March 23 - 28, 2024

Dr Rakshi Rath, Assistant Professor of Psychology, SIAS, Krea University, and Dr Srajana Kaikini, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, SIAS, Krea University co-presented their paper titled On the Face of It: from Monumental Images to Collective Actions at the Workshop Seminar Twenty-First Century Media? Affective Bodies, Crowds, and Collectives, organised by ICAS:MP TM 7 module, in collaboration with CSDS and Sarai, on 21-23 March, 2024. 

This international workshop was focused on site-specific contributions mapping 21st-century media, addressing material and environmental questions for media and political aesthetics. The paper brings theories of Philosophy and Psychology in critical conversation with each other around social ontology, media aesthetics, and political psychology in an attempt to forge new interdisciplinary frameworks for social action.

Sathyanarayanan Ramachandran, Sundram Fasteners Associate Professor of Marketing at IFMR Graduate School of Business (GSB), Krea University, gave a talk on his Purpose, Permanence and Sustainability teaching intervention in the Product and Brand Management elective course of IFMR GSB's MBA programme during the NBS Global webinar held on 19 March, 2024. 

He was invited by the Network for Business Sustainability (NBS), powered by the Centre for Building Sustainable Value at the Ivey Business School at Western University, to present this as a part of their Teaching Climate Change in Business Schools Virtual Event Series.

In this module on Teaching Climate Policy and Negotiations in Business Schools, he described his practice of a sensitisation workshop incorporating the idea of the economy of permanence of the Gandhian economist J C Kumarappa and the deep purpose continuum of the Harvard Business School Professor Ranjay Gulati, followed by the hands-on ENROADS climate action simulation of Climate Interactive and MIT Management Sustainability Initiative. The ideas were well received and appreciated by the audience.

The conclave is an attempt to bring together students, administrators, queer/trans/intersex collectives, lawyers, and activists with lived experiences to discuss ongoing needs and negotiations to implement gender-neutral/all-gender infrastructures on campuses. The intent is to arrive at a draft document that articulates these concerns and proposes concrete models that could be adopted and adapted in various institutions.

Interested participants are requested to register by 28 March, 2024. Register Now

KSS is a week-long immersive residential programme that introduces high-school students to a wide variety of established and emerging fields of inquiry not covered in school curricula. At KSS, students get to broaden their perspectives, deepen their interests, and get a glimpse into the world of higher learning. If you know someone, let them know about the opportunity to engage in diverse, unique, interwoven courses.

Registration to Krea Summer School 2024 is now open. For aspirants who wish to know more about the programme, a webinar has been arranged on 30 March, 2024 at 6.00 pm.

Know more about the Summer School or click to register for the webinar.

Krea University hosted, Where is India Headed?, a seminar series on 26 and 27 March 2024 at the Sri City campus. This seminar aimed to appraise the past decade in India. Politically, the period is significant as it marks the first time in over three decades that the country has experienced single-party rule. Additionally, the government has been led by a politician with a preference for direct communication with the electorate. What have been the consequences of these developments? The seminar focused on this question across five areas that impact the lives of citizens: politics, society, economy, ecology, and foreign policy.

Stalwarts from the fields such as Asim Ali, Independent Researcher; Dr Arvind Subramanian, Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics and Former Chief Economic Adviser, GoI; Professor Nandini Sundar, Professor of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University; Dr Sharachchandra Lele, Distinguished Fellow in Environmental Policy & Governance Centre for Environment & Development, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment and Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, Former High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom, led the sessions.

Faculty members from the School of Interwoven Arts and Sciences ( SIAS) who were part of the seminar, included - Professor Ramachandra Guha, Distinguished University Professor, Professor  Bishnu Mohapatra, Professor of Politics, Dr Karthik Rao Cavale, Assistant Professor of Political Economy and Urban Studies, Dr Prithvi Datta Chandra Shobhi, Dean, Dr John Mathew, Associate Professor of History of Science, and Professor Nirmala Rao, Vice-Chancellor, Krea University.

Catalyzing Entrepreneurship, the inaugural event by the Centre for Entrepreneurship, Krea University, organised by IFMR Graduate School of Business, Krea University, in partnership with TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Chennai and The Chennai Angels, was hosted on 23 March, 2024 at the Hilton Chennai. 

Professor Lakshmi Kumar, Dean, IFMR GSB, Krea University delivered the Welcome Address. Lakshmi Narayanan, Chancellor, Krea University, and the Chief Guest, Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman & Managing Director, TVS Capital Funds Limited, set the tone for the day with their insights into the evolving landscape of entrepreneurship. The Special Address by Srini Raju, Chairman, Sri City Foundation, further highlighted the conclave's significance in bridging the gap between academic inquiry and industrial application. Ashvin Chadha, Managing Partner and Co-Founder, Anicut Capital, and Professor Thillai Rajan from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras delivered the keynote addresses.

The conclave was a vibrant assembly of minds and ideas aimed at catalyzing the entrepreneurial spirit among attendees. It also featured three interesting and pertinent panel discussions, relevant to the entrepreneurial ecosystem of today. Read More

Professor Anand K Bachhawat hosted a session titled, Glutathione Metabolism Revisited, on 27 March, 2024. Professor Bachhawat briefly discussed some of the discoveries that they have made that helped unravel many unknown aspects of glutathione and its metabolism. This eventually led them to propose a new cycle of glutathione metabolism, “The glutathione cycle” which we propose should replace the previously known “γ-glutamyl cycle”. Some of the new enzymes could be therapeutically important, and they will discuss the challenges and attempts in seeking new inhibitors to these enzymes and pathways.

On 1 April, 2024 at 2.30 pm, Professor Thomas Hansen will deliver a talk on, Tenuous tenure. Property and social segregation in urban India. Professor Hansen is the Reliance-Dhirubhai Ambani Professor of Anthropology. He founded and directed Stanford’s Center for South Asia from 2010 to 2017. Hansen is an anthropologist of political life, ethno-religious identities, violence and urban life in South Asia and Southern Africa. 

Most observers of urbanisation in India will agree that social segregation along lines of caste, community and class is pervasive and deepening. But how does this process actually work and unfold? What are the conditions, constraints and decisions that re-produce these outcomes? Based on material from one mid-sized city in Maharashtra (Aurangabad), the speaker will explore the complex interplay between property regimes in urban and rural India; the prevalence of ‘land-invasions’; the pervasive reality of ‘usufruct property’ – property held but not owned; and the fundamental insecurity around land tenure and property rights in the face of changing zoning laws and the administrative fiat of the state. 

The talk will be held on 3 April, 2024 at 10.30 am in 3E at the Sri City campus.

The greatest danger that  Alexis Tocqueville, author of Democracy in America, saw in the functioning of democracy was the tyranny of the majority, which overpowers the will of minorities and marginalised individuals. But the question is, can a majority impose its will upon the unwilling minority?  If it does, then what is the meaning of democracy? Is it essential in a democracy to secure prior consent of the communities that would likely be affected by an action of the State? A look at the Constituent Assembly debate on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) would give us a better perspective on how we should go forward with this vexing issue of Uniform Civil Code. 

First in our series, Architects of Impact, in collaboration with Water, Environment, Land and Livelihoods (WELL) Labs - How Water Flows Through Bengaluru.

Once known as the city of a thousand lakes, Bengaluru now depends almost entirely on the Cauvery River and overexploited aquifers for its freshwater needs. It oscillates between droughts extending beyond summer to floods amid erratic monsoons. How, then, can it ensure long-term water security and resilience? 

This is where an urban water balance comes in. WELL Labs' Urban Water programme recently released a report authored by Shashank Palur, Rashmi Kulranjan and Muhil Nesi, titled, How Water Flows Through Bengaluru, that documents how water flows through the city — what are its sources, how is it stored, and what happens to wastewater. This exercise can, among other things, help identify ways to reduce freshwater consumption, optimise water flows in the city, and plan for flood mitigation.

The report can be accessed here

Admissions to the BA (Honours) and BSc (Honours) at SIAS, and 5 year Integrated BBA+MBA Programme, and 2 year MBA Programme at IFMR GSB are now open. If you know someone who aspires to join Krea, kindly share the respective programme page links for application.