“JNU Workshop on Newly-Created Equipment Facility”

As a step towards encouraging inter-disciplinary research among its different Science departments and to raise awareness about the newly-created Advanced Instrumentation Facility, Jawaharlal Nehru University organized a three-day workshop from 5-8 January, 2009, titled ”Advanced analytical Instrumentation and Applications“.

The facility has been created out of a special grant given by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for enhancing infrastructural facilities available at the university for the implementation of the OBC reservation quota.  A part of this grant has been utilized by Jawaharlal Nehru University to create the state-of-art facility for the use of all science faculty researchers of various sophisticated and advanced equipment that can be utilized for wide areas of research.

“We have decided to have similar workshops from time to time,” said the Rector-I, Prof. Rajendra Prasad.  The workshop included lectures by renowned “application engineers”, followed by lectures by the university faculty.  Prof. S. K. Thorat, Chairman, UGC and Dr. M. K. Bhan, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology addressed the participants during the workshop.

Tulika Prasad, Assistant Professor, USC

“LASSnet Inaugural Conference”

The inaugural Law and Social Sciences Research Network (LASSnet) Conference was held at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, January 8-11, 2009 marked the coming of age of a law and social science research community in India. The conference was organised by the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, JNU, with support from the Ford Foundation and the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle. The conference was held over four days where over a hundred papers were presented in 35 panels spread over seven sessions. The three plenary sessions hosted eminent academics such as Veena Das, Peter Fitzpatrick, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Upendra Baxi, Jean Comaroff, Suman Sahai, Rosemary Coombe, Rajeswari Sunder Rajan and Sheila Jassanoff. The conference was attended by over 300 participants from all over the world.

The Law and Social Sciences Research Network (LASSnet), which is hosted at lassnet.blogspot.com, was constituted to map the field of Law and Social Sciences in South Asia. The network started with 14 people in conversation at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, JNU in December 2007. It had grown to over 180 members in one year's time. This was the first time this virtual community met. In many ways, the energy that each person brought to the conference signalled the consolidation of the academic and political interest in situating interdisciplinarity at the heart of the study of law, society and politics.

The combination of three generations of scholars whereby younger scholars, some of whom had presented papers for the first time in the presence of scholars they had perhaps only encountered as texts, challenged prevalent notions of hierarchies in the academia.  The attempt was to challenge the mimetic relationship between judicial hierarchies and hierarchies in the legal academia. There was a collective acknowledgment of the fact that a conference, or the space where we practice the art of conversing, must entail a critique of how we converse.

The next LASSnet conference will be hosted by the Alternative Law Forum and Centre for Study of Culture and Society in Bangalore. The network continues to be anchored at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance. 

Pratiksha Baxi, Associate Professor, CSLG,

“Korean Culture in the 21st Century: Some Aspects”

A two-day international seminar was organized by the Centre for Japanese, Korean & North East Asian Studies on “Korean Culture in the 21st Century: Some Aspects” in the School of Language, Literature & Culture Studies on 19 and 20 of January, 2009. Amongst the paper presenters from abroad were scholars of Korean linguistics, literature and anthropology from Korea and France, while those from within India were scholars of Korean & Japanese language & literature, Korean history & Korean studies from

Jiwaji University Gwalior, Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. The keynote address was delivered by Prof. Hwang Ji-Woo, President of Korean National University of Arts, on “Cultural Formation of South Korea in the 21st Century” and the Inaugural Address was delivered by Prof. Varyam Singh in his capacity as the Ex-Dean of SLL&CS. Prof. Hwang is a renowned poet and a playwright of Korea who has many prestigious awards to his name. He explained in simple terms the different aspects of pre-modern, modern and post-modern culture that co-exist in present day Korea and how they are not to be viewed as contradictions but are be taken as multi-layers piled up one on top of the other which permit osmotic action of give and take. The two day seminar was very well attended and was specially enriching for the students and faculty of the Korean Language Programme of CJKNEAS.

Vjyayanti Raghavan, Associate Professor, CJKNEAS, SLL&CS

“Protecting Inventions through Patents”

The patent system aims to encourage inventions and its development by the way of their protection and utilization. The protection granted through patenting helps in development of industries, which in turn contributes in promoting technology innovations. The benefits of patent laws and systems can only be availed and taken benefit of if the inventors/ owners of the inventions are aware of the existing systems and its advantages (pros and cons).

The Intellectual Property Management (IPM) Cell, JNU organized a special lecture on “Protecting Inventions through Patents” on 20 February 2009 to disseminate the knowledge regarding the various aspects of Patent regime. Dr. Malthi Lakshmikumaran, an eminent patent consultant, recipient of the prestigious Fogarty Visiting Research Associate-ship from National Institute of Health, Bethesda, USA, awardee of the first National Young Women Scientist Award by Department of Biotechnology in March 2000, having more than 28 years experience in the field of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology was invited as the guest lecturer. It needs a mention that Dr. Malthi Lakshmikumaran has more than 102 publications to her credit in various International and Indian journals and was at one point of time the Head, Centre for Bioresources and Biotechnology at The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi.

Prof. Rakesh Bhatnagar, the Chairperson Intellectual Property Management Cell, commenced the proceedings by giving a brief overview on the basic functions of Intellectual Property Management Cell. He summarily brought into the light the initiatives taken up by the IPM Cell for fulfilling its promise of assisting the University in getting their inventions patented along with providing assistance in transferring the technology and also in other fields of Intellectual Property Rights. Prof. Rakesh Bhatnagar then invited Dr. Malthi Lakshmikumaran to the podium for her lecture.

Dr. Malthi Lakshmikumaran commenced her lecture by initially explaining the general concepts of Intellectual Property Rights, their importance and need. She explained, by giving live illustrations, as to how the smallest innovative creation makes an impact in peoples' life and how the various forms of intellectual properties such as trademarks, industrial designs, patents, copyrights, etc. protect these creations from being exploited. Dr. Malthi Lakshmikumaran then continued her lecture by mentioning as to what patents are, what all can be patented, what are the prerequisites of getting an invention patented, difference of laws in various countries on certain aspects of patents and many other related aspects. An interactive discussion followed the lecture in which the audience put forward their queries which was patiently answered by the guest lecturer.

Prof. SK Sharma, Member IPM Cell, shared his views on IPR and emphasized on following the correct procedure of filing the patents so that one does not lose patent's rights on account of negligence in following the due process. He then thanked the guest lecturer, Dr. Malthi Lakshmikumaran for enhancing the knowledge of the audience in the area of patents.

Rakesh Bhatnagar, Chairperson IPM Cell

“Interdisciplinary Science Research to be JNU's Focus”

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) recently organized the second edition of the Annual Science Festival at School of Life Sciences auditorium.  The two  day festival comprised of a series of presentations by lecturers of various departments of the School of Life Sciences that explained the latest breakthroughs made and challenges faced with respect to their research areas.  “The objective behind this festival was to create a platform that would facilitate the understanding that today research in all branches of science and technology has reached  a stage where they require interdisciplinary cooperation to move forward,” said Rajendra Prasad, Rector, JNU.  Explaining this further, Prasad added, “It is important for every researcher to contextualize his research in the backdrop of the developments that are taking place in allied disciplines.  Further, by understanding the developments that are taking place in other areas a researcher can many-a-time gain valuable insights.”

Interdisciplinary cooperation is particularly relevant in today's context where there is a swift adaptation of research findings to industry.  Talking about the choice of research areas that were included in the festival Prasad said, “We have largely chosen subjects that most people from the research fraternity can easily relate to and that also have some degree of similarity in terms of their classification and quantification techniques. The objective is to promote mutual cooperation and debate.”

JNU also inaugurated the University Science Instrumentation Centre (USIC), which is an assembly of the latest state-of-the-art research instruments.

Sanjay Puri, Professor, School of Physical Sciences

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JNU to promote a novel tie-up

Jawaharlal Nehru University hosted a high-profile delegation from an island in the Indian Ocean  La Reunion that had some of its first indentured labour from India way back in the 19th Century.

La Reunion is located east of Madagascar, about 200 km south-west of Mauritius.

The little island has a mix of different races as it was inhabited by scores of indentured labourers from India, from Africa and other countries, who went thee to work in the mid 19th Century. La Reunion is one of the overseas departments of France and an integral part of the French Republic.

The visiting delegation was headed by Paul Verges, President of the Regional Council of La Reunion. He was the founder, in 1959, of the Communist Party of Reunion, a party which he led until he retired in 1993.

A memorandum of under standing was signed between JNU and the University of Reunion (in April 2007) for collaboration between the two educational institutions.

As a follow-up of that agreement, the delegation from La Reunion announced a grant to establish a documentation centre on Indian Ocean Studies at JNU's Centre for French and Francophone Studies at the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies here.

“The people of the island want to know more about India, Indian history, its culture. They also want JNU to collaborate on an ambitious cultural project called the 'Museum of Civilisations and the Unity of Reunion',” he added later, a chair on Indian Ocean Studies may be created.

K. Madavane, Professor, Centre of French and Francophone Studies, SLL&CS

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