Harvard South Asia Institute

How has COVID-19 impacted South Asia? In this podcast, a panel of experts share the geo-politics of how vaccines are developed, the funding and distribution methods that are critical to the effort, and the global alliances that facilitate this in the world today. - Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School & Director, Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University - Gagandeep Kang, Executive Director, Translational Health Science and Technology Institute & Vice Chairperson of The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations - Umang Vohra, Managing Director & Global Chief Executive Officer, Cipla Ltd. - David E. Bloom, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics & Demography, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

How has COVID-19 impacted South Asia? Throughout the spring and summer, the Mittal Institute is bringing together Harvard faculty and in-region experts to discuss the various interdisciplinary issues that have arisen in South Asia in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. From the science of the virus to the impact on education, you can learn how COVID-19 will change South Asia's societies. Both full-length podcasts and clips will be available here.

How has COVID-19 impacted South Asia? Throughout the spring and summer, the Mittal Institute is bringing together Harvard faculty and in-region experts to discuss the various interdisciplinary issues that have arisen in South Asia in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. From the science of the virus to the impact on education, you can learn how COVID-19 will change South Asia's societies. Both full-length podcasts and clips will be available here.

How has COVID-19 impacted South Asia? Throughout the spring and summer, the Mittal Institute is bringing together Harvard faculty and in-region experts to discuss the various interdisciplinary issues that have arisen in South Asia in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. From the science of the virus to the impact on education, you can learn how COVID-19 will change South Asia's societies. Both full-length podcasts and clips will be available here.

How has COVID-19 impacted South Asia? Throughout the spring and summer, the Mittal Institute is bringing together Harvard faculty and in-region experts to discuss the various interdisciplinary issues that have arisen in South Asia in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. From the science of the virus to the impact on education, you can learn how COVID-19 will change South Asia's societies. Both full-length podcasts and clips will be available here.

We recently sat down with Alex Beaudette, Sapna Shah, and Ankur Goel: three members of Professor Conor Walsh’s research team who are working on the research and development of the Soft Robotics Toolkit. This project has grown out of research conducted at Harvard University, University College Dublin, and Trinity College Dublin to become a comprehensive resource that will teach students how to design, fabricate, model, and test their own soft robotic devices — eventually making its way to Indian classrooms. This month, the team was in Delhi to conduct workshops with a group of educators and students, testing the kit with its main audience to inform continued development of its parts and instructions.

In case you missed it: Raj Rewal and Rahul Mehrotra recently stopped by the Mittal Institute to discuss Rewal's past architectural work in India and around the world. This podcast — an excerpt from their discussion — delves into the theme of the "Timeless Rasa."

Around the world, numerous nations have witnessed a resurgence of strongman politics — and with it, many governments have bypassed democratic norms and embraced populist ideals. Focusing on President Bolsonaro of Brazil and Prime Minister Modi of India, Professors Patrick Heller, Bruno Carvalho, and Rachel Brulé discuss what nationalist and populist leadership means for Brazil, India, and the global political system at large.

Who will benefit from big health data in India? And who will be harmed? Whom will the data leave behind? We're at an extraordinarily important time in India where digital health is concerned, and given the infrastructure, internet connectivity, and the sheer number of computer and data scientists available, India is positioned to change the way healthcare delivery has been imagined anywhere in the world. In this podcast, Dr. Satchit Balsari, Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Fellow at Harvard FXB, and Rahul Matthan, Partner with Trilegal in India, discuss the digitization of the health ecosystem in India.

Our latest podcast on Hinduism in Nepal features Gautama Vajracharya from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in a lecture on the ceremonial purposes of the lunar calendar, entitled “Newar Ritual Calendar — New Methodology, New Discovery.”

Over 80% of Nepal's population identifies as Hindu — a religion that been practiced in the nation for hundreds of years. In this podcast, Axel Michaels from Heidelberg University gives a fascinating lecture on Hindu ritual in Nepal, entitled "The Meaning of the Meaninglessness of Rituals."

We sat down with Sneha Shrestha, Arts Program Manager at the Mittal Institute, to learn more about the meaning behind her Nepali-inspired work, the most exciting art piece she's ever worked on, and the Visiting Artist Fellowship, which brings artists from South Asia to the Mittal Institute to perform research and utilize Harvard's resources. The deadline to apply for the Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 Visiting Artist Fellowships is July 1, 2019! Click here to learn more and apply: http://bit.ly/MittalArtistFellowship See more of Sneha's amazing work on her Instagram: @Imagine876

Devaki Jain is an Indian economist and writer, whose long and distinguished career has been dedicated to the economic empowerment of women. Here, introduced by Harvard Professors Tarun Khanna and Diana Eck, Devaki Jain delivers the 2018/19 Mahindra Lecture, an annual event in honor of the late Harish C. Mahindra, a distinguished alumnus of Harvard College and a visionary leader of business and industry in India.

Pakistani musician and author Ali Sethi, AB '06, returned to Harvard to talk to his longtime friend and mentor Ali Asani, Professor of Indo-Muslim Religion and Cultures, about sufi poetry, his own artistic journey and life as a perpetual student of the arts, and his days as a Harvard undergraduate.

In the last episode, we heard a rousing talk by UC Berkeley's Professor Ashok Gadgil, from the Mittal Institute’s annual symposium in May, 2018. Here’s the subsequent, fascinating conversation between Professor Gadgil, Professor Tarun Khanna (Director, The Mittal Institute; Harvard Business School)and Professor Asim Khwaja (Harvard Kennedy School) - they talk about how difficult it is to solve large-scale life or death problems, even with great resources, and the kinds of things you have to do in order to get things done.

Professor Ashok Gadgil (UC Berkeley)was originally a theoretical physicist, but during his distinguished career he has had a huge impact on thousands of lives with inventions that supply clean water to the poorest people in South Asia. At our Annual Symposium in May 2018, he explained how he has moved from abstract theory to such impressive and important practice. Image credit: Lawrence Berkeley Nat'l Lab - Roy Kaltschmidt, photographer

In the developing world, 95% of people with a clinically significant mental illness receive no treatment at all, and it costs the global economy an estimated trillion dollars a year. Vikram Patel is a distinguished Indian psychiatrist and The Pershing Square Professor of Global Health at Harvard Medical School. The Mittal Institute's Hasit Shah caught up with him a few days before our 2018 Symposium, where Professor Patel is one of the key speakers.

Dr Emmerich Davies is a political scientist who has a long-term academic interest in India. He is now based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and with funding from SAI, he's studying the current New delhi government’s attempts to reform education in the city.

Harvard doctoral student Cresa Pugh has devoted much of her academic career to understanding Myanmar’s complex, unstable social dynamics, and has personally witnessed the destruction and impacts of the recent violence in Rakhine, home of the Rohingya.

Extracts from a talk given by prominent Indian student activist Shehla Rashid Shora at Harvard last Fall, followed by the fascinating perspectives of three Harvard College freshmen, also from India.