International Conference On "State and Democracy in India: Critical Reflections"
(March 23-24,2006)

The Centre for Political Studies, School of Social sciences organized a two day International Conference on March 23-24, 2006.  The theme of the seminar was State and Democracy in India: Critical Reflections.  A number of distinguished scholars participated and presented their papers in the conference. In the welcome address, Prof Gurpreet Mahajan, Chairperson, Centre for Political Studies (CPS), mentioned about the dynamic nature of the discipline of Political Science as studied and taught at the Centre and emphasized the need for developing critical perspectives on this subject. 

The inaugural session was chaired by Prof Andre Beteille, Chairman, ICSSR and Professor Emeritus, Delhi School of Economics.  In the inaugural address, Prof Amitabh Kundu, Dean, School of Social Sciences, raised important sub-themes related to the broad theme of the seminar and highlighted Indian State’s interventions in the developmental agenda of the participatory democracy in contemporary India. Dr Asha Sarangi, CPS and Convenor, introduced the theme, its objectives and critical arenas to reflect upon.  Dr Shefali Jha, CPS, presented vote of thanks.

The first session of the conference focusing on Democracy as Theory and Practice had papers presented by Rajeev Bhargava, Senior Fellow, CSDS, Delhi on Indian Democracy: A Deeply Contested Idea? ; Bishnu Mohapatra, Program Officer, Ford Foundation, South Asia Office, Delhi on Imbrications of Democracy and Nationalism: Issues and Challenges, and Bimol Akoijam, Visiting Associate Fellow, CSDS, Delhi on Demos and High Reason of State: A Social Psychology of the Political. The second session on Social and Political Institutions and Democracy in India had papers presented by Balveer Arora, CPS, on The Indian Federal State and Democracy: A Multi-level Representation;  E.Sreedharan, Director, University of Pennsylvania Institute for the Advanced Study of India, Delhi on Coalition Politics in India Compared to the International Experience and Peter DeSouza, Senior Fellow, CSDS, Delhi on Political Institutions, Trust and Democracy in South Asia. The final session of the first day had panel discussion on Democracy in India: Issues and Challenges with participation by Arjun Sengupta, SIS, and currently, Member of the Parliament; Ashutosh Varshney, Department of Political Science, University of Michigan and Dipankar Gupta, CSSS, JNU.

 The second day of the conference too had a number of very interesting papers.  The fourth session of the conference began with the theme of Law and the Democratic State which had paper presentations by Ujjawal Singh, Department of Political Science, Delhi University on Dilemmas of Procedural Legality: Reading Supreme Court Judgments on Anti-Terror Laws, and Anita Tagore, M.Phil/Ph.D student, CPS, on Gendered Identity and Rights in the Judiciary: A Case Study of Hindu Inheritance Law. It was followed by the session on Democracy at Work: Cases from States and Regions of India.  The session had papers presented by Ananya Vajpeyi, Fellow, Nehru Memorial and Museum Library, Delhi on The State of Exception: Bare Life in Jammu and Kashmir;  H.Kham Khan Suan, BHU, Varanasi on Stateness- Democracy: Continuum in the Hill Areas of Manipur: Critical Reflections; Dwaipayan Bhattacharya, Fellow, CSSS, Calcutta on Configuring Consensus in West Bengal: Making Sense of Democracy from Field-Notes and Rajeshwari Deshpande, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, University of Pune on Limited Access to Democracy: Indian State in the 1990s.  The last session of the conference was on Identity Politics, Democracy and State in India with papers presented by Alok Rai, Department of English Language and Literature, Delhi University on  Hindi and Democracy; Adnan Farooqui, M.Phil/Ph.d student, CPS, on The Indian Electoral System and Muslim Representation; Manindra Thakur, Fellow, Nehru Memorial and Museum Library, Delhi on Identity Politics and Institutional Innovations and Valerian Rodrigues, CPS, on Democracy and Higher Education in India. The conference ended with final vote of thank by Asha Sarangi.

Needless to say that the conference debated and engaged with several important conceptual and empirical issues to understand an extremely complex and important relationship between state and democracy in modern India.

Excerpts from VC Speech delivered on 4 March, 2006
during University Court Meeting

I have great privilege to welcome all of you to the Thirty-fifth Meeting of the Court. In particular, I extend a warm welcome to Chancellor, Dr. Karan Singh.

I am glad to say that during the current academic year, the University has not only been able to fill in the seats meant for SC/ST students, but marginally exceeded the statutory limit. The University has been able to attract more girls and foreign students and admit more students from the rural areas. I must mention that Biotechnology programme offered at JNU is rated as number one in the country.

The student strength as on date is 5,264, representing 261 in part time programmes of study in foreign languages, 595 in BA (Hons) of foreign languages, 1,526 pursuing Master’s degree and 2,882 pursuing research.

With the endowment from the State Government of Tamil Nadu and support
of the University Grants Commission, the University would be filling up the
faculty positions in Tamil studies and start offering teaching and research either from the ensuing academic session or thereafter in the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies.

I was pleasantly surprised when I heard on joining JNU that the University had approached the Korea Foundation to provide additional funds by way of endowment
as their earlier endowment (of US $ 42,000) was giving a return not sufficient to meet the faculty salary and other expenditure, the Korea Foundation was more than enthusiastic to give an additional endowment (of US $ 1,00,000). This is an example as to how two autonomous bodies could cooperate with each other in strengthening the bi-national relationship.

The School of Computer & Systems Sciences in gearing up to start a Master’s degree programme in Statistical Computing, while the nascent School of Information Technology is planning to start an M.Tech programme in Computational and Systems Biology.

A School level programme on Programme for Studies in Discrimination and Exclusion (PSDE) has been established in the School of Social Sciences. The University has accepted the recommendations of the Academic Council for the establishment of the North East India Studies Programme as an University level programme. Initially the Dean School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies will be coordinator of the Programme.

JNU has signed Memorandum of Understanding with 66 universities across the globe, spread over twenty-eight countries, both developed and developing. Under several MOUs, JNU exchanges students and teachers with partner countries for collaborative courses and research, besides exchange of published documents.

Bilkent University, Tashkent has agreed to provide teacher to facilitate initiating teaching and research in Turkish studies language programme in JNU.

JNU is one of the first few universities to receive the recognition of the University with Potential of Excellence (UPOE) from the University Grants Commission. Following is the brief description of progress made under this special scheme:

* The University is creating research facilities and equipment in all Schools, specifically major research equipment are being procured in the School of Life Sciences and the Centre for Biotechnology.

* The University is also supporting 43 research projects in all the Schools.

* All academic complexes are being provided with back-up power supply.

* An air-conditioned building for Animal House is also under construction.

* Earn As You Learn [EUL] programme has been initiated for needy students and  we have created 67 slots per year for this.

* Establishment of and Intellectual Property Rights Cell (IPR Cell) is under advanced stage of implementation.

* A Lecture Hall Complex is also under construction to facilitate integrated teaching.

* UPOE scheme also supports publication activities of the faculty members, special innovative projects such as (a) Programme for Studies in Discrimination and Exclusion (b) Digital Mapping of Prehistoric Sites of the 2000 acre area in village Aihole in Karnataka and (c) Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting, Check Dams
and New Sites for Ground Water Exploration in JNU Campus.

* UPOE scheme also plans to support visiting scholars in the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Studies.

* The University is also largely supporting the faculty members of various Schools and Centres in organizing several national and international conferences and also several outreach programmes, we have organized 18 conferences and 11 outreach programmes.

Various Schools and centers organized more than 200 conferences / workshops / seminars / lectures during the 2004-2005.

JNU being the research university publications are a major activity of our distinguished faculty members. All of us will be proud to note that during 2004-05 our faculty members have published about 555 research articles in journals, 87 books and 224 chapters in books.

Some of our faculty members are Vice-Chancellors of academic institutions and a few other academics are holding senior positions in the government. Some of them are:

* I am happy to report that one of our faculty members, Professor S.K. Thorat, has been appointed as the Chairperson of the University Grants Commission.

* Professor S.D. Muni of the School of International Studies was conferred with Sri Lanka Ratna by the Government of Sri Lanka in recognition of his distinguished and meritorious services to Sri Lanka.

* Professor Kasturi Datta won the FICCI award for R&D in Life Sciences, Agriculture and Biotechnology.

* Professor Brij Gopal is the recipient of the Naumann Thienemann Medal 2004.

* Dr. Aparajit Chattopadhyay received the prestigious Pablo Neruda Award, which was conferred by the President of the Republic of Chile.

* Professor R. Madhubala was awarded the Hari Om Trust J.C. Bose Award in the field of Life Sciences.

* Professor Dipankar Gupta has been awarded the Malcolm Adiseshiah Award.

JNU has also the distinction in another way, that two of its alumnus is the Vice-Chancellors of central universities. Professor Syed E. Hasnain, who is an alumnus of the School of Life Sciences of JNU, is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad and Professor Rajan G. Harshe, who is an alumnus of the School of International Studies of JNU, is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Allahabad.

JNU is a unique university to set up an “Equal Opportunity Office”, the first of its kind, to facilitate and monitor various needs of SC/ST and Physically Challenged students.

The University can be termed as Disabled-Friendly; it has constructed several ramps at different places to facilitate free mobility of the disabled students. The Library is also having special cell having computers and software’s for the Visibly Challenged student.

JNU is the first University to institute GSCASH and the first committee was set up as early as April, 1999. Many other Universities are taking the GSCASH of the University as a model. We are in the process of fine tuning the GSCASH rules and procedure.

H. E. Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, President of India and Visitor of the University delivered a special lecture on “The evolution of enlightened citizen-centric society” in the Campus on 12 January 2005.

Special Convocation: The University conferred an honorary degree Honoris causa on HE Dr. Navinchandra Ramgoolam, Prime Minister of Mauritius when he visited Delhi/India in October 2005.

Annual Day and Unveiling of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’ Statue: On the occasion of the Annual Day of the University, i.e. November 14, 2005, the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, paid a visit to the University. During his visit, he unveiled the statue of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

Conference of Central Universities’ Vice-Chancellor: Under the auspices of Jawaharlal Nehru University, the Third conference of the Vice-Chancellors of the Central Universities was held on January 12-13, 2006. The Conference was attended by eighteen vice-chancellor out of twenty-one central universities besides a number of senior officials from the University Grants Commission and the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Dr. Boutros Ghali, former Secretary-General, UN participated in a seminar on “UN and current development in West Asia” on 7 February, 2005

President of Venezuela HE Mr. Hugo Elias Chavez Fria delivered a special lecture on “The Challenges of Development in Latin America” on 4 March, 2005. Dr. Karan Singh, Chancellor, JNU presided over the function.

Professor Giuliano Amato, Former Prime Minister of Italy delivered a talk on “The EU at Twenty-Five and More: A major World Player and India” on 17 January,
2006.

Prime Minister of Netherlands HE Dr. Jan Peter Balkenende delivered a special lecture on “ The European Union and India: Unity in Diversity” on 20 January,2006.

The Library is adopting Digital Library Technology in its operations. Retro-conversion of books, journals of all languages including French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Hindi is in progress, and one can search all these tittles on Web-OPAC of JNU Library. Under the UGC-INFONET E-journals consortium, about 5,000 full text scholarly electronic journals from 25 publishers across the globe can be accessed. JSTOR an online archival journals database for accessing back files of journals is available for the Campus Network.

The University has invested considerable funds towards the e-governance project, which is in a fairly advanced stage of implementation. Once the project is completed (within a year), there will be considerable improvement not only from the administrative angle, but also from the public perspective as the aspiring candidates and others could access admission related issues besides the various programmes of studies, courses offered in different semesters, etc. etc.

In conclusion, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Chancellor, Dr. Karan Singh, the Hon’ble Members of Parliament, my distinguished academic colleagues and officers of the University for their unstinted cooperation.

Jai Hind!

International Seminar on "Cultures and Societies in Transition: India, Russia and other CIS Countries" (February 8-10, 2006)

The last two decades have seen a tremendous change in the world order. As political, economic and social change sweep across the globe and geographical boundaries get redrawn, so are the economic, social, and cultural boundaries, constantly changing. The term ’globalization’ acquires a meaning much beyond economics to represent the globalization of culture and the search for and advent of a ’new’ culture or a change in the established that many traditional societies, as well as those in a state of dynamic flux, are sometimes silently and often turbulently witnessing. As societies undergo transition, so does culture, both in its popular from and in its deepest fabric.

The countries that formed the erstwhile Soviet Union a now constitute the CIS have undergone tremendous geo-political, economic, social and cultural transformation and India too has seen an enormous economic, technological and socio- cultural change in the last decade and a half.

Keeping all this in the mind, the Centre of Russian Studies, School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, JNU in collaboration with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations organized an International Seminar on Cultures and Societies in Transition: India , Russia and other CIS Countries from 8-10 February 2006. The importance and relevance of the Seminar is reflected in the observation of H.E. Vyacheslav I. Trubnikov, the Ambassador of the Russian Federation in India that “the Seminar of this magnitude is a significant event indeed by its scope and content: which territory-wise covers the vast region of Eurasia, time-wise encompasses a crucial period full of dramatic changes and substantial transformation, and subject-wise touches upon the core aspect of life culture, which has impact on social transition and vice-versa, and society with its value system, political, economy, security, ethnicity, identities, state and governance etc. undergoing from time to time major and minor transformation.”

H.E. Mr. Kairat E. Umarov, the Ambassador of Kazakhstan lit the lamp to inaugurate the seminar and in his inaugural address said that after the disintegration of the USSR though the dramatic changes that the former Soviet countries underwent brought hardships, they also brought new opportunities and many of the CIS countries have recovered fast recorded high levels of economic growth. Commenting on the issues of national and cultural identity and ethnicity and socio-cultural transformation, he shared Kazakhstan’s success in securing interethnic and inter-religious consent and harmony in a country having as many as 130 ethnic groups and over 40 religious faiths. While wishing the Seminar success he said that he was convinced that it would bring better understanding of the CIS countries and help in bringing all closer.

The inauguration ceremony was presided over by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. B.B. Bhattacharya who also released the Seminar Souvenir and in his Presidential Address praised the Centre of Russian Studies, for focusing through the seminar theme on the human side of globalization and the rapid socio-cultural transition that is occurring in the region. Other who were present at the inauguration and spoke were H.E. Saktanbek Kadyraliev, Charge d” Affairs a.i. of the Kyrgyz Republic to India; H.E. Prof. Sydakmal S. Saydaminov Charge d’ Affairs a.i. of the Republic of Uzbekistan in India; H.E. Mr. Andrei Sorokin, Minister Counselor and Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in India; and the Dean, SLL&CS, Prof. Amar Basu, and Chairperson of the CRS Prof. Sankar Basu. Also present were Mr. Javanshir Majidov of the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Mr. Sadriddin Suyarov of the Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

With this backdrop the Seminar, which was a great success, provided the much needed platform for nearly 150 scholars and experts from various regions to meet, interact, share, exchange and deliberate. There were participants and papers from India, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Iran, Turkey and Sri Lanka. Scholars representing fields as diverse as history, economics, political science and international affairs, philosophy, philology, archaeology, theology, behavioral sciences, culture studies, mass media, cinema and theatre, made the seminar truly multi-disciplinary in nature. With the confluence of so many different streams at the seminar and the quality and intensity of ensuing discussions, it is evident that the CRS has explored and expanded the horizons of conventional language, literature and culture teaching.

There were over 70 presentations made in the 17 seminar sessions. Amongst others, the sub themes and topics included: understanding the process of socio-cultural transition, the impact of globalization on culture and the dilemmas of nationalism and ethnocentricity in the era of globalization; issues related to national and cultural identities, linguistic ethnicity, ethnocentricity; cultural memory; society, religion and culture in the twenty first century; cultural fusion, conflict, confluence and revivalism; psychosocial aspects of socio-cultural transition; reforms; literature and art in cultural dialogue, socio-cultural transition and Russian Literature, Russian Language and the world today, language and education in the CIS today, and globalization, socio- cultural transition and Hindi. The seminar concluded with the valedictory address by the eminent scholar Prof. Purshottam Agarwal.

Other highlights were a Panel on Cultural Histories in the Making coordinated by Dr. R. Mahalakshmi SSS, JNU; a Panel on India and CIS: Geopolitical and Socio Economic Aspects, coordinated by Prof. Ajay Patnaik, SIS, JNU; and a Panel on Social and Cultural Transition and the Mass Media led by Ms. Narayani Ganesh, Times of India and Mr. Bal Mukund, Navbharat Times.

XIX Antonio Binimelis Memorial Lecture
(7 February 2006)

The Centre of Spanish Portuguese, Italian and Latin American Studies, School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies organized a function on 7 Feburary 2006 to hold the XIX Antonio Binimelis Memorial Lecture. The lecture was delivered by eminent Spanish academician Prof. Ramon Bassa i Martin from the Universitat de les Illes Baleares, Palma, Spain on “The Shadow of the Elephant: Infuluences of Indian Culture and Literature on Catalan Literature”. Preceding the lecture, a book entitled Ramon Llull (S.XII-XIV) Mistic, filosof, literat (Una seleccio de textos), edited by Prof. Ramon Bassa i Martin and rendered into Hindi by Dr. Anil Dhingra and Dr. Prabhati Nautiyal was released by Professor B.B. Bhattacharya, Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University.

The function was attended by Professor B.B. Bhattacharya, Ms. Cristina Fraile, Dy. Chief of Mission, who was the Chief Guest, Prof. Amar Basu, Dean, diplomats from the Spanish speaking countries, faculty and students of the Centre and other invitees.

(S.P. Ganguly, Chairperson, Centre of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian & Latin American Studies)

Disability Act: Implementation and Implication
(7 February 2006)

A Workshop on Mass senitization and sincere struggle for equal rights for the physically and mentally challenged was organized by JNU Disabled Persons Association (JNUDPA) in collaboration with Association of Social Research & Action (ASRA) on 7 February, 2006. The emancipation and equal participation in the mainstream of about 5-6 percent of the country’s disabled or “Differentially Challenged” population can only be achieved by sensitizing the society in general and the efforts of the administrative machinery in particular said the participants at a national workshop to mark the day of notification of the Disability Act-1995.

The workshop on “ Disability Act: Implementation and Implication” was inaugurated by Dr. Wajahat Habibullah (Chief Information Commissioner, Central Information Commission, Govt. of India). He felt the need to sensitize the masses through these types of workshops. He also compared the American Disbility act with the Indian disability Act and stressed that the time bound implementation of the act is required like America. The institutions in America are being penalized if they fail to implement the disability Act. According to him all the concerned groups/organization should initiate a composite dialog for the welfare of the disabled people.

Associate Professor of JNU and noted human rights activists Dr. Subodh Malkar while chairing the workshop appealed the social activists and media to contribute actively and generously in rehabilitation of disabled person through community development programs. He offered his services for the cause of disabled people and suggested the disabled people should also rope all other concerned person to achieve their rights in dignified way.

Dr. Rakesh Raman Jha, President - ASRA conducted the proceedings of the workshop. Dr. Jha felt the need of the reservation for disabled persons in private sectors and stressed for intense awareness campaign in rural areas too. He also emphasized on the need for implantation of the disability act in letter and spirit. Many other distinguished speakers and core activists of JNUDPA including Mr. Hoshiar Singh expressed deep concern for the slow process of adjusting disabled daily wager employees.
Concluding the workshop Sh. L. Kanniappan – General Secretary expressed his satisfaction over the efforts of the government in providing opportunity to physically challenged persons who have been working as daily wagers since last fourteen years in Jawaharlal Nehru University.

(L.Kanniappan, General. Secretary, JNU Disabled Persons Association)
 

International Seminar on Globalisation and Millennium Development Goals
(19-20 January 2006)

A two day international seminar on “Globalisation and the Millennium Development Goals” organised by the Centre for International Trade and Development (CITD), JNU in collaboration with the London School of Economics was held on the 19 and 20 of January 2006 at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Lord Meghnad Desai delivered the Keynote Address on “Why India will fail to achieve the MDGs”. After providing the background for the establishment of MDGs that led to a critical shift in the goals and focus of development, he stressed that achieving MDGs was not merely a question of larger budgetary allocations but more fundamentally a question of understanding the motivation underlying the behaviour of poor households in developing countries. Such an understanding would provide the basis for more appropriate government interventions for achieving the MDGs. He also stressed the role that international migration had played historically, particularly in the nineteenth century, in reducing poverty.

This was followed by an extensive discussion spearheaded by a Round Table. The focus of the discussion was challenges for India to achieve the MDGs against the background of the evolution of the world economy. Pronab Sen stressed the heterogeneity among the states which makes difficult central planning for achieving the MDGs. G.K. Chadha presented a broad report card of Indian progress and stressed that apart from the poverty goal India was likely to miss the other targets. Maxine Olson emphasized the importance of targeted development goals in energizing governments both national and international. Javid Chowdhury stressed the deleterious effects of the declining place of public heath institutions in the overall health scenario in India. Jayati Ghosh stressed that the current role of international institutions and perceptions in shaping policies militated against the achievement of the MDGs in India. In particular she stressed the agricultural distress that was forcing migration of a short run duration that did not lead to durable capital formation.

The next session, chaired by Ashok Guha, dealt with the informal sector. The paper by G.K.Chadha stressed the slowing down in the rate of employment generation after liberalization. Much of the employment that has been created in recent years is not permanent employment but casual and part time. He also suggested that the employment picture was particularly sombre in the rural areas. Neelam Singh stressed the increasing output and employment in the automotive ancillary components and parts industry. While it was performing well a challenge for it was to cope with the tendency of foreign auto producers to bring the producers of ancillary items from their home country.

The session on Education next day was chaired by Tapas Majumdar and had two papers. Eva Maria Nag, in her paper, focused on the lack of consonance between the values underlying MDGs and the values underlying the existing structures of primary education. Given this disconnect, it would be difficult to achieve the MDGs unless we take a re-look at the philosophical foundations of primary education. Alok Rai made a forceful case against market driven higher education, pointing out the dangers that it may entail leading to a lopsided specialization structure of higher education and research.

The next session, chaired by A L Nagar, dealt with MDGs, agriculture and poverty. Manmohan Agarwal presented a method of aggregating the different quantitative indicators of MDGs into a single index. His calculation of this index for 31 developing countries displayed a high correlation between the ranks in 1990 and in 2000 and also between the social indicators and economic performance. G.S. Bhalla showed that productivity increases in agriculture had slowed down almost uniformly across states and major crops in the post-reforms period. Ross Herbert contended that MDGs were irrelevant for development and poverty reductio in Africa as they focus on the wrong issues. He suggested an alternative set of goals for development especially in the context of Africa.

The final session of the seminar chaired by Ashish Bose had four papers on health. Amit Shovon Ray examined how the TRIPS agreement might affect access to new drugs in India using an empirical study of drug launch in India and concluded that while TRIPs may facilitate global drug discovery research, it is unlikely to have any perceptible favourable impact on the health needs of the poor in developing nations. Ernestina Coast focused on the importance of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in achieving the MDGs. She argued that although SRHR is implicit within some of the MDGs, the fact there is no explicit MDG on SRHR may prove to be a major handicap in achieving poverty reduction and development. Ken Shadlen’s paper, discussing the adverse effects of TRIPs on AIDS treatment, was presented by his colleagues from the LSE. Hakan Seckinlegin stressed the need for an appropriate structure of international governance of AIDS that is consistent with and supported by local circumstances and civil society initiatives.

(Amit S. Ray, Professor, CITD, School of International Studies)

Symposium on “Frontiers in Molecular Medicine”
(19-20 January’ 2006)

The Third symposium on “Frontiers in Molecular Medicine” was organized by the ’Special Centre for Molecular Medicine, JNU, in the premises of the Academic Staff College, 19-20 January, 2006. The symposium started with an ’Introduction’ by Prof. Rajendra Prasad (Rector, JNU) and followed by B.K. Bachhawat Memorial lecture by eminent Professor I. B. Chatterjee (Calcutta University). He presented his major contribution to Biochemistry under the title ’Vitamin C: the preventive medicine’. The other, V.K. Ramalingaswami memorial lecture was delivered by Prof. Indraneel Mittra (Director, BHMRC, Bhopal) with the title ’The future of Cancer treatment’. According to the norms laid by the centre the first memorial lecture is generally given by an eminent basic researcher while the latter by a clinical researcher of eminence. A third lecture in the series under the category ’Special lecture’ was given by Dr. Satyajit Rath (NII, Delhi) with the title ’Life and death in the T cell lineage’. All the three lectures were highly applauded by audience that included eminent researchers and students from different institutes and universities.

A full day symposium on 20 January’2006, covered a whole range of topics falling under the theme of the symposium and included area under sessions on Virology, Metabolic disorders, Neurobiology & Cancer and Infectious diseases. Active researchers who have made significant contributions in their areas of expertise were invited for the occasion to present their recent work. These speakers are affiliated with different institutes/universities that included National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS, Pune), Tata Memorail Hospital (Mumbai), International Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology (ICGEB, Delhi), National Institute of Immunology (NII, Delhi), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS, Delhi), National Brain Research Centre (NBRC, Manesar), National Institute of Communicable and Enteric diseases (NICED, Kolkata) and GB Pant Hospital (Delhi). The concluding ’Special lecture’ was given by Dr. K.T. Shenoy, Director, CERTC, University of Kerala entitled ’Molecular Epidemiology’. The symposium concluded with a vote of thanks by SCMM Chairperson.

Like the previous two symposium organized by SCMM, the third symposium was also highly appreciated by all the participants and they look forward to more such occasions where the basic and clinical researchers can come forward and share their data, research experience with the young and the experienced researchers alike. The symposium ended with a positive note from all quarters.

(G.K.Mukhopadhyay, Chairperson, SCMM)

Third Vice-Chancellor’s Conference of Central Universities
(12-13 January 2006)

The Third Conference of Vice-Chancellors of Central Universities was held in Jawaharlal Nehru University on January 12-13, 2006. The Vice-Chancellors of 18 central universities attended the conference, which was inaugurated by Human Resource Development Minister, Sh. Arjun Singh. The Minister highlighted the need to bring the country’s higher education to international standards and pointed out that the Vice-Chancellors could consider global challenges in the Nehruvian vision while drawing a road map for higher education.

On the first day, the conference was addressed by JNU Chancellor, Dr. Karan Singh, JNU Vice-Chancellor, Prof. B.B. Bhattacharya, and former JNU and Delhi University Vice-Chancellors, Prof. P.N. Srivastava and Prof. Deepak Nayyar respectively: The second day’s discussions covered topics like funding of universities, especially development and maintenance grants, internal resource mobilisation, recruitment of faculty and university autonomy.

Sh. Kapil Sibal, Minister of Science and Technology, speaking on the closing day said that unless universities came up with alternative means of resource mobilisation, the goals of the 21st Century would be difficult to achieve.

Translation Workshop with Internationally Renowned Scholar
(9 January 2006)

The School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, in collaboration with ’Katha’, held a translation workshop with Mona Baker, Professor in Translation Studies at the University of Manchester (UK) and Editor
Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. Ms. Baker described translation in the imagery of narrative and focused upon the role of translation in conflict situations. She elaborated her arguments with examples from the Palestinian and Kosovo conflicts. She also spoke about the role of translation in subjugating nations by colonial powers in the past. Ms. Baker said that translation was either romanticized or demeaned.

A lively discussion followed her presentation, particularly in the context of interpretation as larger part of translation studies, in which subjectivity and prejudice play a major role. There was reference to civil courts, where the court language is different, and ordinary peasants or oppressed people have no say whatsoever and are the mercy of court-assigned interpreters. Prof. S. P. Ganguly, Prof. Chaman Lal, Prof. Kumar, Prof. Shanta Ramakrishna, Dr. N. Kamala and many students took part in this discussion. Prof. Amar K. Basu, Dean of the School, was also present.

(Chaman Lal, Professor, Centre of Indian Languages, SLL&CS)

23rd Small Meeting on Yeast Transport and Energetics

A SMYTE conferences are held annually in different countries and are devoted to two fundamental aspects of the life of yeast cells- transport processes and energy generation and utilisation.

This year’s meet was organised by Prof. Rajendra Prasad of the School of Life Sciences at Heritage Village, Manesar. As usual, the number of participants was not very large (about 60 researchers from 11 Asian, European, South and North American countries). A total of 39 lectures were presented. Some of these were devoted membrane transport, with stress being laid on molecular properties, structure and regulation of transporters. Other sections focused on gene regulation, with signal transduction pathways as the topic of interest. Another major topic was yeast drug resistance.

Two trends were clearly perceptible. The first was the gradual but inexorable shift of intrest from traditional yeast species such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae to non-traditional species such as Candida albicans, Debaromyces hansenii or Zygosaccharomyces bailii. The other trend was the continuing deviation from general bioenergetics of yeast to specialised
energy-associated processes or systems, such as the xenobiotic-transporting PDR system of yeast plasma membrane.

(Rajendra Prasad, Professor, School of Life Sciences)

International Conference on Multiculturalism: Public Policy and Problem Areas in Canada and India
(5-7 December, 2005)
 

A three - day international conference on ’Multiculturalism: Public Policy and Problem Areas in Canada and India’ was organised at the initiative of the Centre for Canadian, US and Latin American Studies, School of International Studies, JNU, and the Chair in Ethnic Relations, Centre for Ethnic Studies, University of Montreal, at the India International Centre.

The conference was convened to generate a debate on evolving innovative policy measures for immigrant/settler societies, addressing issues of concern to various ethnic and cultural groups.

The inaugural session on December 5 was presided over by Vice-Chancellor, Prof. B. B. Bhattacharya, and inaugurated by the Canadian High Commissioner to India, H. E. Ms. Lucie Edwards. Prof. Christopher S. Raj, Chairman of the Centre for Canadian, US and Latin American Studies, provided a comprehensive profile of the conference Others who spoke on the occasion included Prof. Marie McAndrew of the Centre for Ethnic Studies, University of Montreal, Dr. D. K. Pabby, Secretary of the Indian Association of Canadian Studies, and Prof. Abdul Nafey of the Centre for Canadian, US and Latin American Studies.

The inaugural session was followed by eight working sessions over the next two days. The themes for discussion included ’Multiculturalism: Concept, Contours, Critique;’ ’Multicultural International Conference on Multiculturalism: Public Policy and Problem Areas in Canada and India (December 5-7, 2005) Policies in Canada and India: Overview and Regional Variations’; ’Exploring Pluralities and their Intersections in Multicultural Societies’; ’Negotiating Diasporic Ethnic  Identities in Canada’; ’Policies Assigning Cultural “Space” and Proffering Economic Services to Ethnic Communities in India and Canada: Constraints and Consequences’; and ’A Comparison of Educational Policies in India and Canada’.

The first session, chaired by Prof. R. Narayanan, former Dean of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, with papers by Prof. Christopher S. Raj on ’Multiculturalism in Transition in Immigrant and Non-settler
States’ and Prof. Gurpreet Mahajan on ’Rethinking Multiculturalism’, set the tone for the conference. Prof. Denise Helly, INRS, Montreal, presented a paper on the policy of multiculturalism in Canada; Prof. Marie McAndrew presented two papers, one on the Quebec interculturalism policy and another on ethnocultural diversity and education; Prof. Daiva K. Stasiulis, Carleton University, Ottawa, talked about the dual nationality among Indian Canadians and on the relationship of multiculturalism to immigrant settlement services in Ontario; Prof. Minelle Mahtani, University of Toronto spoke about the implications of mixed race identity in Canada. Prominent participants included Ms. Manisha Sinha, Deputy Secretary, Department of Culture, Government of India; Dr. Archana Ojha and Dr. Chandra Mohan from Delhi University; Prof. Sudhir Jacob George from Hyderabad Central University; Dr. K. Viswanatham from Dravidian University, Kuppam; Dr. V. R. Rao the from Anthropological Survey of India, Kolkata; Prof. Paramjit Judge, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar; Prof. Harihar Bhattacharyya, University of Burdwan, West Bengal; and Prof. A.K. Mohanty, Dr. Srinivasa Rao and Dr. Priti Singh from Jawaharlal Nehru University.
 

One-Day Symposium on Society and Spirituality: A Communitarian Perspective
(16 December 2005)

Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, JNU in association with Focolare Movement, Rome (Italy) organized a symposium on “society and Spirituality: A Communication Perspective” on 16 December 2005 which was attended by several distinguished scholars from Delhi as well as Rome. The Focolare Movement took the opportunity as a part of its celebration of Silver Jubilee Year in India (1980-2005). Focolare signifies hearth, family and fireside that re-iterates the same age-old Vedic concept of the world as ‘one nest of family’. This was the common bond that brought two like-minded communities together to share their thought on the dimensions of society and spirituality.

In this welcome address Prof. Satya Vrat Shastri highlight the relevance of the theme of the symposiym and the works of Madam Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare Movement. He said that this is the time to realize the importance of the multiple value system with which the community survives and prospers and also to liberate ourselves from compartmentalization of humanity and human knowledge.

Dr. L.M. Singhvi, in his inaugural address, foregrounded the epic dialogue between Vedic, Vedantic and Sharmanic traditions of India in the emerging world scenario today. He emphasized the fact that the binaries like East and West are no longer relevant. What really matters is the spirit and quality of enquiry that is attested by the various Indic traditions of the quest for knowledge and truth. The dialogic mode of Indian intellectual discourse, right from the Vedic times conforms to the fact that Indian mind is tolerant and is willing to accept the concept of ‘one’ as well as ‘many’ in life and philosophy. The epistemology of many truths and ways of their attainment is to be accepted along with the agenda of globalization. Dr. Shinghvi very insightfully established that spirituality gave life to Indian ethics and ethics has enlivened the Indian society.

Prof. Antonio Maria Baggio contested the perception of the West as monolithic object and highlighted the fact that it has always survived with multiple realities. He began with the two original gods- Eros and and Zeos in the 9th C.B.C. and throughout the ancient Greek and Roman civilization this multiple world-view has been attested. This does not mean necessarily that people lived with split realities. A divided man can nothing but be sick. It is always possible to look forward for a model of harmony and love.

Prof. S.R. Bhatt talked about the Buddhist approach to society and spirituality. He opined that the centrifugal and centripetal forces are always simultaneously active in the Indian society and Indian mind has always aspired for the cosmic well-being. Indian spirituality is not anti-materialistic and otherworldly but is holistic and integral. Basing his argument on the pratityasamutpada (the theory of mutual origination/ inter-dependent existence), one of the central theses of Buddhism, he established the very rationale of human society. Sangha and samaja are mutually bound and have always contributed to each other. Spirituality in its very conception is social where we aspire to ensure liberation for all-not for human beings along.

Prof. S.S. Noor in his very lucid and comprehensive exposition of Sikh dharma talked about the poetic teachings of ten Gurus and their great sacrifices to defend Hindu dharma. After the tradition of these ten Gurus, Shabada or Gurugrantha Sahib became the Guru for all time.Prof. Noor elaborated the significance of the central concepts like sanagata, pangata and gurudwara of Sikhism in social and spiritual perspectives.

Dr. Lokesh Chandra began with a precautionary note that both religion and spirituality have brought great suffering to the world and they have been instrumental for bondage and suppression in human civilization. humanity today needs only two things-compassion and wisdom and no God is expected to intervene in this project. In Hinduism and Buddhism, there is no commandment; therefore, there is still a scope for ‘becoming’ India has still retained the cosmo-centricity of the pre-religion pagan civilization. Inner wisdom manifests itself in the social sphere and this is how the Buddhist concept of alaya-vijnana (lit. ‘the store-house consciousness’) has been expounded. Universal and individual consciousness’ are constantly interactive and constitute the one being.

Prof. Piero Coda in his paper “Towards an Ethics of Reciprocity” underlined the challenges of globalization. It is a challenge that has reached an unprecedented radical level where it affects the very roots of human identity. It has created a space in which the various identities expressing the human experience enter in relation of reciprocal visibility and communication. He called for a review of the Kantian imperative of absolute and proposed to focus on the dynamics of reciprocal recognition of such dignity as the space in which the human person is realized and the authentic meaning of every symbolic form of human action and being is experienced. In this context he emphasized the work of madam Chiara that is aimed at rediscovering the anthropological meaning of the reciprocity of love and communication of what one is and what one has.

Prof. Kapil Kapoor, in his characteristically live and focused exposition stated that the two key words of the symposium i.e. society and spirituality stand for material comfort and human happiness respectively. Both are important for an over- all significance and progress of human being. He referred it back to the Upanishad concepts of shreya (what is good) and preya (what is merely pleasant). Aristotle in his Ethics brings forth the same theme and says that for every act of human being one may ask- “What for?” but we cannot ask the same with regard to happiness. Happiness is the ultimate goal of all sorts of acts. We must learn to desynonymise happiness and comport. The Hindu mind is not monistic. The non- The ocentric Hindu thought has the space to choose or create a system or concept which not necessarily derived from a superior source like God. The life of a person is worth if it is for welfare of the community (sukha ayu and hita ayu vide Chararka) and the personal conducts are not rooted in God but they are the parts of four –fold goals of life- purushartha. All the three perceptions of God as (i) formless and attributes less (ii) with form and attributes, and (iii) formless but with attributes- are acceptable to the Hindu thought.

Dr. Anna Pelli talked on the Concept of man in the Christian Communitarian Perspective. Long ago in the West, Protegra’s (500 B.C.) had declared that man is measure of the world. This anthropological view of reality bears the attestation of the sacred Scripture where man is said to be created in the image of God (Genesis 1.26).This constitutes the rationale of the inter-personal relationship and the philosophy of universal love and brotherhood. Secondly, the Scriptures also confirm that the human relationship is equally liked to the other relationship-that with the entire Cosmos.

Dr. Shashiprabha Kumar in her concluding lecture focused on the Vedic view of Society and Spirituality. She referred to the three levels of the Being as conceived in the Vedic thought – Vaishwanara, Virat and Adi Purusha that is the best summation of the recurrent themes of this symposium. Thought the various Vedic references she established that the idea of universal love and one-ness is not only embedded in the source text of Indian thoughts but this community has lived up to that all-embracing principle.

Dr. Roberto Catalano proposed the vote of thanks and expressed the deep sense of gratitude to all the participants and the very receptive audience.

(Rajnish Kumar Mishra, Assistant Professor, Centre for Sanskrit Studies)