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A Never-Ending Quest: Shadakshari Settar (1935–2020)
Get PDFShadakshari Settar’s research covered various fields like history, archaeology, art history,
Darshana Shastra, Jaina way of life, epigraphy, and classical Kannada, among others.
More than 20 books and 100 research articles in these areas, besides several unfinished
projects, speak volumes about his original contribution to historical studies in India
Roddam Narasimha: A rich legacy of science and mentorship
Get PDFIndian aerospace and fluid dynamics scientist Roddam Narasimha, who passed away on 14 December 2020 in Bengaluru at the age of 87, will be remembered not just for scientific brilliance and leadership, but also for an involved brand of mentorship.
When Narasimha was awarded the 2019 Nature Awards for Mentoring in Science, the legacy of the 'Narasimha family tree' he was going to leave behind became immediately apparent in the comments his mentees from across the world sent us
Algorithms or Axioms ?, A View of Indic Mathematics (Fifteen Raja Ramanna Memorial Lecture, 8 January 2020)
No full textIndic mathematics has a long history, going at least as far back as Boudhayana’s Sulbra-sutra of around 8th c. BCE. Throughout the long history from 8th c. BCE to about the 16th century CE, number, calculation, algorithms, algebra (bija-ganita) and equations captured the imagination and interest of India’s leading mathematicians. This is in strong contrast to early developments in the West, where axioms and two-valued logic, born in classical Greece (6th c. BCE to 2nd c. CE) and much used in geometry, made it a major area of interest. These Greek ideas found a harsh critic in Francis Bacon, who emphasized the role of number and the weakness of Euclid’s geometry, and declared that axioms must be inferred from experience, thus emphasizing observation, calculation and experience as prior to the ‘discovery’ of axioms. This was eventually adopted in Britain and Europe, leading first to the scientific and later to the industrial revolution. In the 20th c and the beginning of the 21st, computation and algorithm are again beginning to play a major role, with such developments as Gödel’s theorem, Artificial Intelligence etc., which may play a major role in advancing scientific knowledge. It has even been argued recently that “truth” is in the “algorithm”, and not in “logic”. The lecture will present a brief review of these concepts and some speculations on the future.
About the Speaker: Dr Roddam Narasimha, Honorary Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, is an aerospace scientist with strong interests in atmospheric dynamics and the history of Indic mathematics. Much of his professional life has been spent at IISc and JNC; he has also been Director of the National Aerospace Labs (1984-93) and of the National Institute of Advanced Studies (1997-2004). He was Clark B Millikan Professor at Caltech (in the 1980s to 90s), and J. Nehru Professor at Cambridge (1989-90). His recent research interests are in designing more efficient wings for turboprop aircraft and understanding the dynamics of cumulus cloud flows. He also has an abiding interest in the history of Indic science and technology and is a co-editor of An Encyclopedia of Classical Indian Sciences and of Nature and Culture. He has been a member of the Prime Minister’s Science Advisory Council and the Space Commission for several terms. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society London, and a Foreign Associate of both the US National Academy of Engineering and the US National Academy of Sciences. He won the AIAA Fluid Dynamics Award in 2000 and the Trieste Science Prize for Engineering Sciences in 2008. In India his distinctions include the Bhatnagar Prize, Life-Time Achievement Awards from the Indian National Academy of Engineering and the Ministry of Earth Sciences, and the Padma Vibhushan. He got his Masters from IISc and PhD from Caltech, and has many honorary doctoral degrees
Human Security in South Asia: is the region ready? Can the State Deliver? Essay from India
No full textSocial Grievances and Corporate Greed: Twenty20 and Conflicts in Kizhakkambalam
No full textThe theoretical framework of greed and grievance provides a perspective for understanding conflicts in a social set-up that comprises competing interests. The greed of a section of a society to maximise its control over resources (social, political and economic) is often combined with the grievances of sections that are deprived of their shares of the resources. Even within such considerations, the positions of greed and grievance are fluidic in any conflict and are a critical factor in the manufacturing and sustaining of conflicts. The Kizhakkambalam Gram Panchayat (GP) in Kerala offers one such opportunity to investigate and explore the conflicts arising from the interactive and shifting nature of greed and grievances. Based on an ethnographic survey of the GP, this study highlights and investigates the role of a corporate functionary, Twenty20, and its interactions with the local population. The study argues that the dominance of the Twenty20 in local politics through electoral victory achieved by leveraging corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives is seen to be oscillating between being perceived as a product for managing social grievances and as a product for actualising corporate greed. The interactive and fluidic nature of greed and grievances creates tensions among multiple actors and leads to conflicts in the GP
The Banj oak Quercus leucotrichophora as a potential mitigating factor for human-langur interactions in the Garhwal Himalayas, India: People’s perceptions and ecological importance
Get PDFCrop-foraging by primates is a rapidly growing concern. Effective mitigation strategies are urgently required to resolve this issue. In the Garhwal Himalayas, local people’s high dependency on forest resources is a major cause of habitat loss, which paves the way for human-primate interactions in this area. To investigate the socioeconomic factors that might explain langur crop-foraging, we conducted structured interviews among 215 households in the Garhwal Himalayas in India. We also examined langur resource use by monitoring their feeding and sleeping site activity. Less agricultural land, less agricultural production, and possession of large numbers of livestock significantly predicted villagers reporting crop-foraging events, although economic status of the correspondents did not have any effect. Perception of the villagers about reduction in forest resource was significantly affected by the amount of livestock possessed by the villagers. Our observations suggested that Banj oak Quercus leucotrichophora was the dominant species (59.2%, N = 306) in the pool of sleeping trees used by the langurs. Langurs also showed a preference in their use of sleeping sites and feeding sites, which were different from that expected by chance. Sleeping sites with high density of oak were re-used most frequently. Similarly, dense oak patches were also the preferred feeding patches. Thus, we suggest replanting of oak trees and conservation of intact oak patches, environmental education outreach, and empowerment of women in the community as potential mitigating factors to lessen the interaction between humans and langurs
Is Human–Rhesus Macaque (Macaca mulatta) Conflict in India a Case of Human–Human Conflict?
No full textThe perceptions of wildlife managers regarding human–wildlife conflict (HWC) scenarios are likely to affect the outcomes of conflict mitigation measures. We studied the attitudes and perceptions of forest department personnel regarding the management of human–rhesus macaque conflict (HRMC) in Himachal Pradesh, northern India. We collected data through a questionnaire survey and used frameworks from organizational psychology to draw insights from our results. Forest department personnel belonging to different organizational levels varied with respect to their views on conflict mitigation measures. While the views of upper level management personnel aligned closely with the publicly-stated position of the forest department, the opinions of lower level management personnel were aligned with the opinions of farmers. Overall, wildlife managers differed from farmers in their opinions regarding causes and mitigation of HRMC. Our results indicate the presence of human–human conflict in the context of HRMC and we discuss the implications of this for the management of HRMC
Natural Resource, Conflict and People’s Movement: A Strategy for Resolution (NIAS/CSS/CRPR/U/PB/13/2020)
Get PDFThis is a NIAS Policy Brief document about people's movements for rights over resources. Long-standing conflicts around rights over land, forest, and water resources have led to the emergence of several people’s movements. A study conducted by the Conflict Resolution and Peace Research Programme at NIAS, supported by the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR) brought out critical aspects involved around conflicts over natural resources leading to people’s movements in Odisha. The organized efforts by several people’s movements demanding rights over resources have been a critical factor leading to multiple conflicts in and around the tribal majority districts of Kalahandi and undivided Koraput. The immediacy of the conflicts in the form of people’s movements demands critical attention for effective resolution