interview with Reema Mittal.
We take a lot of pride in saying that Indian democracy is one of the best models of democracy in the world but what we tend to overlook are the serious issues brewing underneath this democracy. What is alarming is not the number or the seriousness of these issues but the approach of the government towards them, and this makes one sit up and ponder over where our democracy is headed? Wouldn’t it be right to say that the future of Indian democracy is bleak?
When faced with such questions the most important thing one needs
to keep in mind is the historical perspective. For instance anybody
who knew India in the 1980s would disagree with the assessment that
it is going down. I agree there are challenges but in the past 15
- 20 years democracy has become stronger. The next important thing
is to be analytical and careful in breaking down individual problems
to their root causes and sources. One of the most frustrating things
in debates over democracy is that a lot gets loaded onto the term
democracy. If we think of 6-7 serious problems India is facing today
like poverty, corruption, naxalism, all of these are an indictment
of democracy. Each of these problems has different root causes and
needs to be discussed individually. We can get a democracy that makes
wrong policy choices.
Let’s take up naxalism. Naxalites blame
the government and the government blames them for hampering development
activities in the states. So it is a vicious cycle. On the other hand,
we have people like Dr. Binayak Sen and Sri Himanshu Kumar who are
working for tribal people and can serve as a useful link between them
and the government. But instead of working with these people the government
is distancing itself from them. What do you think has gone wrong and
what can be a possible solution to this problem?
Well, you are absolutely right that the naxal problem is not only
just a military problem. Two different sets of issues are involved
here. First, adivasis and STs have received a raw deal at the hands
of the Indian democracy. Now the question is why. The answer turns
out to be a lot more uncomfortable. One is the social distance –
privileged people do not care about these people. The difficult question
is either to think of them on a development trajectory like the rest
of India or you have a development model that preserves their community.
But the difficulty is that we have never been able to decide their
future trajectory. We haven’t invested in their education, skills,
languages, etc. so they cannot participate in the development process.
They are the tragic victims of democracy and it is difficult to craft
a policy for them.
The second element is that huge
money is at stake in these areas because of mining, forests. Wherever
money is involved the stakes are very high. Certain states like Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand have never invested in themselves. So whenever problems
arise they allow them to fester and ultimately respond with brutality.
Like Salwa Judum where the state outsourced its security, a step which
is outrageous and in violation of national and international laws.
West Bengal is a different story where political parties have acquired
a stake in political violence. Bihar again is an ebb and flow of naxals.
There was another form of violence in Bihar i.e. the Ranbir Sena but
no one has heard of it in the last 5 - 6 years. Reason: earlier the
state had an interest in keeping it alive. The question you asked
about Binayak Sen, yes, I completely agree that the way the government
has reacted against Binayak Sen and Himanshu is outrageous. Recently,
there is the case of Nandini Sunder, an anthropologist from Delhi
University, single handedly and bravely documenting the Bastar region.
The state has become thuggish in Chattisgarh and there are no two
ways about it.
Let’s take up the education scenario in
India. India has the largest pool of young people and that should
have turned it into a global education hub but that is not happening.
As you said there aren’t any good public institutions left.
So where are the loopholes?
Well, there are 3 - 4 important elements. First, any system that places
its premium on centralization and homogeneity of institutions is bound
to produce the lowest common denominator. Second, decisions are generally
made by people who have no clue about the problem. In fact this is
the root cause of most of the problems India is facing today. In the
late 70s, merit promotion schemes were introduced in educational institutions
which have now turned into automatic promotion schemes. Today, you
find more Professors than Assistant Professors. It has resulted in
some problems. First, it reduced incentive tools. Second, it reduced
geographical mobility amongst academicians. Earlier all our great
regional Universities had a national character but today Aligarh,
Allahabad, Rajasthan most of these universities are inbred save Delhi
University and 2 or 3 more exceptions. Third, when you raise, through
promotion schemes, people who have achieved less to positions that
demand more responsibility you get an insecure academic structure.
1st rate people appoint 1st rate and 2nd rate people appoint 3rd rate.
Do you think the setting up of more IITs and IIMs will help?
In my view rather than going for new universities the old ones need to be uplifted. Well, due to pressures of demand we need to expand the system but new IITs and IIMs wouldn’t be like the existing ones. What we need is a proper strategy and not a formula created by bureaucrats. Right now, the biggest problem is the acute deficit of faculty even in the existing ones. So we need to address that issue. The focus should be on high quality PhD programs that can produce good academicians who in turn are available for hiring. We need to create a critical number of PhD programs.
What do you have to say about HRD minister Kapil Sibal’s move
of bringing foreign universities to India and going for collaborations?
Well, the best universities won’t come. Only the second and
third tier institutions will come to India, but while we are creating
new institutes we are losing the old ones. Moreover, you cannot have
regulatory systems in place because if you liberalize for foreign
institutes you will have to liberalize for domestic institutes as
well and I don’t think the government is ready for it.
.TOP
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Prof. Jean Marie Lehn
(born 30th September 1939) is a French chemist. He received the Nobel
Prize together with Prof. Donald Cram and Prof. Charles Pedersen in
1987 for his work in Chemistry, particularly his synthesis of the
cryptands. Prof. Lehn was an early innovator in the field of supramolecular
chemistry, i.e., the chemistry of host-guest molecular assemblies
created by intermolecular interactions, and continues to innovate
in this field. He has published in excess of 800 peer-reviewed articles
in reputed journals of chemistry. His lecture on ‘A Journey
through Chemistry’ was highly informative.
A Journey through Chemistry
10th February 2010
The most complex and researched topic of the 21st
century that has intrigued scientists worldwide is the Human Genome.
What is extremely fascinating about it is that it is the result of
the interactions of only 4 simple chemical molecules. It wouldn’t
be wrong to say that life itself is a big chemical reaction. Chemicals
and their interactions form the basis of our existence. This makes
chemistry one of the most researched subjects in science. But while
there are many good scientists working in this field not many can
arouse the interest of students in this complex subject. On 10th February
2010, IIT students had a rare opportunity to experience the fascinating
world of chemistry projected by a world renowned chemist Prof. Jean
Marie Lehn.
There was no trace of chemistry when the universe originated via the
Big Bang. As the universe cooled down, atoms connected together to
make molecules and that was the beginning of chemistry. Eventually
molecules interacted to form complex entities which further interacted
and finally life evolved. But the perplexing question is how does
matter get converted from elementary particles to a thinking organism?
How does this organism take the form of Einstein? What are the forces
that operate to give rise to complex matter? Prof. Lehn provided answers
to several such questions.
He defined chemistry as the science that tries to understand the structures
of those entities that make molecular matter and then transform it
into more complex assemblies. He quickly flipped through slides highlighting
the milestones made by some of the greats like Lavoisier, Dimitri
Mendeleev, Joseph Achille and Louis Pasteur. Delving deeper into the
field of molecular chemistry he revealed two milestones in it –
the synthesis of molecules of urea and Vitamin B12. He quoted several
examples that posit that the human body is a result of molecular interactions
and recognitions. Addressing a jam-packed audience, he swiftly shifted
the focus from molecular to supramolecular chemistry, chemistry beyond
molecules; the chemistry of systems based on the chemistry of interactions.
Whether it is the action of enzymes on substrates or the functioning
of cancer cells or the self-assembly of the Tobacco Mosaic Virus,
these mechanisms have their roots deep seated in the field of supramolecular
chemistry. He ended the lecture with David Hilbert’s words,
“We must know. We will know”.
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Prof. Douglas Dean Osheroff (born 1st August 1945) is an American physicist who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physics with Prof. David Lee and Prof. Robert C. Richardson for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3. He received a PhD from Cornell University in 1973. He then worked at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey for 15 years, continuing to research low-temperature phenomena in helium-3. In 1987 he moved to the Departments of Physics and Applied Physics at Stanford University, where he also served as department chair from 1993-96. His research is focused on phenomena that occur at extremely low temperatures. He currently serves on the board of advisors of Scientists and Engineers for America, an organization to promote science in American government.
How Advances in Science are made
12th February 2010
The talk started with a profound question,
“By their very nature, those discoveries that most change the
way we think about nature cannot be anticipated. How, then, are such
discoveries made, and are there research strategies which can increase
the probability of making such a discovery?" Like a seasoned
storyteller, Prof. Osheroff then narrated the history of his attempt
to answer this question which led to the discovery of superfluidity
in He-3.
He told the audience how he, in the beginning of his graduate years,
modified a Pomeranchuk cell which when coupled with He-4 - He-3 dilution
refrigerators, gave good conditions for very low temperature experiments.
During his fifth year, while working on a problem two other graduate
students made him give up the laboratory’s only NMR magnet that
he had monopolized for three months. He later realized that they had
actually forced him to stop an experiment that was completely hopeless.
Then, driven by curiosity he started taking observations for the cooling
rate of He-3 in a temperature range which at that time was unexplored
and soon observed a kink in the cooling rate. His was the first reported
observation of phase transition to the superfluid phase in He-3.
He summed up the strategies that worked for him while pursuing his
research:
• Utilize new technologies
• View nature from a new perspective or in a different realm
• Don’t give up when things are going badly
• Failure may be an invitation to try something new therefore
keep walking.
• Spend a little time doing something different
• Curiosity driven research can be very rewarding!
• Avoid too many commitments
• The demands of good research do not adhere to a schedule
• Back off from what you are doing occasionally to gain a better
perspective on the task at hand
• We become myopic when we focus too tightly on our work. It
was only after he tried to look for the big picture that he discovered
1-Dimensional MRI.
Similar tales of the triumph of man in understanding nature in the
field of experimental science were mentioned in the talk. They included
that of Heike Kamerlingh Onnes who pioneered refrigeration techniques
and explored how materials behaved when cooled to nearly absolute
zero and that of Penzias and Wilson who while using the Horn Antenna
at Bell labs stumbled on the microwave background radiation that permeates
the universe. The strategies used in the abovementioned researches
echoed Prof. Osheroff’s belief about how one can increase the
probability of making path breaking discoveries.
Prof. Osheroff’s own words provide a most fitting conclusion:
"Advances in science are seldom made by individuals alone.
They result from the progress of the scientific community, asking
questions, developing new technologies to answer those questions,
and sharing their results and their ideas with others. To have rapid
progress, one must support scientific research broadly, and encourage
scientists to interact with one another and to spend some of their
time satisfying their own curiosities. This is How Advances in Science
Are Made".
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Sri Michel Danino is
a noted historian, a writer and an educator. From the age of fifteen
Michel was drawn to India, to some of her great yogis, and soon to
Sri Aurobindo and Mother and their view of evolution which gives a
new meaning to our existence on this earth. In 1977, dissatisfied
after four years of higher scientific studies, he left France for
India, where he has since been living.
He studied India’s culture and ancient history in the light of both Sri Aurobindo’s pioneering work and archaeological research; and in 1996 Michel Danino authored The Invasion That Never Was, a brief study of the Aryan invasion theory. A second, extensively revised and enlarged edition was brought out in 2000. Over the last few years, he has given lectures at various official, academic and cultural forums on issues confronting Indian culture and civilization in today’s world; some of them have been published under the titles Sri Aurobindo and Indian Civilization (1999), The Indian Mind Then and Now (2000), Is Indian Culture Obsolete? (2000) and Kali Yuga or the Age of Confusion (2001).
Glimpses of Indus-Sarasvati Civilization; Harappan-Gangetic Continuity
19th February 2010
Most of us have heard
of the ancient Indus valley civilization but very few of us are aware
that it is now referred to as the Indus-Sarasvati civilization covering
a vast geographical expanse. On 19th February, Sri Michel Danino delivered
two insightful lectures revealing some of the most intriguing and
astounding aspects of the Indus-Sarasvati civilization and its connection
with the Gangetic civilization. Also, the question that has perplexed
Indian historians for long as to whether there was any Aryan invasion
was addressed.
Initially, this civilization was named after the river Indus as the
first major settlements, Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, were found along
that river and its tributary, the Ravi. However, excavations on both
sides of the Indo-Pakistan border have revealed hundreds of Harappan
sites along the dry bed of a huge river in the Ghaggar-Hakra valley.
This lost river has been recognized as the Sarasvati which also finds
mention in the Rig-Veda. Michel also showed a satellite image revealing
the course of the Sarasvati. Besides Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, Lothal
(Gujarat), Kalibangan (Rajasthan), Mehrgarh and Dholavira (Gujarat)
are some of the other interesting and important Harappan sites. He
showed several slides revealing the marvels of architecture, arts
and crafts, trade, agriculture and technology of the Harappans. One
marvels that this so-called ancient civilization has so much to teach
to our modern civilization.
Michel also highlighted some facts which indicate the ‘Indianness’
of this civilization such as the absence of royal iconography, decentralization,
etc.
The sudden disappearance of the Indus-Sarasvati civilization is still
an enigma and remains a subject of debate. Some archeologists attribute
it to the Aryan invasions while some think it could have been because
of droughts or economic collapse. This has also raised a big question
mark over the relationship of the Indus-Sarasvati civilization with
the later Indian civilization.
In his second lecture titled ‘Continuity of Harappan-Gangetic
civilization’, he expounded how Harappans sowed the seeds of
India’s classical civilization thus falsifying the theory of
the Aryan invasion. Most of us were surprised to learn that the Aryan
invasion theory is no longer accepted due to lack of archeological
evidence. The elements of Harappan life were passed on to the Gangetic
civilization via the river Sarasvati. He presented several archeological
findings that suggest a Harappan-Gangetic continuity, such as the
Indus seal with a 3-faced god in a yogic posture, a broken seal depicting
a trishul, some figurines in asanas, a linga found in Kalibangan,
etc.
Early Landmarks of Science and Technology in India: Rediscovering
Indian Scientific Temper
20th February 2010
It has generally been assumed that scientific temper was lacking in
ancient India. Whatever scientific temper evolved later was borrowed
from the west. But according to Sri Michel Danino, ‘Contrary
to the beliefs of many, there wasn’t any dearth of exploration
of scientific roots and evolution of scientific ideas in ancient India.
Rather, there was a continuous dialogue among the scientists of that
time. For instance, Aryabhata’s insightful concepts of astronomy
were harshly criticized by another great scientist of the Siddhantic
era, Brahmbhat’. He highlighted the achievements of many great
savants like Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, Bhaskara II, Mahavira and Nilakantha.
Starting from Harappan times to the Kerala school of Mathematics several
remarkable advances made by ancient and medieval India in fields of
astronomy, mathematics and science were traced. In corroboration ample
archeological evidence was presented.
Indeed, it was India’s knowledge in mathematics and astronomy
which reached Europe through the Arabs that helped in their progress.
Regrettably, most young Indians are unaware of this important aspect
of their heritage. However, the most shocking revelation was that
only 7% of the 12, 244 science manuscripts that have been found in
the 400 repositories of Kerala and Tamil Nadu are available in print.
Science historians do not know anything about the remaining 93%.
This lecture conveyed a very strong message that Indian scientific
minds need to rediscover the lost scientific roots and find answers
to the many unresolved riddles of our past. Most of us who attended
this informative lecture would surely agree with Michel that ‘History
of Science’ must be offered as a separate discipline in mainstream
education in India as it is offered in the west.
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Brahmakumari Sister Shivani is a Rajyoga Meditation Teacher who has been studying spiritual knowledge and practicing the ancient technique of Rajyoga Meditation, as taught by the Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, Mount Abu, for the past 12 years. She conducts motivational courses through seminars and television programs. Since 2007, she has been on-screen in India and abroad through the TV program "Awakening with Brahma Kumaris", aired daily on Aastha channel. She speaks on a wide spectrum of themes such as: Stress Free Lifestyle, Leadership Skills, Emotional Intelligence, Art of Right Thinking, Living Values, Exploring Inner Powers, Self Management, Harmony in Relationships and the Practical Technique of Rajyoga Meditation.
Enriching the Minds of Youth
10 - 11th March 2010
IIT Kanpur, one of the most prestigious institutes of India, every year witnesses the inflow of some of the most intelligent students of the country. On the surface the life of these students might appear perfect but the truth is that many of them are heavily burdened with fears, anxiety and peer pressures. Perhaps this holds true for most of the youth in the country who, from a very young age, experience stress, depression, competition and myriad other pressures resulting in a chaotic life.
The IIT Kanpur Student Gymkhana (GLDC) organized a talk by B. K. Shivani
with the intention of changing/revolutionizing general perceptions
regarding spirituality, religion and people’s way of life. Questions
concerning the nature of spirituality, its practice in our daily lives,
the difference between being religious and being spiritual and how
spirituality can help us achieve our goals were among those addressed
in her talk.
According to Sister Shivani a slight change in our thought process
can change everything drastically. It is our thoughts that determine
our actions and these actions form the basis of our personality. She
asked the gathering, “How many of you are still thinking about
your day time work”. Almost everybody raised their hands! Most
of us live our lives with our thoughts either in the past or in the
future but never in the moment. We often believe that we have no control
over thoughts but that is not so. Everybody was asked to perform a
simple exercise meant for controlling thoughts. Once we have realized
the power of now our quality of life will improve tremendously.
The following day she interacted with the students and addressed their
specific concerns – clarifying their ideas on issues like why
does the life of young people seem more difficult today, how to get
rid of stress, the belief systems we live by, what comprises happiness
and why is our society bankrupt of moral values today.
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Dr. Partha Pratim Majumder obtained his Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degrees from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. He did his post-doctoral research at the Center for Demographic & Population Genetics, University of Texas Medical Center, Houston. He has served on the faculty of the Department of Biostatistics and Human Genetics of the University of Pittsburgh. His major scientific interests and contributions have been in the field of human population genetics and genetics of complex human disorders. He is an elected Fellow of all the three science academies of India. He has served on the Board of Directors of the International Genetic Epidemiology Society (IGES) and was the founding Chair of the ELSI Committee of IGES. He is a member of the Human Genome Organisation. He is a recipient of many awards and medals, including the TWAS (The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World) Biology Prize (2009), G.D. Birla Award for Scientific Research (2002), Sri Om Prakash Bhasin Award in Biotechnology (2001), and the New Millennium Science Medal, Government of India (2000).
He delivered two lectures - Our Footprints on the Sands of Time (12th
April) and Genes that make Vaccines tick (13th April).
Our Footprints on the Sands of Time
12th April 2010
With the advent of Human Evolutionary Genetics scientists have been trying to answer questions that have intrigued mankind for long. When did life begin on earth? Who are we? Where did we come from? Are we all related to each other? There are several historic and religious interpretations to these questions but whether these interpretations are scientifically accurate remains to be seen. Dr. Partha Pratim Majumder provided a scientific insight into these mysteries.
His first lecture titled “Our Footprints on the Sands of Time”
was on 12th April, 2010. The first part of the lecture traced the
evolution of life from 5 million years ago (mya) till 150, 000 years
ago, while the second part covered the evolutionary changes in life
that took place 150,000 years ago and are continuing till date.
Evolution began about 5-6 mya when a population of African apes split
into two distinct species – one leading to the emergence of
modern humans and the other to modern chimpanzees. The genus Homo
is said to have evolved 2 mya in Africa (fossil remains dated to about
1.9 mya have been traced in Africa).
Modern humans who are less heavily built and more mobile appear to
have emerged around 130,000 yrs ago and fall under the category of
Homo sapiens sapiens. Dr. Majumder shared different models of human
evolution and later provided genetic evidence in support of the Out-of-Africa
model (the model that suggests that humans evolved in Africa and from
Africa they spread across different continents). The two probable
routes via which modern humans may have moved out of Africa were the
northern exit route and the southern exit route. However, the genetic
evidence supports migration through the northern exit route.
Dr. Majumder also showed slides which contained data regarding the
ethnic composition of India. There are about 450 tribes, 4000 caste
based communities and about 150 religious groups. India is a country
with enormous genetic and cultural diversity and human geneticists
and anthropologists have tried to establish the evolution of Indians
using the information stored in the human genome. As per the genetic
evidence, a major expansion of modern humans took place within India.
How fascinating that a small DNA thread should contain links to human
evolution, genetic diversity and ethnic complexities!
Based on the study and analysis of DNA and mtDNA Dr. Mazumder inferred
that there was a relatively small number of founding females in India.
Ethnic diffusion took place gradually due to cultural or demic diffusions.
He spoke in detail about the two diffusion types and their implications.
He ended his talk by quoting a few lines from Maya Angelou’s
book “Wouldn’t Take Nothing from My Journey Now”
which read that everyone should respect diversity as in diversity
there is beauty and there is strength.
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Prof. K. R. Sreenivasan
is one of the most well-known scientists in the area of turbulence,
intermittency, convection and quantum turbulence. He has received
numerous awards and prizes in recognition of his scientific work,
mostly in fluid mechanics, nonlinear and statistical physics, and
service to scientific community. He is presently University Professor
at New York University and also Senior Vice Provost. He has held visiting
positions at the Indian Institute of Science, Caltech, Rockefeller
University, Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University and,
as the Sir C.V. Raman Professor, at the Indian Academy of Sciences.
Cool Stuff at Cold Temperatures
17th August 2010
Superfluids flow without
friction and possess other interesting properties. One of them is
the formation of line vortices with diameters of the order of atomic
dimensions. Their circulation is quantized. The vortices can form
a random tangle whose flow properties resemble those of classical
turbulence. The lecture explored some of these fascinating aspects
without delving into technical specifications.
Prof. K.R. Sreenivasan gave an overview of ‘Quantum Turbulence’
starting with an interesting historical account of the discovery of
superfluid Helium. Highlights of major discoveries were presented
through a brief account of their originators. He developed the subject
on a historical basis, connected recent developments to the classical
theory of turbulence, and showed their resemblance to quantum turbulence---in
terms of the energy spectrum, for example. There are, however, some
fundamental differences. For example, the circulation in superfluids
is quantized. The reconnection of these quantized vortices leads to
several important differences from classical turbulence, such as in
the nature of the tails of the probability density functions of velocity
fluctuations. Prof. Sreenivasan’s lab has been able to visualize
for the first time, quantized vortices and has been able to track
their motion by creating the right particles which stick to the vortices.
He discussed some of these recent experimental results and proposed
a possible statistical mechanical view for understanding the observed
coarse-grained phenomena. One of the greatest puzzles in this field
is to identify the effective viscosity that is quite critical for
dissipation at small scales.
CONVERSATIONS
Excerpts from an interview with Prof. K.R. Sreenivasan by the NERD
team.
Your career interests include fluid dynamics,
turbulence, complex fluids, cryogenic Helium and nonlinear dynamics.
Please tell us in brief about your significant contributions to these
fields.
I am primarily a fluid dynamicist. I often do things that are of some
interest to physicists and mathematicians and influence their thinking.
My interest in nonlinear dynamics and cryogenic helium came about
through an interest in fluid dynamics. First, I worked on relaminarisation
of turbulent flows, i.e., how to make a turbulent flow laminar. That
was the main contribution in the first few years of my career, and
it is of particular interest in aerodynamics and other applications.
Turbulence increases drag, and has some adverse consequences, and
that led me to the topic of turbulence control which is about how
to control a turbulent flow and make it behave the way you want it
to behave. And then I got interested in how substances can be mixed
in a turbulent flow. It is like you take your coffee and put milk
in it, and you want to mix the two together, by stirring it. Stirring
enhances mixing. For instance, in combustion, fuel and air mix together
and there you want a uniform mixture and that's possible on a reasonable
time scale only if you have a turbulent flow. And here I drew attention
to some attractive features of turbulence---especially at the interface
between mixed and unmixed substances. I was then involved in nonlinear
dynamics type problems such as the flow behind a blunt object having
multiple oscillations which interact in a very complex but yet a very
fundamental way. And all of this I was able to characterize up to
some level of detail---and that is the nonlinear dynamics and fractal
part.
The other important aspect, which
I suppose is better known, is the intermittency. If you have a quantity
that fluctuates modestly around the mean, the mean value will tell
a lot about the quantity. A few further moments may be all you need
to give an adequate statistical description. But sometimes things
are more complex---for example, the monsoon rains in India. Things
don't happen uniformly in space or time, and when they happen, they
happen very irregularly, sometimes very strongly, sometimes very little.
So you cannot characterize these by standard methods. The stock market
behavior is similar. The stock market sort of goes up and down a little
bit most of the time. Those are the events through which people make
or loose lots of money. These intermittent events are very rare but
still very important. How to characterize them is a fundamental issue.
It happens in turbulence in this way. If you look at a finite volume
of a flow, the turbulence is not doing dissipation over most of the
space, but in some locations it really dissipates a large amount.
So I studied the phenomenon for a few years and this is what is called
a multi-scaling problem or a multi-fractal problem.
And then I got interested in cryogenic helium. The issue there is
that if you want to measure forces on an aircraft or a submarine,
normally what you do is you make a scale model, which you put in a
wind or water tunnel, measure the forces and by similarity you project
what it might be on the true object. Now, the parameter you most want
to match between the model and the true object is the Reynolds number.
And what is Reynolds number? It is [length x velocity/viscosity].
You can’t usually do this, because the models are small, the
attainable flow velocities are small, and so on. If you don’t
match the Reynolds number, you have to extrapolate whatever results
you get, and extrapolation is a tricky business. There is always interest
in trying to measure the forces on a model on which the Reynolds number
is the same as that on the true object. The length can’t be
of the true scale of the object, the velocity sometimes can’t
be much larger than that of the true object, but there's no reason
why viscosity can't be made so low for the model that the Reynolds
number for a small scale model would be as high as that for the large
object. Cryogenic helium has the lowest viscosity of any fluid we
know.
So, I got interested in it. If you take Helium-4 at 4K, its viscosity
is some 100 times smaller than that of air, so if you take an object
100 times smaller than the real object, you'll get the same Reynolds
number if you maintain the speed. That is the idea.
Then I got interested in Helium itself. If you go below 2.17K you
have a phase transition which is very interesting because you then
have superfluidity. Superfluidity means that if you put the flow through
a pipe, you don’t observe any resistance, unlike normal fluid
which gives rise to resistance and requires some pumping power to
maintain a flow. And there I was interested very much in the spontaneous
formation of the so-called quantized vortices, which are very thin,
1 A diameter or a few A. They become tangled like spaghetti, or something
like that, and that gives rise to a new type of turbulence. I am very
much interested in that and have tried to make some progress in the
study of the phenomenon.
What one question would you like to see answered
about your research field in the near future?
In the near future I have many things to do relating to what I have
already been doing and what I have done. There are one or two areas
I'll definitely continue working in and one or two areas where I’ll
definitely stop. And it also depends on what kinds of resources can
be generated. I'll continue work on quantum turbulence and convection
for a while, for sure. I've to finish one or two things on mixing
and then I’ll write up something and move on. The way I see
it, I have 10 - 15 years of active scientific life left. May be I
don't have that much time. So, I want to do something that is difficult
and interesting. I don't want to do just anything that comes my way.
So I am working a little bit on a few possibilities; ultimately, it
depends on how much money I may be able to raise and things like that.
I had better not talk about it too prematurely.
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Dr. Ramachandra Guha (born 1958) is a famous Indian writer whose research interests have included environmental, social, political and cricket history. He is also a columnist for the newspapers The Telegraph, Khaleej Times and The Hindustan Times. He is a fellow of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. Dr. Guha has taught at the Universities of Stanford and Yale, held the Arne' Naess Chair at the University of Oslo, and been the Indo-American Community Visiting Professor at the University of California at Berkeley. His books cover a wide range of themes including a global history of environmentalism, the biography of an anthropologist-activist, a social history of Indian cricket, and a social history of Himalayan peasants. Dr. Guha's books and essays have been translated into more than twenty languages.
The Past and Future
of the Environmental Movement in India
19th October 2010
Speaking to a large audience, Dr. Guha gave a broad perspective on Environmental Movements in India. He began the lecture with historical accounts of early environmental movements during the times of Mahatma Gandhi and in the writings of Rabindranath Tagore. He addressed the conflict between the "development agenda" and the "environmental agenda" in this age of open market economy. In this context, he touched upon how the environmentalists are losing ground and are increasingly being perceived as a stumbling block for economic progress. Finally, he called upon the environmentalists to adopt a more "middle ground" to have a larger impact.
CONVERSATIONS
Excerpts from an interview with Dr. Guha by Reema Mittal
63 years and India is doing great as a democracy but at the same time serious issues are confronting her today. Where do you rate Indian democracy in the world?
Well, I believe that any society, individual, community or nation
should judge itself against its own values and norms. From that point
of view India has done moderately well if we look at the Indian constitution,
the visions of the founders of India, etc. In my book ‘Makers
of Modern India’ I argue that we have 50% democracy. We have
free press, freedom of movement, free and fair elections but our institutions
are corrupt and function in a suboptimal manner. There are criminals
in politics, there is increasing disparity between the rich and the
poor, casteism and female foeticide are still practised. It is a hard
and painful struggle to build an inclusive and democratic society
and I would say we are stumbling towards it.
In the name of development, a lot of reforms
have taken place but in some strange way they have served the purposes
of the elite only and the interests of a large chunk of the population
have been ignored. What is your take on it?
I do not agree that privatization and liberalization have caused any
damage. Think of the difficulty of innovation and employment generation
under the public sector behemoth and you will see that we needed to
liberalize. The problems that exist today are not the result of development
but of the failure of state governments. They failed in providing
equal job opportunities, education and health facilities; in controlling
the environment impact of economic activities. The State governments
are corrupt and give licenses to favorite industrialists. Naxalism,
also, is a product of the States’ failure and not of the market.
So in a way democracy has failed.
I would say it hasn’t failed but has functioned suboptimally.
Laws are in place but not implemented. We are in Kanpur on the banks
of the Ganga and in spite of the existence of laws preventing the
pollution of the Ganga, there are chemical plants which are very much
functional and continue polluting the Ganga. The market is meant to
increase productivity and employment and the State has to ensure that
increased productivity is fairly distributed and doesn’t damage
the environment.
Displacement of tribals is a big issue today.
On the one hand we have Rahul Gandhi standing up for their interests
in Orissa just like Verrier Elwin who believed in minimal interference
in the lives of tribals, whereas, on the other hand, there is a group
in favor of Vedanta that feels that tribals need development else
they will live in misery.
Well, privatization and liberalization has helped India in sectors
like software where skilled workforce is required. See what has happened
to Bangalore. But it has hurt India in sectors where raw materials
have been extracted at a high rate. Most of the tribals live in areas
that are rich in raw materials. Again the State is to be blamed for
it because although there are laws like Schedule 5 that allow tribals
to become stakeholders in all projects yetsince tribals are powerless
minorities, unlike Dalits who are better organized, they tend to get
exploited. Every citizen should have access to basic health and educational
facilities and employment opportunities. Short sighted exploitation
of materials is not good.
And, yes, Verrier Elwin later agreed to providing education to tribals.
But, yes, we should not impose any curriculum on them. Education should
take into consideration their culture and interests.
 |
Prof. Stephan Fauve is one of the most eminent scientists
in the field of instabilities and nonlinear phenomena, turbulence,
dynamo, etc. He is one of the key scientists of the dynamo experiment
in Cadarache that generated a variety of self-generated magnetic field
states, including the magnetic field reversals observed in the Earth's
magnetic field. He is well known for his instability and chaos work
in convection, granular material, and Faraday experiment. He has received
several awards and prizes including the IBM prize (Physics, 1993),
the Lewis Fry Richardson Medal of the European Geosciences Union (2009),
the Silver medal of CNRC (2009), and the CEA prize, French Academy
of Science (2009). He is also the President of the Board of the Statistical
and Nonlinear Physics Division of the European Physical Society.
During his visit to IITK he gave two lectures titled Magnetic Field
Reversals in Turbulent Dynamos (8th November) and Energy Flux in Turbulence
(10th November).
Magnetic Field Reversals
in Turbulent Dynamos
8th November 2010
Self-generation of large scale magnetic fields in astrophysical bodies
(e.g. planets, stars, galaxies, and galactic clusters) is an important
problem of classical physics. In spite of enormous theoretical, numerical,
and observational efforts by geo, solar, and astrophysicists, and
applied mathematicians, the problem is far from resolved. The French
dynamo group, in which Fauve is one of the collaborators, has been
able to demonstrate the dynamo mechanism in the Von-Kármán
sodium (VKS) experiment. Here, a variety of magnetic field configurations
have been observed when liquid sodium is stirred by two impellers
(Monchaux et al. 2007, 2009). They observed constant (in time), time-periodic,
quasiperiodic, and chaotic magnetic fields by varying the speeds of
the impellers. Magnetic field reversals similar to those observed
in geo and solar dynamos have also been observed in this experiment.
In his talk, Prof. Fauve elaborated this experiment along with his
group’s theoretical model to explain the phenomena.
Excerpts from an interview with Prof. Fauve by Nitica Sakharwade and
Ish Dhand.
It was pleasant to learn that the areas that
you're working on are things that we can see around us every day;
like the magnetic field of the earth, the air resistance that a spinning
cricket ball faces and the turbulence in waves. Please tell us about
turbulence and how it manifests in the world around us.
We can cite many examples, starting from short term climate prediction
in meteorology. It is a difficult matter to do long term prediction
of how climate evolves. Also, turbulence plays a very important role
in many engineering processes where you need to mix components very
quickly to perform chemical reactions. In the car industry and the
airplane industry, turbulence is being studied to improve efficiency.
People doing sailing are trained to optimize their boat speed using
understanding of turbulence.
The mechanism by which the magnetic field of
the earth is produced is a question that has been pondered over for
a very long time by the scientific community. Do you think we have,
today, reached a breakthrough in understanding the same in the recent
experiments carried out in your lab?
Well, not a real breakthrough, but what we’ve learnt from the
experiments is that we don't really need to invoke very complicated
mechanisms, such as coupling between the earth's liquid core and something
else to generate these reversals in magnetic field. Even a simple
laboratory experiment with far fewer parameters was rich enough to
display spontaneous reversals of magnetic field which were very similar
to the reversals in the earth's magnetic field. We have learnt that
we don't need to imagine very complicated mechanics with competition
between the earth’s liquid core, the earth's mantle and external
forces. The system itself, with this volume of liquid metal, is enough
to understand the concept.
Perhaps the earlier discoveries regarding the magnetic field were
better breakthroughs. For example, the man who discovered that the
earth's magnetic field reverses direction made the greatest breakthrough
in this field.
How has technology, which is advancing so rapidly
today, influenced experimental research and numerical simulations
of systems on the computer?
On both sides, it helps a lot. First, you save a lot of time. For
instance, 20 years back, which is not too long back, we had to design
ourselves many devices which we can today simply buy. The development
of this type of technology has helped because you can do the experiment
without having to make elaborate preparation for it, and start thinking
about the physics behind it. It's not only a question of time. You
can make measurements today that were not possible 20 years ago or
were possible with much less precision.
Computers, in some respect, are helping, of course; for instance,
once an experiment is running, you can put it on a computer and let
it run while you do something else. It's definitely more efficient,
but, you may miss out some interesting results. It's always different
when you observe the experimental results in real time rather than
when you record it on a computer. When you're surprised by the result,
for instance, you can immediately change parameters and look at what
happens. Of course, the computer will not help in this kind of a situation.
The computer has also helped a lot in numerical simulations, but fortunately,
or unfortunately, there still are regimes of turbulence that can be
reached by a small experiment on the table, with a small volume of
water, that are much larger than what we can calculate even on the
best computers in the world today. Yes, we can use numerical recipes
to avoid solving exact equations, but direct simulation of flows at
Reynolds number 1 million will not only be difficult but impossible.
So, computers are nice, but have a limited power.
Then, there are disadvantages of computers. 20 years ago, when you
entered a laboratory, you could see people doing an experiment or
carrying out calculations by hand or trying to think about a problem.
Now when you go to a laboratory, most of the time you'll see people
doing things not always connected with research like answering e-mail.
It's not clear how this behavior will modify the quality of research.
We'll have to see.
We have students from the undergraduate to the
PhD level carrying out research here, so what would you suggest to
those who want to do real research through experiments?
I suppose that in the beginning they should just follow the lectures
and at the same time be curious and begin to think about the subject
because the most difficult part in research, I think, is to select
a problem. It is very important because research works well if you
are able to consider this as a game. The choice should be yours. You
should not let someone else, a professor or an advisor, choose a subject
for you. I found it very difficult and in fact I spent much more time
on visiting laboratories, looking at simple articles not in technical
journals but in journals where physics is presented in a simple way,
so it took a long time for me to find something really interesting
and then when I found something very interesting I began to work on
it but it was just like a game so it was very easy to work. I don't
think there are clever people who have good ideas and not clever people
who don't have good ideas but there are people who are motivated by
their subject so they always think about it. Of course if you spend
more time thinking about something finally you get more ideas. So,
I suppose there is no age to do research, so a student as soon as
he begins his studies, can follow the lectures of different subjects
and look at their possibilities. He can choose one, gather information
about the subject and go and talk to people in laboratories. For instance,
when I was a PhD student the first thing we did was to organize our
own informal weekly seminar. We never really talked about our own
subject but discussed the interesting articles we had read and explained
those to others. So the whole group made a lot of progress in a very
short time and at some point prominent professors wanted to follow
this seminar.
 |
Dr. Suvarnalata Rao is currently the programming head and a research scientist at the National Center for the Performing Arts, Mumbai. She works in the area of computational musicology and organology. Her main area of interest is the analysis of North Indian vocal music with an objective to study certain aspects of raag like intonation and melodic movement. In an earlier work she had made an attempt to provide an acoustical perspective to the esthetical concept relating to raaga and rasa. She has also worked in the area of organology involving issues relating to the making of Indian instruments. She is actively involved in several international collaborations involving music and musical instruments’ technology.
Dr. Rao delivered three lectures on 7th and 8th December 2010 on the
confluence of Indian Music and Science.
• Fundamentals of Music and Musicology in India (7th December)
• Musical Instruments (8th December)
• Music and Technology (8th December)
She covered broad aspects of the subject with particular emphasis
on Indian musicology and organalogy and on problems that may be of
interest to students of material science, physics and mechanical engineering.
She also spoke at length about her current work on developing an automated
transcription system for Indian music.
 |
Prof. Srinivasa Varadhan is an Indian-American mathematician who received his undergraduate degree in 1959 from Presidency College, Madras, and his doctorate in 1963 from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. He is known for his work with Prof. D. W. Stroock on diffusion processes, and for his work on large deviations with Prof. M. D. Donsker. Prof. Varadhan has received many prestigious awards and honors including the Padma Bhushan (2008), the Abel Prize (2007), the Steele Prize (1996) and the Birkhoff Prize (1994). He is currently a full professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York.
Entropy: Why is it important in Probability?
10th January 2011
In his lecture Prof.
Varadhan explored different contexts in probability theory where entropy
plays a crucial role. He emphasized the importance of entropy in large
deviation theories wherein the probability measures of extreme events
decay exponentially with respect to the arbitrarily growing number
of observations. He used coin tossing as an illustration for his theory.
| Brahmakumari Sister Shivani | |||
Phone: + 91-512-259 7635/ 7542 Fax: +91-512- 259 0353 Email – drpg@iitk.ac.in, arrpg@iitk.ac.in