The Mittal Institute Year in Review 2020-21 by The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University

THE LAKSHMI MITTAL AND FAMILY SOUTH ASIA INSTITUTE, HARVARD UNIVERSITY

YEAR IN REVIEW 2020-21

Cover Credit: Naiza Khan Henna Hands 2002 Henna pigment on the wall Site-specific project near the Cantonment Railway Station, Karachi (Image courtesy the artist and Rossi & Rossi, London | HK) Henna Hands was a site-specific project, located near the Cantt Railway Colony in Karachi. The mohalla* is home to a multi-religious community of Parsees, Muslims, Christians and Hindus. Over time, the residue of these life-size body imprints has been censored, erased and integrated with the political graffiti on the walls. The work was produced amidst intense urbanisation during the early 2000s which led to forced evictions and demolition across the city. This project attempts to reclaim public space through a gendered mediation and opens the city for direct artistic intervention. * neighbourhood www.naizakhan.com

Year in Review July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021

MITTAL INSTITUTE ADMINISTRATION Tarun Khanna, Director; Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School Meena Sonea Hewett, Executive Director

CAMBRIDGE

Timothy Leete, Intern (Communications

Sushma Mehta, Grant and Finance Manager

Chelsea Ferrell, Assistant Director

and Media)

Ira Pundeer, Communications Manager

Alex Gilliard, Communications Manager

Aeshna Prasad, Intern (Art and Architecture

Farhana Siddiqui, Staff Assistant

Tiara Bhatacharya, Program Manag-

Conferences)

Samyukta Singh, Program Coordinator

er, Crossroads Emerging Leaders Program

Sonali Dhingra, Intern (Art and Architecture)

Senya Afi Ghamli, Communications and

Nupur Gurjar, Intern (Public Health)

Mariam Chughtai, Pakistan Programs Director

Social Media Manager,  Crossroads Emerging

Malini Srikrishna, Intern (Crossroads

Pukar Malla, Nepal Programs Director

Leaders Program

Emerging Leaders Program )

Selmon Rafey, Program Coordinator

Divya Shetty, Intern (Crossroads Emerging

Sneha Shrestha, Arts Program Manager

Leaders Program  )

FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE TEAM

Megan Siwek, Staff Assistant

Shyamli Badgaiyan, Intern (Lancet Citizens’

Sarah Gordon, Director of Finance and

Yashada Wagle, Manager for Data Visu-

Commission)

Administration

alization, Crossroads Emerging Leaders

Phillip Combs, Intern (Communications)

Maryam Mirza Alivandi, Financial Associate

Program

Karen Christopher, Financial Associate

IN-REGION

Shubhangi Bhadada, Mittal Institute Fellow

India

Neha B. Joseph, Research Fellow

Sanjay Kumar, India Country Director Savitha Ananth, Program Manager, B4 Pooja Gupta, Communications Director, Lancet Citizens’ Commission

Kathryn Maldonis, Senior Financial Associate

Contents

Letter from the Director 08 Our Mission 10 2020-21 By the Numbers 11 2020-21 Highlights 12 Our COVID-19 Response 14

FACULTY Interfaculty Research The 1947 Partition of British India 18 Talent and Meritocracy in China and India 20 Faculty Grants and Other Research 21 Platforms The Lancet Citizens’ Commission: Reimagining Healthcare in India 22 Arts at the Mittal Institute 24 Building Bharat-Boston Biosciences (B4) Program 30 Multidisciplinary Approach to Innovative Social Enterprises 32 India Digital Health Network 38 Teaching Crossroads Emerging Leaders Program 40 Inter-faculty Teaching at Harvard 42

STUDENTS Research, Language, and Internship Grants 46 Seed for Change Competition 50

SCHOLARS Fellows, Artists, and Research Affiliates 56 Events and Seminars 64

MITTAL INSTITUTE GOVERNANCE Administration 74

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

Year in Review 2020-21

Letter from the Director

OVID 19 has affected, in one way or another, every person on this planet. The Mittal Institute experienced its effects in multiple ways. We sought to support faculty in their research and teaching, offered student grants for virtual learning opportunities, and forged new alliances with museums, health institutions, academia, and government institutions in South Asia. We re-optimized our operations, and leaned on the community to engage with us in a modified way. Everyone has truly risen to the occasion. Serving as the nexus for all the myriad forms of scholarship related to South Asia, the Mittal Institute’s Cambridge and in-region offices jointly disseminate information, aggregate research, and publications, and host public interest webinars on regional issues, including several that have global implications. Our New Delhi office presently serves as

the secretariat for The Lancet Citizens’ Commission to Reimagine India’s Health System (LCC). Vikram Patel (HMS) and I are two of the commission’s four co-chairs under the auspices of the world’s leading global health journal. LCC aspires to identify paths towards Universal Healthcare (UHC) in the resource-poor setting that is much of India. Perhaps the report will ultimately have lessons for analogous evolutions towards UHC in other developing countries. Of course, such exercises have been undertaken many times before in India, going back to the 1946 Bhore Commission, with inadequate results. We hope that our focus on the citizenry – incorporating views of the patients and the frontline healthcare providers – will distinguish our attempt. The pandemic has also had an indirect effect on other significant scholarship pursued by our colleagues. For example, how should laws regarding the welfare of animals be altered with the stark reminder of

societal vulnerability to zoonotic diseases? What engineering and economic solutions should accompany the discovery of vaccines in a way that makes them accessible in settings like those in South Asia? Of course, as in past years, myriad research streams are thriving – including but not limited to scholarship on climate change, urbanization, bio-design for low resource settings, and technology-facilitated education for densely populated areas. This past month, the Institute launched an exciting series of webinars on the science of conservation of tangible and intangible heritage in partnership with the Harvard Art Museums and the CSMVS Museum in Mumbai. Jinah Kim (FAS) and Narayan Khandekar (Straus Conservation Center, Harvard Art Museums), along with Anupam Sah (CSMVS), identified the topics for this year’s program. We are fortunate to be of service to our students through the Graduate Student Associates (GSA) Program. It brings to-

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

gether graduate students from across Harvard as a community of peers to share and receive feedback from each other on their research. The GSA program grew considerably in size during the pandemic year and continues to provide a window into new and exciting scholarship pursued across Harvard. For example, Hansong Li, a GSA from the government department, is working on Vedic and Sanskrit sources of social thought and how this interfaces with modern-day diplomacy. Our Seed for Change (SFC) competition selects innovative ideas that tackle intractable problems in Pakistan and India. It’s been incredibly inspiring to see these students deliver on the ideals of the SFC program during a pandemic year. For example, Faiz Ahmed (HBS ’21) was awarded the Pakistan SFC prize for Macro Pakistani, a new digital media platform to help educate and inform Pakistanis about the economy and markets.

Year in Review 2020-21

Looking ahead, we will build upon our longstanding presence in Pakistan and nurture several ongoing collaborations with scholars and institutions in Bangladesh and Nepal. Thanks to the generosity of our alumnus, Gobind Akoi, we have been able to expand our New Delhi office considerably. The office provides a physical location from which we hope to nurture the partnership ethos that is central to the operations of the Mittal Institute, in-region and in Cambridge. Our local presence – via that office and the one in Lahore – is central to walking the talk of giving something back to the benevolent societies from which we learn so much. On a personal note, it is with mixed feelings that I share the news that our executive director, Meena Hewett, will be leaving the Mittal Institute at the end of the summer to pursue new endeavors. Alongside all of us, she has worked tirelessly over the past eleven years to bring to fruition our community’s collective vision for a Univer-

sity-wide hub with a ‘feet-on-the-street’ presence in South Asia. No good idea seemed impossible to attain as far as she was concerned! She found ways to make things happen with grace and grit. She will be missed by all who had the opportunity to work with her. Today, thanks to the efforts of the team she’s led so ably, the Mittal Institute is a magnet for anyone to intellectually ‘plug and play’ with us. The Mittal Institute team and I invite you to continue to engage with us in ways that enrich our learning community dedicated to exploring the myriad facets of South Asian societies.

TARUN KHANNA Director, Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute; Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School

Our Mission The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University (The Mittal Institute) engages through interdisciplinary research to advance and deepen the understanding of critical issues relevant to South Asia and its relationship with the world. Founded in 2003 to further Harvard University’s engagement with South Asia, the Mittal Institute is a university-wide research institute at Harvard that engages faculty members, students, and in-region institutions through interdisciplinary programs to disseminate knowledge, build

capacity, inform policy, and engage with issues that are shaping South Asia today.

all people throughout the region and beyond.

With 2 billion people facing similar challenges throughout South Asia, there is a critical need for solutions and systems to support such a significant global population. The Mittal Institute programs and projects are working to actively address issues of equity, sustainability, and livability. Through research conducted by students and faculty, to partnerships with governments and organizations to seminars held on campus and across the world, the Mittal Institute is working to improve the lives of

Harvard University formally recognized the South Asia Initiative as an academic Institute in 2013, signaling the university’s longstanding commitment to the region and the beginning of an exciting new era for South Asian studies at Harvard. The Mittal Institute now serves as the premier center on regional studies, cross-disciplinary research, and innovative programming, pertaining to South Asia.

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

2020-21

By the Numbers 2 Conferences 19 Workshops 51 Seminars

201

Events

70+

Speakers/ Panelists

e re-optimized our operations, and leaned on the community to engage with us in a modified way. Everyone has truly risen to the occasion.

NEW DONOR(S) Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Chairman and CEO of One97 Communications

— TARUN KHANNA

13 25

$81,500

in Faculty Research Grants

NEW FELLOWS

200,186 Sends

WEBSITE

Total Grants awarded

YOUTUBE

144k

62,600

Unique Users from 197

Views

countries in past 30 days

* Year in Review 2020-21

2020-21 Student Grant Recipients

$64,000 *

RESEARCH AFFILIATES

NEWSLETTER

TWITTER

Increase in Impressions

62%

Includes summer grant recipients from the preceding academic year

2020-21

Highlights July 2020 - December 2020 DECEMBER The Lancet Citizens’ Commission on Reimagining India’s Health System was launched, convening a group of nearly 20 commissioners from academia, the scientific community, civil society, and private healthcare to lay out the path toward universal access to healthcare in India. Page 22

OCTOBER Thirteen new Visiting Artist Fellows, including photographers, painters, and sculptors, were welcomed from Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and India to virtually participate in a series of four masterclasses with faculty and prominent curators. Page 26

SEPTEMBER The “Extreme Urbanism in Afghanistan” seminar series delved into the history of architecture in Afghanistan and the challenges of rebuilding, reconstructing, and upgrading infrastructure in an extreme environment. Page 66

NOVEMBER A new gift from Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Chairman and CEO of One97 Communications, was announced, which will fund two or more visiting scholars each year from India to Harvard. The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

January 2021 - June 2021 JANUARY Under the Program for Conservation of Culture, which aims to promote a climate for cultural conservation in South Asia by bringing the global values of conservation practices in conversation with local needs, two panel discussions were held to discuss recent scientific developments and their impact on art conservation in South Asia. Page 24

MARCH The “Bangladesh at 50: Looking Back, Looking Forward” conference convened more than 20 experts from the US and Bangladesh to discuss the nation’s political, economic, and human development for the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh’s independence. Page 66

FEBRUARY The 2018 Seed for Change Competition winning team, Umbulizer, met with the competition’s founders to discuss how the initial funding for their portable ventilator has helped them save lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. Page 50

Year in Review 2020-21

The Mittal Institute officially inaugurated its new India headquarters in the legendary Connaught Place in New Delhi.

APRIL The Crossroads Emerging Leaders Program received over 15,000 expressions of interest from first-in-family college students across 135 countries. A virtual program for the 100 finalists will be held in July 2021. Page 40 April marked the successful culmination of two long-standing partnerships in India – a 5+ year partnership with the Tata Trusts on social entrepreneurship projects, and a 6-year partnership with the Government of India, IBAB, and IISER Pune on the B4 program that engaged scientists from India and Harvard through exchange programs. Page 30-37

Our COVID-19 Response Faculty The Lancet Citizens’ Commission on Reimagining India’s Health System. An ambitious, cross-sectoral endeavor that aims to lay out a citizens’ roadmap to achieving universal health coverage for the people of India was launched in December. Professor Vikram Patel, Co-Chair of the Commission, emphasized the potential of the Commission’s impact in current times:

“The pandemic offers a historic opportunity to realize the country’s aspirations to achieve universal health coverage.”

their administrative approaches to tackle similar situations in the future. Collaborative Effort Launched to Counter Misinformation with Science-based Guidelines for Covid-19 Treatment. Professors Satchit Balsari and Vikram Patel join a partnership of community-based organizations, frontline clinicians, and leading scientists from India, and the Indian diaspora to develop a community of practice committed to advancing evidence-based COVID-19 care,

Rethinking the Museum Experience During and Post-COVID-19. Martha Tedeschi, Naman Ahuja, and Professor J inah Kim discussed how art institutions can remain nimble enough to respond to uncertainties such as COVID-19 by adapting

contextualized to rural India. The partnership, the Swasth Community Science Alliance (CSA), will provide a suite of timely clinical resources for use in rural and urban settings, all vetted for scientific accuracy. The COVID Chronicles – Podcast by Satchit Balsari. In February 2021, a special mini-series podcast recapped the societal response to COVID-19 in India. Over the course of this six-part series that counted down to the one-year mark of the nationwide lockdown in India, the podcast’s host, Professor Satchit Balsari spoke with experts across industries about the pandemic’s impact. Each episode provides a narrative exploration of issues key to India’s response to the pandemic and the challenges that lie ahead. Expert guests included Mushfiq Mobarak, Enakshi Ganguly, Manoj Mohanan, Sanjay Mehendale, Anup Malani, and Anu Acharya.

Events and Seminars October 2020

November 2020

COVID and Telemedicine: Experience

The Impact of COVID-19 on Mental

A Class Apart: COVID-19 Seropreva-

from China, India, and the U.S.

Health in China, India, and the United

lence in India

Hongqiao Fu; Ajay Nair; Atveev Mehro-

States

Satchit Balsari; Manoj Mohanan; Rich-

tra; Winnie Chi-Man Yip (Moderator)

Xiao Shuiyuan; Yifeng Xu; Vikram Pa-

ard Cash (Moderator)

tel; Karestan Koenen; Winnie Yip; Arthur Kleinman (Moderator)

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

Students and Scholars A fundraiser led by South Asian students at Harvard in support of India’s fight against Covid-19. The fundraiser is a partnership with GiveIndia, and raised more than US $160,000 in its first week. Advancing COVID-19 Education and Fighting Misinformation in India. Seed for Change Exploratory Grant program, recipients Sahana Bail and Kanishk Mittal set out to create a preventive COVID-19 health education program in India. Pakistan’s Primary School-Aged Children’s Learning Experiences During COVID-19. Cultural anthropologist and Mittal Institute Research Affiliate A bdul Razaque Channa conducted ethnographic research on the impact that COVID-19 has had on primary school-aged children in Pakistan’s Sindh Province. Preliminary findings from his research suggest that

COVID-19 has gravely de-contextualized the school experience of children and fur-

ther strengthened existing class and gender norms.

May 2021

June 2021

Africa-Asia Roundtable – Pandemics:

The COVID-19 Crisis in India: What is

The COVID-19 Crisis in India: Voices

Surveillance, Preparedness, and Re-

the Way Forward?

from the Frontline

sponse

Gagandeep Kang; Peter Piot; Gautam

Mirai Chatterjee; Ajay Nair; Sunita Rani;

Menon; K. Sujatha Rao;

Priyadarsh Vijay Ture;

Sarah Jacob (Moderator)

Sreenivasan Jain (Moderator)

Panel

discussions

explored

questions

around vaccine development, technology transfer, capacity building, and global cooperation strategies.

Year in Review 2020-21

Faculty

CLOCKWISE Satchit Balsari with the IDHN team, Jinah Kim, Tarun Khanna with Crossroads students, Vikram Patel, Jacqueline Bhabha, Martha Chen, Vikram Patel, Muhammad Zaman with Satchit Balsari, Conor Walsh, Venkatesh Murthy, and Sheila Jasanoff, Jennifer Leaning

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

The Mittal Institute supports faculty-led multidisciplinary research projects and programs in the disciplines of arts and humanities, social sciences, and sciences.

CLOCKWISE Kristen Stilt, Ajantha Subramaniam with Alf Nilsen, Roluahpuia with Sugata Bose, Rahul Mehrotra, Year in Review 2020-21

Asim Khwaja, Homi Bhabha

INTERFACULTY RESEARCH

The 1947 Partition of British India A research project that seeks to develop a rich and empirically grounded understanding of the 1947 Partition of British India by exploring its demographic and humanitarian consequences. / Project Leads JENNIFER LEANING SHUBHANGI BHADADA / Research Team ORNOB ALAM DIANE ATHAIDE TIARA BHATACHARYA UMA CHAKRAVARTI MARIAM CHUGHTAI MEENA HEWETT ZEHRA JUMABHOY NADHRA S.N. KHAN TARUN KHANNA SANJAY KUMAR KARIM R. LAKHANI RAHUL MEHROTRA RIMPLE MEHTA ALI RAZA OMAR RAHMAN FRANZISKA ROY NAVSHARAN SINGH RUIHAN WANG RITA YUSUF

he Mittal Institute’s 1947 Partition of British India research project explores the many unanswered questions that surround the demographic and humanitarian consequences related to the Partition. Under the direction of Jennifer Leaning, Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the project has grown under the Mittal Institute’s aegis to become a truly interdisciplinary project that aims to deepen the understanding of the mass displacement that occurred in 1947, and the consequences of the event that endure to this day. In September 2020, the Partition team held an online event, “Rediscovering Partition from New Perspectives,” to explore the impact of the 1947 Partition that still ripples throughout South Asia. Our knowledge of this historic event is constantly being reevaluated by academics and researchers, who have continued to illuminate the details of what occurred. Together, Jennifer Leaning (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health), Ian Talbot (University of Southampton), and Yaqoob Bangash (In-

formation Technology University, Lahore) explored how new research efforts help us understand the full depth of the history and legacy of Partition. COLLECTING NARRATIVES AND CROWDSOURCING MEMORIES Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School and Karim R. Lakhani, Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School spearheaded the collection and analysis of more than 2300 oral narratives from survivors of Partition across the three impacted countries, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. The narratives were collected with a focus on underrepresented voices, such as women, Muslims in India, Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan and Bangladesh, Parsis, Dalits, and Christians by using a modified form of crowdsourcing with the help of volunteer ambassadors. The narratives are being analyzed using a variety of methods, including quantitative techniques, sentiment analysis, and topic modeling.

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

Partition was a cataclysmic event that was visited upon the people of South Asia as the British withdrew from the Indian subcontinent. More than seven decades later, the trauma continues to shape the lives of hundreds of millions of people of the region.

— EXPANDING SCHOLARSHIP The Partition team continues its work on an edited volume with the goal of publishing it as a book by the end of 2021. The edited volume titled “Humanitarian Consequences of the Partition of British India: An Interdisciplinary Collection of Essays” has been submitted for review to a number of publishing houses, and the team is currently awaiting feedback from the reviewers. The book currently has 11 chapters written by 21 authors throughout India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. These Year in Review 2020-21

chapters are divided into three overarching sections: Migration and Relief in the 1947 Partition of British India; Memories of Partition; and Cities, Art, and Architecture. Contributors include Uma Chakravarti and Navsharan Singh (India); Nadhra Khan and Yaqoob Bangash (Pakistan); Ornob Alam, Omar Rahman, and Rita Yusuf (Bangladesh); Zehra Jumabhoy (United Kingdom); Rahul Mehrotra, Tarun Khanna, Karim R. Lakhani, and Jennifer Leaning, (United States). In July 2020, the Crowdsourcing Memories team presented a paper, “Crowdsourcing

TARUN KHANNA

Long-Run Memories of Involuntary Migratory Displacement: A Mixed Methods Analysis of the 1947 Partition of British India” at the AIB (Academy of International Business) 2020 Miami Conference. The paper was nominated for the Temple/AIB Best Paper Award. The team’s paper, “Crowdsourcing Memories: Mixed Methods Research by Cultural Insiders– Epistemological Outsiders,” was published online in October 2019 and will appear in print in the Academy of Management Perspectives Journal, Vol. 35(2) in May 2021.

INTERFACULTY RESEARCH

Talent and Meritocracy in China and India An investigation into talent allocation in Chinese and Indian societies, uncovering how meritocracy is conceptualized, has changed over time, and has impacted the processes of education and talent promotion in these countries.

eginning in 2015, the Talent and Meritocracy in China and India Project has worked to build a better understanding of merit and talent systems in China and India, and the roles that power and influence play in these two nations. The goal of the project is to produce a volume of essays written by scholars from China, India, and the United States, from Harvard University and additional peer universities. The manuscript has been accepted by the Oxford University Press (OUP) and is currently undergoing the final steps toward becoming a published volume. Co-directed by Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School and Director of the Mittal Institute, and Michael Szonyi, Professor of Chinese History and Director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, this project takes an in-depth look at the approaches of both China and India in recognizing, nurturing, and allocating talent in-country. Project participants seek a better understanding of the limitations individuals in these na-

tions face when restricted by historical class systems that leave many without effective education and opportunities for promotion. The impetus behind the project was the sense of the dual meanings of meritocracy as a social, educational, and occupational system in which all people have the opportunity to develop themselves to their full potential, in terms of both their education and professional development. Leaders are selected on the basis of their capacity to rule, and their performance is assessed by some form of the systematic evaluation system,” said Professor Szonyi. “There are fundamental issues which affect not just India, China, or the United States, but the whole world. There is tremendous experience in thinking about meritocracy in India and China, experience in operationalizing and figuring out how to actualise meritocratic systems and deal with the problems of those systems in the two societies,” he continued. Through the development of the edited volume, the project team seeks to raise awareness of the subject matter and con-

tinue the conversation to inspire change. Essay contributors include Varun Aggarwal (Aspiring Minds), Shyam Babu (Center for Policy Research), Daniel A. Bell (Shandong University), Vincent Chua (National University of Singapore), Ashwini Deshpande (Ashoka University), Sumit Guha (The University of Texas at Austin), Zachary M. Howlett (Yale-NUS College), Devesh Kapur (Johns Hopkins University), William C. Kirby (Harvard University), James Lee (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), Chen Liang (Nanjing University), Randall Morck (University of Alberta), Chandrabhan Prasad (George Mason University), Michael Puett (Harvard University), Bamboo Ren (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), Sudev Sheth (University of Pennsylvania), Ajantha Subramanian (Harvard University), Michael A. Szonyi (Harvard University), Ashutosh Varshney (Brown University), Bernard Yeung (National University of Singapore Business School), and Lawrence LC Zhang (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology).

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

INTERFACULTY RESEARCH

Faculty Grants and Other Research Each year, the Mittal Institute supports faculty research projects with grants to fund scholars from a variety of fields, disciplines, and regions whose research relates to South Asia. 2020-21 FACULTY RESEARCH GRANTS

Richard Cash India’s East Punjab and Pakistan’s West Punjab: Decoding Health Differences Nell Shapiro Hawley Many Mahābhāratas

Vikram Patel The Lancet Citizens’ Commission: Reimagining Healthcare in India

Aisha Yousafazai Quality of Relationships between Health Professionals with Children and their Caregivers in a Paediatric Oncology Population in Pakistan: A Qualitative Study

Doris Sommer; Yugank Goyal Pre-Texts for Rural India

2019-20 GRANT SPOTLIGHT “Can you hear me now?”: Experimental evidence on improving public service delivery through non-electoral citizen participation

Reshmaan Hussam Training Teachers to Deliver Quality Education: Helping Children Find Home in the Rohingya Camp Asim Khwaja The Big Push for the Rural Economy: Experimental evidence on improving economic growth for farming communities in rural Pakistan Jinah Kim A book and the Goddess: the Devīmāhātmya and the Indic art of the book

Venkatesh Murthy SciEnSpur: Building a better society through STEM education

Year in Review 2020-21

Gautam Nair Business, Democracy, and Distributive Politics in India

Asim Khwaja, Sumitomo-FASID Professor of International Finance and Development at Harvard Kennedy School, and Tiffany Simon, PhD student in comparative politics at Princeton University, have been awarded a Mittal Institute faculty

grant to carry out research on the gaps in learning outcomes between government and private schools in Pakistan. “In Pakistan, learning outcomes in government schools have continued to lag behind those in private schools. The COVID-19 pandemic has further jeopardized the delivery of public education and learning for millions of children as the government juggles multiple urgent policy priorities,” said Khwaja. Their research delves into how citizens can hold policy actors accountable for the quality of public service delivery through non-electoral participation. The team used remote methods during the Summer and Fall of 2020 to conduct in-depth phone surveys with about 50 respondents to design, test, and fine-tune their survey instruments, while developing tactics for reaching rural respondents. The team discovered that 96% of the rural parents surveyed noted that their top priority for their children is their education, yet most parents were not aware of existing venues to contact the school department or policy actors to request improvements to schools.

PLATFORM

The Lancet Citizens’ Commission: Reimagining Healthcare in India A consultative and participatory engagement with diverse sectors involved in healthcare and citizenry to lay out the path to achieving universal health coverage for the people of India. / Co-Chairs TARUN KHANNA VIKRAM PATEL KIRAN MAZUMDAR-SHAW GAGANDEEP KANG / Commissioners YAMINI AIYAR VIJAY CHANDRU MIRAI CHATTERJEE SAPNA DESAI ARMIDA FERNANDEZ ATUL GUPTA NACHIKET MOR ARNAB MUKHERJI POONAM MUTTREJA THELMA NARAYAN BHUSHAN PATWARDHAN SUJATHA RAO SRINATH REDDY SHARAD SHARMA DEVI SHETTY S.V. SUBRAMANIAN LEILA E. CALEB VARKEY

he Lancet Citizens’ Commission on reimagining Healthcare in India was launched in December 2020 with the aim of laying out the path to achieving universal health coverage for the people of India. Its guiding principle is that such a path can only be defined and attained through consultative and participatory engagement with the diverse sectors involved in healthcare and, most importantly, with India’s citizenry. The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound impacts on India’s people, leading to a myriad of healthcare challenges, a looming economic recession, and humanitarian crises. It has highlighted structural weaknesses in the health system, which, despite improvements across some health indicators, remains characterized by a disproportionately high disease burden, widespread risk factors, and deep inequities in access. A ROADMAP TO BETTER HEALTHCARE The Lancet Citizens’ Commission seeks to develop a roadmap to achieving universal health coverage in India in the coming

decade. This is underpinned by a normative commitment to strengthening India’s public health system in all its dimensions, including promotive, preventive, and curative care. The project will base its recommendations on a consultative and participatory effort that brings together key stakeholders across India’s healthcare landscape. To this end, it has brought together experts from academia, the scientific community, civil society, and the private healthcare industry, with a strong representation of women. INCORPORATING NEW VOICES The Lancet Citizens’ Commission will now seek to go beyond the traditional boundaries of expertise to actively engage stakeholders whose voices have rarely been heard in previous reports: those who deliver healthcare and those who receive it. Thus, the Commission will invite and elicit the opinions of a wide cross-section of healthcare providers and citizens from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. “The intent of the project is to create a

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

To realize a resilient health system where access to healthcare is not a luxury and where the marginalized remain elusive, all stakeholders, including the citizenry, need to work alongside the government and deliberate on solutions for effective implementation of the universal health coverage.

— ‘Citizen’s Commission’ through an active consultation with various groups that will provide perspectives on what kind of healthcare they want and how it should be delivered,” said Vikram Patel, Co-Chair of the Lancet Citizens’ Commission and the Pershing Square Professor of Global Health at Harvard Medical School. The Lancet Citizens’ Commission aims to publish its report by August 2022, when India will have completed its 75th year as an independent nation. The Mittal Institute’s India office is serving as the Secretariat for the project. Year in Review 2020-21

Co-chairs of the Lancet Citizen’s Commission include Tarun Khanna (Harvard University), Vikram Patel (Harvard University), Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (Biocon Ltd.), and Gagandeep Kang (Christian Medical College). Commissioners include Yamini Aiyar (Centre for Policy Research), Vijay Chandru (Indian Institute of Science), Mirai Chatterjee (Self-Employed Women’s Association), Sapna Desai (Population Council), Armida Fernandez (Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical Hospital and College, SNEHA), Atul Gupta (Universi-

GAGANDEEP KANG

ty of Pennsylvania), Nachiket Mor (The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health), Arnab Mukherji (IIM Bangalore), Poonam Muttreja (Population Foundation of India), Thelma Narayan (SOCHARA), Bhushan Patwardhan (Savitribai Phule Pune University), Sujatha Rao (formerly, Government of India), Srinath Reddy (Public Health Foundation of India), Sharad Sharma (ISPIRT Foundation), Devi Shetty (Narayana Hrudayalaya Limited), S.V. Subramanian (Harvard University), and Leila E. Caleb Varkey (Centre for Catalyzing Change).

PLATFORM

Arts at the Mittal Institute Partnering with arts fellows, faculty, and in-region institutions, the Mittal Institute supports artistic commentary on South Asia’s issues, while working to inform the preservation of the region’s art and cultural sites. / Program for Conservation of Culture JINAH KIM MEENA HEWETT NARAYAN KHANDEKAR ANUPAM SAH / Visiting Artist Fellowship JINAH KIM / Visiting Artist Fellows JAVARIA AHMAD RICHI BHATIA ISHITA CHAKRABORTY SUDIPTA DAS PROMOTESH DAS PULAK BUNU DHUNGANA AMMARA JABBAR PRAGATI DALVI JAIN SUNANDA KHAJURIA INSHA MANZOOR NAJMUN NAHAR KEYA MAHEEN NIAZI PATTABI RAMAN

he Mittal Institute continues its dedication to the scholarship and preservation of South Asian art, sculpture, and architecture through research and training on conservation and collections management, the Visiting Artist Fellowship, an arts fund program, and numerous arts-related events.

PROGRAM FOR C ONSERVATION OF CULTURE The Mittal Institute has partnered with the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) Museum in Mumbai, and the Harvard Art Museums’ Straus Conservation Center to support scholarly pursuits in art and site collection and conservation management. Led by Jinah Kim, George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asia Art at Harvard University, Anupam Sah, Head of Conservation at CSMVS Museum, Narayan Khandekar, Director of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, and Meena Hewett, Executive Director of the Mittal Institute, the Program for Conservation of Culture ad-

dresses the lack of manpower and knowledge transfer in South Asia’s cultural conservation. The program will advance the awareness of cultural heritage, organize resources related to conservation practices in South Asia by facilitating network-building with leading conservation experts, and advocate for knowledge-sharing between the arts and sciences. In December 2020, the Mittal Institute held two virtual workshops on “Art and Science of Heritage Conservation: Finding the Right Balance,” in partnership with the CSMVS Museum. The workshops focused on recent scientific developments and their impact on the field of art conservation. It also delved into the current understanding of materials and techniques in the conservation of antiquities. Panelists from across Harvard, Europe, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka set the stage on how to develop and carry out a leading art conservation science program in South Asia. The next part of the program has been the launch of a workshop on Conservation Science, Training, and Research (CoSTAR) in April 2021. With more than

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

There is an entire ecosystem of professionals that needs to be developed for holistic heritage conservation. The trained art conservator is just one of the key players. This is a time to make training more rigorous, at par with other professions... The association of conservators in India needs to be revitalized.

— 150 participants and 20 speakers representing over 50 cultural and scientific institutions, the CoSTAR program hopes to build a ‘Knowledge Commons’: a virtual platform to bring together museums and cultural and academic institutions to collaborate and share best practices that constitute a viable ecosystem for museums and the scientific study of the cultural heritage of the region. The first module, which took place from April-June 2021, shared global expertise with individuals and art and cultural institutions that are deeply involved in the conYear in Review 2020-21

servation of India’s vast heritage. The program provided multidisciplinary training in the strategic engagement of leaders and managers of art and cultural institutions on various aspects of conservation science and research. Beginning with an introduction to South Asia’s historic works and a range of artifacts in the subcontinent from Afghanistan to Myanmar, sessions examined both technical art history and the science of conservation. Subsequent sessions covered conservation approaches that incorporated other disciplines, including chem-

ANUPAM SAH

istry, microbiology, science, art history, and the social sciences. Other sessions explored the use of plastics, preventative conservation, and exploration of environmental, economic, social, and cultural factors that may impact the care of art objects; indigenous methods of management and specific case studies would elucidate the topics explored. Over the 13 sessions and one public lecture on data management for museums by Getty Conservation Institute, experts paved the way for participants to conceptualize new knowledge to their areas of conservation work and form a community of like-minded professionals.

VISITING ARTIST FELLOWSHIP Under faculty director Jinah Kim, the Mittal Institute selects four artists from South Asia each year to visit Cambridge as Visiting Artist Fellows. During their fel-

lowship, the artists deepen their artistic explorations of South Asia through the use of Harvard’s museums, libraries, and archives. Due to the challenges presented by COVID, the Mittal Institute offered its 2020–2021 Visiting Artist Fellowship

CLOCKWISE Sudipta Das, “An Idea of a Borderless World,” 2016, Richi Bhatia, “Hamlet without the Prince,” 2016, Sunanda Khajuria, “Blue Box,” 2020, Insha Manzoor, “Trapped not Defeated,” not dated

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

virtually, inviting thirteen artists from Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and India to attend a series of four online virtual seminars curated for them to support the artists’ long-term practice, exploring subjects such as art history, creative writing, urban design, and more. The thirteen artists attended virtual seminars with Siddhartha Shah, Curator of

South Asian Art, Peabody Essex Museum, on ‘Navigating the Global Art Market: Challenges and Best Practices for Artists’; Jinah Kim on ‘Women in South Asian Art: a historical perspective’; Nora Schultz, Assistant Professor of Art, Film, and Visual Studies at Harvard University, on ‘Studio Language’; and Asim Waqif, an artist based in New Delhi, on ‘Decentralizing the Creative Process.’

BELOW, left to right Javaria Ahmad, “You are more than a Story…,” 2016, Bunu Dhungana, “Confrontations,” not dated, Pragati Dalvi Jain, “Navneet (From the series: I am more than a reflection of my mother),” 2020

It has always been challenging to put my work across in an influential and authentic way. To narrow down my own expression in simple yet specific words so that the audience understands my feelings and statements better always becomes a struggle. Siddharth’s session inspired me to get more precise, have meticulous use of words while narrating the story, emphasis on the newness, and on an unrepeated connotation related to work, or an unrepeated voice of my own. It also directed me to pay equal attention to the viewers’ interests, their background including cultural, historical and geographical grasp while indulging in the work.

—

Year in Review 2020-21

PRAGATI DALVI JAIN

BUILDING SCHOLARSHIP ON SOUTH ASIAN ART & ARCHITECTURE Each year, the Mittal Institute provides funding for Harvard students to study South Asian art and to travel to various countries to further their work. Due to COVID travel restrictions, many students performed their research on a virtual basis. This year, Nuri Bhuiyan, Harvard College ‘22, created a film about her grandmother, who lives in Chittagong, Bangladesh. “My Bengali culture is a big part of my identity, I’ve engaged with it in a multiplicity of ways. This time, I’d like to explore it through a multi-generational film about my Bangladeshi family and the immigrant experience,” Nuri said. Divya Saraf, MDS ‘21, performed an investigation into the development of the East India Company’s “Company Painting” style. “This style was used as a tool to construct and perpetuate an Indian identity and served as a visual taxonomy of the Indian subcontinent, because it construct-

ed an anglicized Indian identity within the artworks and presented an Indian identity through a colonial lens,” said Saraf. Vaishnavi Patil, PhD student in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University, created a timeline of South Asian history, exploring the dynasties, rulers, and key events of the region to create a comprehensive chronology from the dawn of the Indus Valley civilization, until 1947 CE. The Mittal Institute hosted and co-sponsored several events related to arts and heritage in South Asia, including “Khusrau’s River of Love: Cosmopolitanism and Inclusion in South Asian Traditions” in October 2020, which featured performances by Ali Sethi, musician and writer, and Himanshu Bajpai, Dastango, journalist, and writer, in an event moderated by Ali Asani, Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University. In partnership with the Frances Loeb Library, the Mittal Institute held a book talk

with Rahul Mehrotra, John T. Dunlop Professor in Housing and Urbanization at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, featuring his new book, “Working in Mumbai.” The book is a critical reflection on thirty years of the practice of RMA Architects, and during the event, Mehrotra wove a narrative to connect his multiple engagements in architectural practice, including teaching, researching, documenting, writing, and exhibiting since the establishment of his practice in 1990. Collaborating with the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Mittal Institute presented “Arts of South Asia at the MFA: Through and Beyond Binary Thinking” in November 2020, inviting Laura Weinstein, the Ananda Coomaraswamy Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art at the MFA, to present a new publication from the museum that explores its South Asian collection, while examining and critiquing binaries based in Western Enlightenment thought that have historically been applied to art from India and its neighbors.

ANNOUNCING TWO NEW PROGRAMS The inaugural Harvard Biennial Conference on Art and Architecture in South Asia conference will focus on contemporary production of the built environment in South Asia. Themes will include: model of practice and making of architecture as well as conservation of the built environment - but with a focus on the public realm. The event will be preceded by a lecture series on broader themes such as emergent urbanisms which will set the context for discussions at the conference. It builds on a 2015 conference about the modes of engagement and models of practice of architecture in contemporary South Asia. The Distinguished Artist Program (DAP) is designed to bring forth critical issues relevant to South Asia through the lens of art and design. Each year, a nominating committee composed of Harvard faculty and contemporary South Asian art experts will nominate a senior visual artist from South Asia who will be invited to Harvard’s campus. The artist will have the opportunity to spend a week or two engaging with Harvard faculty, students, and the Mittal Institute’s broader community, and will share their work through a public lecture. These programs are supported by Dipti Mathur, Chair of the Mittal Institute’s Arts Council, through the Mathur Family Fund.

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

Pragati Dalvi Jain, Myself lying on the footpath, local street, Bengaluru (From the series “Parallel World”), 2020

Year in Review 2020-21

PLATFORM

Building Bharat-Boston Biosciences (B4) Program Now concluding its second and final phase, the B4 Program educates and inspires young Indian scientists through fellowships, workshops, and seminars as they pursue research and careers in fields related to the biosciences. / B4 Committee VENKATESH MURTHY SANJEEV GALANDE H. SUBRAMANYA RUPESH CHATURVEDI RAJESH GOKHALE GAITI HASAN PRAVEEN VERMA SAVITHA ANANTH / B4 Fellows AJAY SHANKAR LABADE KRITIKA GUPTA MADHUMATHI KALIDOSS PREMANANDA KARIDAS SUDIPTA TUNG The B4 Program is funded by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. It is administered by the Mittal Institute in collaboration with the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB), Bengaluru and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune.

he Building Bharat-Boston Biosciences (B4) Program is the second iteration of the earlier Boston-Bangalore Biosciences Beginnings Program. Funded by the Department of Biotechnology within the Government of India, the Mittal Institute collaborates with IBAB, Bengaluru and IISER, Pune to connect institutions in India and Boston and create a platform for them to promote research and build new knowledge in the biosciences. BUILDING SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE Under the leadership of faculty director Venkatesh Murthy, Raymond Leo Erikson Life Sciences Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University, the B4 Fellowship program offers five Science and Technology Fellowships for 18 months in the fields related to biosciences at Harvard and other institutions in the Boston area. In August 2019, the Mittal Institute welcomed its last cohort of five fellows from India to Cambridge to work in labs with faculty mentors, who continued their terms through March 2021.

The 2019-21 B4 Fellows and their specializations included: Ajay Shankar Labade (Genome Biology), mentored by Jason Buenrostro, Assistant Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology); Kritika Gupta (Molecular Genetics and Protein Biophysics), mentored by Philippe Cluzel, Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology; Madhumathi Kalidoss (Biomaterials), mentored by Muhammad Zaman, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University; Premananda Karidas (Plant Developmental Biology), mentored by Elena Kramer, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology; and Sudipta Tung (Experimental Evolution and Population Dynamics), mentored by Michael Desai, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and of Physics. CUTTING-EDGE SCIENCE The program organizes two annual “Young Scientist” workshops in India on topics related to biosciences to promote interdisciplinary learning and introduce talented Indian students to the emerging fields in life sciences. The workshops comprise several lectures given by eminent ex-

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

Kritika Gupta

During my fellowship, I hope to apply my past knowledge and gain fruitful exposure to the world of science. In this respect, Boston has a vast academic culture that will allow sharing of scientific experiences and will strengthen my research capabilities through exposure to challenging tasks.

— perts and incorporate hands-on lessons to provide students with practical knowledge on how to apply these lessons to future endeavors. The first workshop of the year convened students from Indian universities and institutions to receive training over the course of seven days from experts on “Big Data in Life Sciences and Healthcare,” considering how advancements in high-throughput genomics, medical diagnostics, and more have generated massive amounts of data — and how this poses a huge challenge to life Year in Review 2020-21

science researchers to handle such large datasets, analyze and interpret them. In March 2021, the program held a two-session online webinar to mark the conclusion of its final phase. Professor Vekatesh Murthy, Raymond Leo Erikson Life Sciences Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University, conducted a webinar, “Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence: An Ongoing Dialogue,” on the role of neuroscience in advancing applications of artificial intelligence (AI, specifically machine learning and vision).

KRITIKA GUPTA

The second group was led by a panel consisting of past fellows and mentors who discussed their experiences with the program and was titled “The B4 Program: A Template for Future US-India, Public-Private Partnerships.” For the students in the webinar, the fellows discussed tips on how to write a proposal for a postdoctoral program, the importance of interdisciplinary studies in life sciences and the scope for improvement in the current B4 program template regarding future partnerships and scientific collaborations.

PLATFORM

Multidisciplinary Approach to Innovative Social Enterprises A multi-year program that brings together a wide range of local collaborators and supports the development of social entrepreneurship projects that positively impact social, economic, and environmental issues in India. / 3T (Task-Shifting, Technology, and Training) SATCHIT BALSARI / Project Prakash PAWAN SINHA / Mapping Color in History JINAH KIM / Soft Robotics Toolkit CONOR WALSH / Designing a Sanitation Hub RAHUL MEHROTRA / Fuel-efficient Cookstoves; Defluoridation of Water ASHOK GADGIL / Project Empower VIKRAM PATEL This program is funded by the Tata Trusts.

his year brings a close to a fiveyear partnership between the Mittal Institute and the Tata Trusts, one of the largest and oldest philanthropic foundations in India, on the program, “Multidisciplinary Approaches to Innovative Social Enterprises Program.” During this program, the Mittal Institute provided a platform approach to connect Problem Identifiers, Experts, and Entrepreneurs, facilitating their collaboration on innovative social enterprises across sectors to address India’s most pressing challenges. Through its key projects that translated research into practice and policy, the Institute worked toward creating and improving rural livelihoods, STEM education in Indian schools, technology infusions in healthcare, capacity building in art conservation, and urban sanitation infrastructure. 3T (Task-Shifting, Technology, and Training) Through a vast network of public and private partners in India, Project 3T works on multiple nodes to develop local capacity to build and sustain health data exchange. Led by Professor Satchit Balsari, the proj-

ect has provided the evidence base for policymakers to design their own framework in a way that respects the rights of individuals and uses the most advanced technology to implement these plans. In its final year of the grant, the team provided technical guidance for incorporation of the telemedicine options and Vaccine Record Management into the Bahmni EHR (an easy-to-use EMR and hospital system for low-resource settings). Recognizing the need for community-based vulnerability mapping during the pandemic, the team provided technical guidance for a household-based survey targeting 20,000 persons across 7000 households in 35 villages. In addition to creating a baselined record of health conditions in the community, the survey allowed ascertainment of the prevalence of disability in the locality, to design and provide rehabilitation services. In July 2020, the project provided COVID-19 home-monitoring services at St. John’s Research Institute. If patients were admitted, they continued to be assisted by the monitoring team to ensure continuity of care, and liaison with spe-

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

Project Prakash has provided us some fundamental insights on the basic science front. It has given us clinically relevant hypotheses about conditions like Autism. It is also helping us in the design of Artificial Intelligence systems. It’s serving as the model of an alternative paradigm that can bring together basic scientific research and societal service, and of course it has helped in a modest way alleviate some of the challenges of childhood blindness in the country.

cialists including endocrinologists, nutritionists, and physiotherapists. Since March 2021, this telemedicine solution has been institutionalized as the main platform for tele-consultations at St. John’s Medical College Hospital and is used by clinicians from more than 10 specialties. Project Prakash Project Prakash, launched in 2005 by ProYear in Review 2020-21

fessor Pawan Sinha, Professor of Vision and Computational Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, makes sophisticated eye treatment available in low-resource environments and builds awareness around preventable blindness. Composed of primary healthcare workers, optometrists, and ophthalmologists, the Project’s grassroots outreach team travels to rural remote areas to

—

PAWAN SINHA

promote local awareness of treatable and reversible blindness – usually from childhood cataracts – while also conducting screening camps to identify children who can benefit from corrective surgery. While providing pediatric care, medical professionals collect data which is later collated and used to illuminate questions about brain plasticity and learning. This

research helps researchers to better understand human development of brain function, which in turn, may improve future treatments for patients. In November 2019, the project achieved a milestone when it set up its first two Prakash Vision Centers (PVCs) in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. The permanence of these established centers allowed the Prakash team to identify candidates for treatment on a continuous basis and served the local community, providing an additional medical resource and promoting best practices for eye health for thousands of local people. During COVID-19 and throughout 202021, the team conducted household eye screening surveys to identify common eye problems and generate awareness of eye health. The team also carried out needs assessments and built networks with local governments, frontline health workers, NGOs, and local health departments to facilitate collection, validation, and sharing of eye health data. Mapping Color in History Mapping Color in History [MCH] is an international collaborative project seeking to develop a digital platform containing historical and scientific information on pigments in South Asian and Himalayan

paintings. During this program, the project team, led by Professor Jinah Kim, developed templates and digital tools to help conservators in India appropriately document and chart data from pigment analyses conducted on local paintings. Through a collaboration with the conservation lab at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), the team collected and analysed pigment data from historically important paintings in the CSMVS collection. This data will be added to the MCH database and will provide additional baseline data points for understanding historical pigment use in India. The project team conducted interviews and consultations with senior conservators to identify issues and advantages in the existing state of research and practice of conservation in India. The learnings from these interviews have been crucial in formulating protocol for pursuing research-based conservation projects by institutions or independent researchers and teams. A key outcome was the development of a mobile conservation lab contain-

“Razmnama,” Mughal, 1598 CE, folio 17x 27 cm, painting: 14.4 x 24.4 cm, CSMVS museum (Annotation by MCH team)

ing equipment to conduct basic scientific analysis of pigments, that will be deployed for use by conservators in under-resourced museums in India. The project has yielded substantial data, including reporting formats and templates, and protocols, that

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

A lot of robotics education kits today do a great job focussing on programming, but there hasn’t been as much exploration in terms of creating kits that will help people in making and manufacturing and help them understand different types of materials, so that’s where we focussed on. The kit that we developed allows students to use different types of soft materials and create from scratch their own soft robot system. In addition to that, we have also really had a focus on making these accessible to as many people as possible. And so we’ve tried to focus on keeping these kits simple, and making them as low-cost and affordable as possible through the materials and designs that we’ve used.

— will be shared locally across India, helping build capacity of local conservation specialists in designing better conservation treatment plans. Soft Robotics Toolkit Developed at Harvard Biodesign Lab, the Soft Robotics Toolkit is an initiative to provide hands-on skills and practical Year in Review 2020-21

knowledge about robotics for students and educators and generate students’ interest in and confidence related to engineering. Using physical kits that include raw materials and instructions, the project enables students to practice design thinking while creating their own soft robots. The team at Harvard Biodesign Lab is led

CONOR WALSH

by Professor Conor Walsh, Paul A. Maeder Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Harvard University. Over the course of this project, they have refined the prototype iteratively based on student and educator feedback from pilot tests conducted across India. Through testing, the team discovered the need for an open-ended segment of the curriculum and hardware

Sanitation

Health

Retail

Social

Drawings for a proposed Sanitation Hub at Ramgad Chawl, Mahim, Mumbai

that would enable the students to move forward and apply the knowledge gained from working on this kit in their own creative way. This led to the development of an exploration module which included an advanced curriculum that integrates the five-stage design process (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test). In 2021, the project piloted its final prototype in a series of virtual 6-week workshops. These involved 60 students in six schools located in New Delhi, Pune (Maharashtra), and Gaya (Bihar). These workshops were led by school educators who had been virtually trained by the Toolkit team during a professional development workshop. Designing a Sanitation Hub Led by Professor Rahul Mehrotra, this project reimagines sanitation infrastructure in under-serviced areas in India with the goal of changing a system of community toilets into sanitation “hubs” with multi-functional infrastructural elements that cater to a wide range of community needs.

Over this past year, the team identified two settlements that are geographically and demographically distinct to use as sites to develop the idea of a “Sanitation Hub”: Virochannagar in Gujarat and Ramgarh Chawl in Greater Mumbai. At both of these sites, the team studied the community’s current sanitation needs and explored ideas for a sanitation hub as an infrastructural facility that has a greater chance of being fully embedded in a community. For instance, inclusion of spaces for retail and health clinics offer economic opportunity for operating and maintaining the hub. The structure of the sanitation hub was defined by a basic formwork of easily available materials and simple assembly system and advocates the use of local material and technology to cater to the larger context of the settlement. A flexible structure that can be expanded, re-adapted and completely dismantled depending on the changing needs of the community leaves the hub open for evolving along with the transitioning of the settlement.

Fuel-efficient Cookstoves Providing a clean and fuel-efficient alternative to the traditional Indian stoves that use fuelwood, this project worked toward adapting the “Cool Mesh Berkeley-India Stove (CMBIS)” to meet the user preferences of Indian rural households. Led by Professor Ashok Gadgil, Andrew and Virginia Rudd Family Foundation Chair Professor of Safe Water and Sanitation at the University of California, Berkeley, the project piloted CMBIS prototypes in three villages in Maharashtra. The team conducted focus group discussions with participants to gather feedback on the stove design, one-on-one interviews were conducted to better understand reasons for usage, and sensors that log temperature-related data were attached to the cookstoves to understand patterns and timing of cookstove use. In the past few months, the project collected the sensors from the cookstoves in the villages of Khardi and Karjat where the stoves were piloted. This data was up-

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

Till today we thought mental means “mad” only and mental health as “crowd of mental people”. But we are fortunate enough to learn the actual meaning of it. Thus, we can help people especially friends and family who are suffering from mental health problems.

—

SEWA Rural Staff Member during a training workshop held under Project Empower

loaded and analysed to establish trends of the stove usage by households. Through various iterations, incorporating feedback from qualitative research, the project was able to create a prototype of a stove that is suitable for use in rural India and facilitates large-scale fuelwood savings. Project Empower The aim of Project Empower is to develop a digital platform that can be used in primary care rural settings in India to train frontline community health workers in methods to identify and treat common mental health disorders using psychological therapies. The project’s evidence-based program, ESSENCE, has already been evaluated using Year in Review 2020-21

randomized controlled trials in India and Nepal. In October 2020, the project team, led by Professor Vikram Patel in partnership with Sangath, Bhopal, conducted a pre-contextualization assessment of existing ESSENCE modules in Gujarat. Selected staff from Society for Education welfare and Action - Rural (SEWA Rural) completed the ESSENCE training and provided feedback on its quality. In order to contextualize the existing training modules for use by the Gujarat government’s health system, the team translated the content from Hindi into Gujarati. They also added new content and features to make the

platform more engaging and easily accessible on smartphones, particularly for those regions with low connectivity. The project also adapted its program modules for use in the TeCHO app (State of Gujarat Health App). Defluoridation of Water, a project led by Professor Ashok Gadgil, and focused on the development of affordable technology, through the use of bauxite ore, to remove excess fluoride in drinking water for rural communities in India, was terminated prematurely due to restrictions on fieldwork imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

PLATFORM

India Digital Health Network A research and policy collaborative focused on the development of a patient-centric, provider-friendly, API-enabled health data exchange ecosystem to increase ease, access, and quality of healthcare services in India. SATCHIT BALSARI BARBARA E. BIERER CAROLINE BUCKEE MERCÈ CROSAS LEO ANTHONY CELI ALON DAGAN URS GASSER ADRIAN GROPPER JOHN HALAMKA TARUN KHANNA JENNIFER LEANING KENNETH MANDL KENNETH PAIK ABHISHEK BHATIA NISHANT KISHORE KIRAN ANANDAMPILLAI ABHIJIT GUPTA RAHUL MATTHAN SUNITA NADHAMUNI TONY RAJ ANGSHUMAN SARKAR VIVEK SINGH NITA TYAGI GAJANAN VELHAL ABIJEET WAGHMARE

he India Digital Health Network (IDHN), led by Professor Satchit Balsari, Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is a research and policy collaborative working towards the development of an application programming interface (API)-enabled health exchange ecosystem, which will increase the ease, access, and quality of healthcare services in India. More traditional digital health care models include expensive, proprietary health information silos and monolithic, homogeneous electronic medical records (EMRs) with centralized repositories. Such models inherently carry security and usability concerns, untimely data transfer, and high physician burnout. IDHN proposes a federated and patient-centric API–enabled health exchange ecosystem that will alleviate such concerns.

team’s proposal for an API-enabled health exchange ecosystem has been adopted and implemented by the NITI Aayog in its approach paper for the National Health Stack, and then by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India (GoI), in its National Digital Health Blueprint. Key contributions include a) the inclusion of the term “machine-readable” while mandating the portability of personal health data, setting the stage for health data interoperability in India; b) the concept of the personal health record, as opposed to a hospital-based electronic medical record, being the organizing core of India’s digital health ecosystem; and c) inclusion of Regulatory Sandboxes in the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) which are controlled testing environments within which existing regulations may be temporarily relaxed to allow experimentation for novel technologies.

SHAPING THE POLICY LANDSCAPE

PROTOTYPING DIGITAL HEALTH INNOVATIONS

The program seeks to generate policy insights to shape the design of India’s digital health information architecture. The

The IDHN team is also working towards facilitating the operationalization of this proposed digital health ecosystem. Imple-

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

Public health screening tools replicate the analog world, generating endless pages of radio-buttons for community health workers to click through, with reams of data generated that do not necessarily see the light of day. Lack of standardization, interoperability and mandate have generated vast streams of siloed data across vertical programs in the Global South.

— SATCHIT BALSARI mentation-focused activities have been organized under two workstreams. The first workstream is aimed at developing the infrastructure required to integrate and test task-shifting and technology combinations in primary care. In partnership with the St. John’s Research Institute in Bengaluru, the team evaluated open source mhealth tools and mapped what the exchange of clinical data from two independent systems (Bahmni and CommCare platforms) would entail, in order to examine integration with other point-ofcare devices and apps. This was followed by the digitization of protocols for the Year in Review 2020-21

GoI’s Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) screening program to make them more machine-readable. During the past year, the team also collaborated with a consortium of technology partners to develop scalable digital health tools and prototypes for health data exchange. Key partners have included healthIT platforms like the NCD platform, AMRIT, and imTECHO; technology partners and entrepreneurs like iSPIRT, Dell EMC, and Social Alpha; as well as primary care centers in India. The goal of the second workstream has been to prepare the regulatory and oper-

ational infrastructure required to rapidly iterate and systematically test digital solutions prior to widespread deployment. The team is currently developing Digital Health Innovation (DHI) hubs at ten newly designated Health and Wellness Clinics in Karnataka to serve as labs for rapid iteration of new digital technologies, in a real-world environment. The first tool to be evaluated and optimized will be the GoI’s NCD Screening and Management tool. Over the next three years, the team is hoping to expand these DHI hubs into the private sector to facilitate widespread development of digital health solutions.

TEACHING

Crossroads Emerging Leaders Program A unique, fully-funded career development opportunity for ambitious youth around the world who have overcome financial barriers to higher education and are the first in their families to attend college. / Program Directors TARUN KHANNA KARIM R. LAKHANI / 2021 Virtual Program Faculty CONOR WALSH DORIS SOMMER DANIEL HEWETT FRANCESCA DOMINICI TSEDAL NEELEY HISE GIBSON JP ONNELA ASIM KHWAJA DAVID WILKINS AMITABH CHANDRA HANSPETER PFISTER JENNIFER LEANING SUE GOLDIE

ow in its fourth year, the Crossroads Emerging Leaders Program continues to rapidly scale upwards, offering its participants a unique, life-changing opportunity. Spearheaded by Professors Tarun Khanna and Karim R. Lakhani, the pro bono program provides a fully funded career development opportunity for students around the world who face difficult financial and social circumstances and are the first members of their families to attend university. The goal of the program is to identify and nurture hidden talent around the world to build cohorts of next-generation leaders. By providing an array of educational resources, direct connections to Harvard faculty, mentorship opportunities, and affinity networks, CELP supports young people around the world in reimagining their academic and professional futures, fostering success through locally-grown, aspirational narratives. “I’ve always wanted to do more than what my school in Brazil offered me. CELP allowed me to get in touch with other young

mindsets who also wanted to lead this change in their own communities,” said Linda Fraga, CELP 2020 alumnus from Brazil. Galin Dechoian, CELP 2018 alumnus from Syria, emphasized the transformative potential of the program “After CELP, I ended up working for the US Department of State and the United Nations Headquarters in New York. This program created a number of professional and social opportunities for me to grow,” she said. A RAPIDLY GROWING PLATFORM This year, the program received 15,000 expressions of interest from 135 countries spanning the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Asia, and North America. Through partnerships with the Brazil-based Lemann foundation and the U.S.based United Negro College Fund (UNCF), Crossroads expanded its presence in the Americas significantly this year. 3664 qualifying applicants participated in virtual, interdisciplinary HarvardX courses during the first round of the application process, earning fully-funded certificates. Students selected from courses such as

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

CELP challenges your perspective. Coming from a science background, I had the opportunity to learn more about other disciplines such as history, economics, and literature, which has translated into how I approach my community projects.

— SIDRA (CELP PAKISTAN ALUMNUS) Strengthening Community Health Worker Programs, Digital Humanities, and Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies. Reflecting on her experience, Doris from Guayaquil, Ecuador shared that “through the HarvardX platform, I got a chance to learn something new, beyond my major.” This year, the Crossroads Program focused on generating “extended learning” opportunities for qualifying applicants. CELP alumni organize into vibrant networks of geographic and academic affinities to build community. 150 selected Crossroads finalists and alumni will be eligible for a variety of internship and mentorship opportunities. In July, 100 finalists will virtually participate in an intensive finalist program with a global, case-study-based curriculum. Year in Review 2020-21

CROSSROADS VIRTUAL PROGRAM “The premise of the Crossroads program is that talent is distributed evenly across the world, but unfortunately, money and resources are not. The program operates in two steps: the first is to identify the leaders of tomorrow, and the next step is to enable them. So we want to identify brilliant students from around the world who do not have access to the necessary resources,” said Tiara Bhatacharya, Crossroads Program Manager. Through late spring and summer, the 2021 Crossroads Virtual Program will feature 13 insightful seminars given by senior Harvard faculty across a range of disciplines.

Each session exposes students to new academic and cultural concepts as they engage with their peers and faculty members. For example, Professor Doris Sommer will explore the role of the humanities in peace-making processes; Professor Asim Khwaja will delve into inequality in education; Professor Hise Gibson will lead students through a session on systems thinking and leadership. Other sessions include introductions to Python programming and data visualization, and seminars on ‘Disrupting Technologies: Augmenting Human Performance,’ ‘Double Vision: A Toolkit for Creative Innovators,’ ‘Climate Change & Public Health,’ ‘War in our times: Armed conflict, armed actors, and the clash of norms.’

TEACHING

Inter-faculty Teaching at Harvard The Mittal Institute supports the creation of curricula that explores solutions to complex challenges in the developing world, providing interdisciplinary courses taught by Harvard faculty to students and the virtual global community. / GenEd 1011 Faculty TARUN KHANNA SATCHIT BALSARI

RAHUL MEHROTRA

GENED 1011 COURSE: CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: ENTREPRENEURIAL SOLUTIONS TO INTRACTABLE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS

KRZYSZTOF GAJOS DORIS SOMMER

Now in its tenth year, this unique and innovative course was open to all undergraduate and graduate students across Harvard. The course provides an interdisciplinary framework and multiple lenses through which to think about the economic and social problems that affect five billion people in the developing world. Taught by multiple Harvard faculty members across schools, case study discussions cover challenges and potential solutions in fields as diverse as health, education, technology, urban planning, arts, and the humanities. Starting with an introductory module taught by Professor Tarun Khanna that reviews salient approaches to development and the roles that entrepreneurs can play within these, the course is co-taught by Professors Satchit Balsari, Krzysztof Gajos, Rahul Mehrotra, and Doris Summer. Students are introduced to cases across the developing world, with a particular focus on Africa, China, Latin America,

and South Asia. Throughout the course, students work in teams to design entrepreneurial solutions that address one of the many problems identified, thinking about complex issues from perspectives and disciplines different from their own. INTERDISCIPLINARY PEDAGOGY WORKSHOP Faculty members who teach the course have been asking the following questions over the years: What makes this course interdisciplinary? How interdisciplinary should an ‘interdisciplinary’ course be? To delve deeper into these questions and more, the Mittal Institute along with the faculty teaching the Contemporary Developing Countries course, organized a remote two-part workshop to explore aspects of interdisciplinary pedagogy, made possible with generous grant funding from the Harvard University Asia Center. Held on November 6 and November 13, 2020, 17 faculty and staff members from Harvard and other universities gathered to take part in this virtual workshop. Led by course faculty, over the two days, the group exchanged ideas and grappled with ques-

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

This is a really cool class, especially if you have a lot of interest in a specific developing area of the world/specific project in mind you would want to work on. The group project is incredible if you’re working on an issue you’re passionate about, so start about thinking the final project early.

— tions of reflection, framing, transparency, challenges for students and comfort zones, course structure and discourse. Insights from the workshop have allowed faculty to enhance their courses in terms of teaching styles, structure and course design.

EDX COURSE: ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN EMERGING ECONOMIES In a virtual business and management course on edX taught by Professor Tarun Khanna, over 480,000 participants have Year in Review 2020-21

enrolled from around the world to explore how entrepreneurship and innovation can tackle complex social problems in emerging economies. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the course delves into the prior attempts to address these issues across emerging markets, and students identify points of opportunity for entrepreneurial efforts and propose and develop their own creative solutions. The goal of the course is to make students aware of their own individual agency, exploring what they themselves can do to address a seemingly intractable problem.

GENED 1011 STUDENT

Throughout the course, students investigate financing, scaling up of operations, branding, management of property rights, and how to create the appropriate metrics to assess progress and social value of their entrepreneurial endeavors. From issues of healthcare and online commerce to fintech and infrastructure, students examine the diverse geographic regions of Africa, China, Latin America, and South Asia to better understand the entrepreneurial opportunities in these emerging markets.

Students

ABOVE, left to right Rohingya Camps, Image courtesy of Nadyeli Quiroz and John Wagner Image courtesy of Divya Saraf, From the project “The Colonial Gaze Embalmed: An Investigation of Company Paintings and Cultural Institutions.”

LEFT Image courtesy of Eduardo Pelaez, From the project “Learning from Slumscapes”

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

RIGHT Rohingya Camps, Image courtesy of Nadyeli Quiroz and John Wagner

BELOW Living Form installation on Harvard Yard, Image courtesy of Nadyeli Quiroz and John Wagner

The Mittal Institute supports Harvard undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students in their South Asia-related research and internships, entrepreneurial projects, and on-campus student group activities.

Year in Review 2020-21

STUDENTS

Research, Language, and Internship Grants The Mittal Institute supports the work of undergraduate and graduate students focused on deepening their academic engagement with issues facing South Asia through our grants. Student grant awards were made possible by generous contributions from Mukesh Prasad, Syed Babar Ali, and the Mittal Institute Arts Council.

STUDENT GRANTS

HSPH Global Health Research Internship (South Asia Region)

The Mittal Institute provides funding to students for their pursuit of research, language studies, or internships focused on South Asia during the winter and summer recesses. Summer 2020 Grants Aniket De PhD Candidate in Philosophy United States of India: Federalist Politics and Anticolonialism in South Asia (South Asia Region) Divya Saraf Master of Design, 2021 The Colonial Gaze Embalmed: An Investigation of Company Paintings and Cultural Institutions (India) Kalpana Mohanty PhD Candidate in Philosophy Hindi Language Study (India) Neena Kapoor Master of Science, 2021

Nosher Ali Khan Harvard College, 2023 Research on the socio-political effect of music and poetic arts in Hunza (Pakistan) Victoria Andrews PhD Candidate in Philosophy Sanskrit Language Study at SASLI (India) Winter 2020 Grants Alexis Brown PhD Candidate in Philosophy Sinhala Language Study (Sri Lanka) Bennett Comerford PhD Candidate in Theology Bangla Language Intensive Readings and Research (Bangladesh) Emma Lewis Master in Design Studies, 2021 Buddhist Nuns and Biodiversity: Ladakh Nuns Association Digital Sustainability Project (Ladakh)

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

Jonathan Mendonca Master of Education, 2022 An Analysis of School Leadership from the Grassroots (India) Louis Copplestone PhD Candidate in Philosophy Bengali Language Study (India, Bangladesh) Nidhi Patel Harvard College, 2022 Internship with Ankuri (India) Nuri Bhuiyan Harvard College, 2022 Nanu: A Film on the Life of an Elderly Matriarch in Chittagong (Bangladesh) Peter Dziedzic PhD Candidate in Philosophy Kashmiri Language Study (Kashmir) Radha Blinderman PhD Candidate in Philosophy Rivalry and Innovation in Sectarian Grammars (India) Shaharyar Zia PhD Candidate in Philosophy Mughal Persian Language Study (South Asia Region) Shaheen Madraswala Master in Public Administration, 2021 Reforming India’s Election Finance System (India) Sudarshana Chanda PhD Candidate in Philosophy Love, Labor, and Legacy: Chinese and Indian Migrants in British Malaya, 18901960 (India) Vaishnavi Patil PhD Candidate in Philosophy A Timeline of South Asian History: DyYear in Review 2020-21

nasties, Rulers, and Key Events (South Asia Region) Varun Gupta Master in Public Administration, 2021 Causes and Consequences of Premature Deindustrialization in India (India) Summer 2021 Grants Aakrity Madhan Master in Design Studies, 2022 Designing out waste: An investigation of circularity metrics in building design (India) Aniket De PhD Candidate in Philosophy United States of India: Federalist Politics and Anticolonialism in South Asia (South Asia Region) CJ Passarella Harvard College, 2023 American Institute of Indian Studies Summer Language Program in Sanskrit (India)

Lee Ling Ting PhD Candidate in Philosophy Sanskrit Training in Philosophy of Language in Medieval India Focusing on Gangesha’s Tattvacintamani (India) Nosher Ali Khan Harvard College, 2023 Creating a digital library for Burushaski literature (Pakistan) Nusrat Jahan Mim PhD Candidate in Design Religious Festival and Urban Informalities: A study on Makeshift Cattle Markets in Dhaka (Bangladesh) Sana Naeem PhD Candidate in Philosophy Pashto Language Study (Pakistan) Swati Puri PhD Candidate in Philosophy (un)Common App: International college admissions and elite formation in urban India (India)

Elizabeth Henschel PhD Candidate in Philosophy Measuring Nurturing Care: A Pathway to Healthy Child Development and Protection (Pakistan)

Victoria Andrews PhD Candidate in Philosophy Hindi Language Study at SASLI (India)

Han Choi Master of Science, 2022 Voices of the Wilderness (Pakistan)

The Mittal Institute offers grants to student organizations to support student events that have an academic focus, as well as social events, such as concerts, mixers, and holiday celebrations. Select student organizations and events funded and partnered with in 2020–21 include the Harvard Graduate Conference on International History Gender and Empire: Virtual Workshop Series; Harvard Undergraduate South Asian Americans in Public Service; and Harvard Graduate School of Design Alumni Council Design Impact Speaker Series.

Kanishka Elupula PhD Candidate in Philosophy The Dalit Middle Class: How caste, class, and market-centric discourses interact to shape it (India) Keira Yan Master of Divinity, 2022 Advanced Colloquial Tibetan Language Training (Tibet, China)

STUDENT ORGANIZATION GRANTS

Scenes from a jam session with artists and producers, Image courtesy of Nosher Ali Khan

2020-21 GRANT SPOTLIGHT Khimor-e-maraka: Exploring Bazmi Music in Hunza Written by Nosher Ali Khan, Harvard College ’23 Hunza is a valley located amongst the mighty mountains of the Karakoram in Pakistan. Amidst its rich history, ancient shamanistic traditions, and recent Islamic influence, poetry and music have always been an essential part of Hunzukutz’s (people of Hunza) identity. As a Hunzukutz myself, I was always aware of and fascinated by the enormous influence our music has in our daily life and how it shapes our identity. To document the local music and enhance my understanding of the subject, I worked with the Mittal Institute to create a web-series of local folk music.

Initially, my idea was to interview musicians, poets, and experts and present their thoughts in a form of a documentary to introduce people to Hunza’s folk music. I spent a month engaging with various artists and trying to understand the elements that constituted Hunza’s folk music. Though, as I began interacting with the artists and listening to their music, I could not help but pivot my project to film the music and share it with the world. To assist me with the project, I formed a team that was enthusiastic about the idea and brought technical expertise to the table. Looking for experts to help me, I came across Saad Ata Barcha, a folk music expert, Sohail Rumi, a music producer, and Asif Tajikee, a filmmaker. These young producers understood our vision of capturing the performance. We would regu-

larly converse with local artists to get their perspective on the project. At one of these gatherings, a highly respected and senior musician said, “Hunza’s [folk] music is not just heard, it’s an experience that is felt.” These words redefined how we were going to approach the project. We understood that we had to not only capture the music, but also the ambiance of the performance. Hunza’s folk music is unique in the sense that the performers merely initiate a performance. Within a few seconds into a performance, the distinction between the audience and performers fades away, and everyone equally participates in the show. This form is colloquially known as bazm. These bazms have played a significant historic role as resistance poetry to the monarchy system in Hunza, and contemporarily as revolutionary anthems in

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

light of the lack of political representation in the region. In the last few years, bazm has emerged as the most popular music form in Hunza, owing to its energetic and passionate nature. To capture the entire set, we decided to experiment with a few music production techniques that would enable us not only to record the music, but the atmosphere during the performance as well. For our lineup of artists, we approached the pioneer of contemporary bazms in Hunza: Azeem Hunzai. Azeem has played a crucial role in keeping the traditional poetry and music of Hunza alive in the bazmi style. Alongside him were the young and extremely talented musicians of Leif Larsen Music Center (LLMC), a music school created to conserve and foster the folk music of Hunza. After a few rehearsals, we Year in Review 2020-21

shot our entire web-series in a single maraka (gathering). Currently, we are in the post-production phase and will, hopefully, release the music by early October. To make our music accessible to a wider audience we are planning to add subtitles in English and Urdu and accompany the music with brief interviews about the poetry. The impact of our project is already visible, weeks before its release. We have been approached by multiple musicians in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral, who have expressed interest in working with us. The long-term goal of this project is to create a sustainable web-series that will capture the folk music of Northern Pakistan in its truest essence. My experience documenting, understanding, and engaging with folk music in Hun-

za this summer has been a highlight of my Harvard experience. Personally, the project has been a tremendous opportunity for me to connect with my culture and musical traditions. This experience introduced me to numerous amazingly talented artists and producers in Hunza and helped me broaden my horizons about music and its impact on the community. Most importantly, it allowed me to reconnect with my cultural roots through music and helped me develop better insight into my own identity. I would like to thank the local artists, our production team, and the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute for enabling me to have such an experience and giving me the opportunity to share my community’s music with the wider world.

STUDENTS

Seed for Change Competition An annual student competition to develop new entrepreneurial projects for India and Pakistan that aim to positively impact social, economic, and environmental issues. The Seed for Change competition is made possible by a generous grant from KP Balaraj MBA ’97 and Sumir Chadha MBA ‘97.

hrough the Seed for Change (SFC) Program, the Mittal Institute fosters and supports the development of a healthy, vibrant ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship in both India and Pakistan. Each year, the Mittal Institute holds this competition to identify and reward interdisciplinary student projects that positively impact social, economic, and environmental issues in India and Pakistan. To bring new, substantive ventures and ideas to the region, the program prioritizes projects that are in the early stages of development, rather than start-ups that have already received financial support. Through this program, numerous entrepreneurial ventures have sprouted in Pakistan and India and continue to positively impact the lives of those who reside there. The program has helped to build an enriching experience that provides our students with opportunities to receive mentorship from prestigious Harvard faculty, interact with esteemed entrepreneurs from South Asia, and the funding to make their projects a reality on the ground in South Asia.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, operations at the Mittal Institute and Harvard University as a whole were deeply impacted, sparking significant changes to the Seed for Change Program. As such, in 2020 the Mittal Institute altered the Seed for Change Competition into a one-time Exploratory Grant program to support students who are interested in developing their projects on a virtual basis. Applications were welcomed from those who wanted to refine an idea or a product design, connect with in-region partners and organizations, consider growth and sustainability plans to further their knowledge about the region, and more. In 2020, eleven applicants were selected to receive funding, with seven projects focused on India, and four focused on Pakistan.

PROJECTS IN INDIA COVID-19 Misinformation Project Sahana Bail, Harvard College ‘20; Kanishk Mittal, Harvard College ‘20 This COVID-19 health education program seeks to educate schoolchildren and fami-

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

Milan Global Application, Images courtesy of Malini Srikrishna and Will Dey, From the project ‘Communitize: Skill Development Platform’

lies about measures to prevent COVID-19. The team will operate in the rural villages surrounding Chakai, Bihar, to spread information about the benefits of proper mask wearing and hand hygiene, myths regarding COVID, and early recognition of symptoms. Since receiving the grant, the team has begun a COVID-19 education initiative in local learning centers. Approximately 104 students have received 3 of the team’s 5 modules on how to keep themselves, their families, and their communities safe. Communitize: Skill Development Platform Malini Srikrishna, HDS ‘21; Will Dey, Harvard College ‘23 While there is a great demand for and a huge supply of talent in India, they are unable to pair up due to institutional voids. To bridge this skill gap, the Communitize team has built a model of apprenticeships for students and professionals. Since lockdown, 45 apprenticeships have taken place Year in Review 2020-21

in fields of technology, education, and marketing. Since receiving the grant, the team completed 55 additional apprenticeships. They have also created an app called “Milan Global” to house and expand this community. Narrowing Information Gaps Across India’s Higher Education System Aman Panjwani, Harvard College ‘20 This project will examine higher education systems within developing contexts to learn how institutions differentiate themselves and why students choose to attend particular institutions over others. Since receiving the grant, Panjwani surveyed approximately 5,000 Indian students and conducted 30 focus groups with 90 individuals to better understand the higher education landscape in India. Next, Panjwani will refine and implement features for a platform that will disseminate information about the higher education system.

Earth Warriors: Early Childhood Education to Promote Sustainability Keya Lamba, GSE ‘20; Shweta Bahri, GSE ‘20 Over 600 million people in India are at risk from climate change, with some states witnessing extreme drought or excessive flooding. Earth Warriors is an early childhood education curriculum that equips young children (5–8 years) in India with the knowledge and tools they need to become sustainable and climate positive change-makers. The team aims to have a prototype curriculum in five schools by April 2021. Since receiving the grant, the team established Earth Warriors as a fulltime start-up and have written their first book, The ABCs of Earth Warriors. They began an 8-week pilot with 20 parents in January 2021 to test select lessons for the at-home program.

GAMI: Global Alliance for Medical Innovation Sreekar Mantena, Harvard College ‘22; Jay Chandra, Harvard College ‘22; Andrew Zhang, Harvard College ‘22; Annie Miall, Harvard College ‘22 Though eye diseases are common in under-resourced regions around the world, it is in these communities where access to trained clinicians and equipment is the scarcest. The Global Alliance for Medical Innovation (GAMI) team is developing a novel smartphone-based platform that allows point-of-care diagnosis of common eye disorders. The team plans to pilot test this platform at partner institutions throughout India through June 2021 and will finalize the prototype by the end of 2021. Sahayak Ambika Malhotra, GSD ‘20; Aeshna Prasad, GSD ‘20 A major challenge in India is to transform unemployed and unskilled people into industry-ready workers. Sahayak is a digital platform that geo-spatially maps industrial needs in an area where individuals are looking for work. A physical network of vocational training centers will provide these workers with the necessary skills through the help of locally invested stakeholders such as industries, NGOs, and banks. Building State Capability and Community Leadership in Meghalaya Prateek Mittal, HKS ‘20; Rebecca Trupin, HKS ‘20 Meghalaya faces a number of development challenges, including high levels of poverty, poor health outcomes, and impending environmental and economic crises. This team is working with state leadership to pilot and scale an initiative that mobilizes local stakeholders to solve locally-nominated problems through iterative problem diagnosis, ideation, and experimentation.

PROJECTS IN PAKISTAN KamyabiTest: Assessment App Isabel Macdonald, EXT ‘21 To tailor instruction to their students, teachers need reliable and easy-to-implement tests to understand where students are at in their learning. Unfortunately, the testing culture in South Asia primarily consists of end-of-year exams to rank students and determine grade advancement. KamyabiTest addresses this assessment gap via an app that will provide teachers with a library of monthly quizzes to identify how each student is progressing. The next stage is to develop a Minimum Viable Product for the testing technology with a developer from the CERP Labs team. Since receiving the grant, Macdonald hired a developer to build the app, which now includes diagnostic tests, a grading tool, learning gaps analysis, peer groups, and lesson plans. Education and Art Podcast Geena Saleh, GSE ‘20 In response to the completion of the first stage of Pakistan’s Single National Curriculum (SNC), Saleh is launching the Education and Art in Pakistan podcast to spotlight the inherent issues present within a non-student-centered educational reform. The series will host 6 dialogues on Pakistan’s education sector, with the SNC as a backdrop for each hour-long episode. Student groups representing minorities will be invited to share their concerns regarding the SNC. Saleh performed initial conversations with artists in January 2021 and is working on producing the first podcast episode, and exploring Instagram and other mediums to reach the Pakistani population.

Macro Pakistani Faiz Ahmed, HBS ‘20 Macro Pakistani is a data driven research platform that aims to provide a basic understanding of Pakistan’s economy. The project helps its audience make sense of news and political rhetoric by sharing a simple understanding of macroeconomics and breaking down economic data on Pakistan into digestible pieces. The long-term goal of Macro Pakistani is to democratize relevant information for the masses. Since receiving the grant, Ahmed has expanded Macro Pakistani’s content by building up a social media marketing team, developing a new website, and expanding the platform by welcoming external contributors to share new ideas weekly. Naqsha Nigar: Redefining Lahore’s Cultural Heritage Asmer Asrar Safi, Harvard College ‘23; Hamid Nawaz, Harvard College ‘23; Hajra Malik, Harvard College ‘23; Ramsha Bilal, Harvard College ‘23 While vast resources have been used to renovate the architectural heritage of Lahore, the unavailability of tourism services, guides, and plans renders several of these sites inaccessible. The team is developing an app-based tourism service that maps such locations. It contains preset and customizable models for tours with contacts, profiles, and working hours for local tour guides, famous eateries, and markets. Data collection will gauge which sites generate the most interest to inform government agencies on further development. Since receiving the grant, the team has continued to develop their app after engaging in discussions with local tour guides, visiting the heritage sites, and meeting with the Department of Archaeology. They aim to launch the app in March 2021.

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

KamyabiTest Application, Images courtesy of Isabel Macdonald, From the project ‘KamyabiTest: Assessment App’ Year in Review 2020-21

Scholars

CLOCKWISE Elena Kramer with Philippe Cluzel, Venkatesh Murthy, and Madhumathi Kalidoss, Bunu Dhungana, “Confrontations,” Sunanda Khajuria, “The Cold Mountain,” 2014, Naiza Khan, Map-under-construction, 2019, Pragati Dalvi Jain, “Gatha (From the series: I am more than a reflection of my mother),” 2020 Mahbub Jokhio with Krupa Makhija, and Sneha Shrestha

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

The Mittal Institute serves as an active platform for connecting faculty and students from across Harvard and other U.S. academic institutions with scholars, public and private organizations, and governments in South Asia.

CLOCKWISE Maheen Niazi, “The Hollow Levitation,” Yaqoob Bangash, Premananda Karidas, Nirupama Rao, Sudipta Das, “Land of Exile,” 2019, Mittal Institute’s Raghunathan Family Fellows with Sribala Subramanian, Arvind Raghunathan, and Tarun Khanna

Year in Review 2020-21

SCHOLARS

Fellows, Artists, and ResearchAffiliates The Mittal Institute offers fellowships to scholars and practitioners from South Asia to utilize the university’s resources to contribute to self-driven, independent research within a variety of disciplines. SYED BABAR ALI AND RAGHUNATHAN FAMILY FELLOWSHIPS The Syed Babar Ali Fellowship supports advanced degree-holders and recent PhD recipients in their continued research in areas related to Pakistan. The Raghunathan Family Fellowship supports recent PhD recipients in the humanities and social sciences with their research on historical or contemporary South Asia. Due to travel restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, fellows selected under these programs in the 2020-21 cycle will begin their fellowships at Harvard in the following academic year.

VISITING ARTIST FELLOWSHIP Each year, the Visiting Artist Fellowship welcomes mid-career artists from South Asia to Harvard’s campus to engage with Harvard faculty and students, to participate in art exhibitions, and to perform research using Harvard’s intellectual resources to further their art practice.

ing and puns, often layered, pervade her work.

JAVARIA AHMAD Pakistan Mixed Media Through her multidisciplinary art practice using ceramics as a major medium of her work, Javaria Ahmad explores the ambivalent relation of everyday utilitarian objects and practices with memories of constricted domesticity and womanhood in a patriarchal society. Storytell-

RICHI BHATIA India Photography Richi Bhatia’s work traverses from extreme intuitive practices to prolonged processes. She creates an assemblage of metaphoric materials using fish scales, hair, and found laboratory equipment, to name a

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

few, wherein they partially find root in an autobiographical context.

explores poignant narratives through the unconventional use of paper. Her practice focuses on the idea of bearing witness and the importance of intimate socio-political issues, the realities of climate change, and human migration. BUNU DHUNGANA Nepal Photography

ISHITA CHAKRABORTY India Mixed Media Ishita Chakraborty’s practice reveals through inkless drawings, installations, poetry, video, and sound the traces of migration, the traumas of colonialism, and language and identity.

SUDIPTA DAS India Installation Sudipta Das is a mixed media visual artist who

Year in Review 2020-21

PROMOTESH DAS PULAK Bangladesh Installation Promotesh Das Pulak was trained as a painter. The use of diverse material has played a pivotal role in his artistic practice, simultaneously permeating through media such as sculpture, video, image manipulation, photography, and installation. He is fascinated with the aesthetics of violence and its combination with the beauty that reflects the visibility of socio-political unrest

Bunu Dhungana uses photography as a medium to explore and question the world around her. While her personal projects center around gender, she has worked in a wide range of forms — from visual ethnography and NGO/INGO work, to commercial and journalistic work. Dhungana believes that visual stories can reach out to people, engage them, and start conversations.

AMMARA JABBAR Pakistan Sound Installation Ammara Jabbar is a multidisciplinary artist from Karachi, Pakistan. Her work explores the domestic and performative as a means to investigate notions of gender and public space in the city, imagining new radical futures of belonging for all groups.

PRAGATI JAIN India Photography and Video Pragati Jain’s work draws attention to prevailing conflicts in civilized societies, where each one

of us has similar aspirations, struggles, and persistent ideas of practicing equality. In an atmosphere of shared fear, confusion, and hope, she creates art about the likenesses that bind us.

Maheen Niazi’s work revolves around the blurred boundaries between religion and culture, where there are no strict demarcations. This corpus of work primarily explores the intersections of religion and culture; and highlights the points of fusion where they merge. INSHA MANZOOR India Installation

SUNANDA KHAJURIA India Painting Sunanda Khajuria is a visual artist who is deeply inspired by Chinese traditional painting techniques and draws her imagery from both the terrain of ethereal memory as well as from actual, physical landscapes she has visited. Khajuria is represented by Art Heritage, New Delhi, India.

Through performance, video, painting, and textiles, Insha Manzoor informs self-identification as a collective memory and resistance in a country living in totalitarianism and experiencing gender discrimination, strife, and conflict. Manzoor is interested in researching creativity and exploring how artistic and cultural traditions can be crafted to bridge differences, mediate conflicts, contribute to peace.

NAJMUN NAHAR KEYA India Installation and Mixed Media Najmun Nahar Keya, a multidisciplinary artist, bases her work on the entire incidence of her past memories, with her present feelings within this current society. Keya is also interested in the dichotomy of human behavior and culture and historical phases to create new conceptions.

PATTABI RAMAN India Photography Pattabi Raman is a photojournalist and documentary photographer who specializes in socio-economic and cultural issues. His longterm projects include the post-war lives of Sri Lankan Tamils, gender identity in Tamil folklore, and the aesthetics of a changing urban India.

MAHEEN NIAZI Pakistan Sculpture and Painting

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

BUILDING BHARAT-BOSTON BIOSCIENCES (B4) FELLOWSHIP The B4 Program awards up to eight fellowships for 18 months in fields related to the biosciences at Harvard University and other Boston-area institutions. Each B4 Fellow is matched with a lab that focuses on a research topic within the biosciences, including Systems and Synthetic Biology, Neuroscience, Genomics and Bioinformatics.

ing local drug delivery systems for the treatment of periodontal infections using calcium phosphate bio-ceramic nanoparticles, using her dental background. Kalidoss’s mentorship falls under the guidance of Muhammad Zaman, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and head of Zaman Lab at Boston University.

which damages the kidneys. While he is at Harvard, he will be working with his mentor, Jason Buenrostro, Assistant Professor at Harvard University in Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology and head of the Buenrostro Lab.

torship is under Philippe Cluzel, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics.

PREMANANDA KARIDAS India

KRITIKA GUPTA India Kritika Gupta comes to Cambridge from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore, where she specializes in Molecular Genetics and Protein Biophysics. Through her research project, Gupta is performing comprehensive analyses of extensive datasets for mutational sensitivities of single bacteria cells. At Harvard, her men-

Year in Review 2020-21

AJAY SHANKAR LABADE India

MADHUMATHI KALIDOSS India Madhumathi Kalidoss works with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Madras, and comes to Boston specializing in Biomaterials. Currently, her research is focused on develop-

Ajay Shankar Labade, coming to Cambridge from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Pune, specializes in the field of Genome Biology. Labade’s research focuses on the functional importance of Nucleoporin Nup93 — a protein coding gene associated with diseases like nephrotic syndrome,

Premananda Karidas joins us at Harvard from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore, where he uses his specialty in Plant Developmental Biology to research the development of biological surfaces — like plant leaves and insect wings — at the organ, cellular, and molecular levels. Karidas has been paired with mentor Elena Kramer, Professor and

Chair of the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard and head of the Kramer Lab.

RESEARCH AFFILIATES Our Research Affiliates contribute to Harvard’s scholarship on South Asia through their wealth of expertise on the region, from political economy to public health.

ABDUL RAZAQUE CHANNA Pakistan Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Sindh, Jamshoro; Syed Babar Ali Fellow, 20192020

SUDIPTA TUNG India Sudipta Tung hails from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Pune, where he specializes in Experimental Evolution and Population Dynamics. His research focuses on the different control methods for stabilizing extinction-prone populations.

NAVEEN BHARATHI United States Postdoctoral Research Fellow, CASI, University of Pennsylvania; Raghunathan Family Fellow, 2019-2020

Tung’s mentor, Michael Desai, is a Professor in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology (OEB) and head of the Desai Lab.

ABHISHEK BHATIA United States India Digital Health Network (IDHN) Fellow

FRANCESCO BIANCHINI United Kingdom

ATANU CHAKRABORTY India Former Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Finance

MARIAM CHUGHTAI Pakistan Associate Dean and Assistant Professor, LUMS School of Education; Pakistan Programs Manager, The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

RONAK D. DESAI United States Associate, Paul Hastings

SWAGATO GANGULY India Associate Editor, Times of India

AKSHAY MANGLA United Kingdom Associate Professor in International Business, University of Oxford Year in Review 2020-21

RAJEESH MENON India Senior Manager, Ernst & Young

DINYAR PATEL India Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts, S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research

NADYELI QUIROZ RADAELLI United States

VIDYA SUBRAMANIAN Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Policy Studies, IIT Bombay; Incoming Raghunathan Family Fellow 2021-22

NIVEDITA SAKSENA United States

IAN TALBOT United Kingdom Professor in History and Director of the Centre for Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies, University of Southampton

SALIL SHETTY India Former Secretary General, Amnesty International

IMTIAZ UL HAQ United States Economist, World Bank

ASHUTOSH VARSHNEY United States Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences, Brown University

LAURA WEINSTEIN United States Ananda Coomaraswamy Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

MUHAMMAD H. ZAMAN United States Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor of Biomedical Engineering and International Health, Boston University

MICHAEL VANHAVILL New Zealand Healthcare Product Design Leader JOHN DAVID WAGNER United States Academic Co-Director, Digital Ready

FATIMA ZAHRA United States / Bangladesh Postdoctoral Fellow, T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University

RAILE ROCKY ZIIPAO India Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay; Raghunathan Family Fellow 2017-2018

VERONICA VARGAS Chile

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

GRADUATE STUDENT ASSOCIATES Each year, the Mittal Institute supports Graduate Student Associates (GSAs) from across Harvard and other Boston-area universities. GSAs participate in monthly workshops and share their research on South Asia, presenting their latest findings, sharing thesis or dissertation advice, and discussing best practices for field research. The goal of the program is to establish a community of peers and support original research in and on South Asia. In 2020-21, this program added a series of virtual check-ins which took place either independently or attached to other academic events, to allow the GSA’s to interact with other scholars.

Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University

RONAK JAIN PhD Candidate, Economics, Harvard University AIDAN MILLIFF PhD Candidate, International Relations and Security Studies, Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

HANSONG LI PhD Candidate, Government, Harvard University

BENNETT COMERFORD ThD Candidate, Comparative Studies, Committee on the Study of Religion, Harvard University

BLAIR READ PhD Candidate, Comparative Politics and Methodology, Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

AKSHAY DIXIT PhD Candidate, Political Economy & Government, Harvard University

TIANJIA (TINA) LIU PhD Candidate, Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling Group, Department of

Year in Review 2020-21

SCHOLARS

Events and Seminars The Mittal Institute strengthens South Asia-related research in a variety of disciplines by providing platforms for scholars to present and discuss their research at our symposiums, conferences, workshops, and seminars.

symposia and conferences

workshops

51 200+ seminars

speakers

ach academic year, the Mittal Institute hosts a multitude of events covering topics in the arts, humanities, sciences, education, business, and more. In partnership with relevant organizations, student groups, and academic institutions, the Institute’s events provide platforms for faculty, scholars, industry leaders, and others to present their research, discuss developing issues, and deepen the public’s understanding of the critical issues that South Asia faces.

fifty countries around the world.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Institute’s events migrated to a virtual platform. This new medium allowed for scholarly inputs from a broader range of speakers who were able to call in from around the world, thereby enabling greater input from those engaging with issues at the ground level.

Co-sponsors for some of these events include the MIT Center for International Studies, the Watson Institute at Brown University and various Harvard schools and departments, including the Harvard Business School India Research Center, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health India Center, Asia Center, Harvard-Yenching Institute and Harvard Business Publishing.

The virtual platform also facilitated an expansion in the Institute’s reach to a larger and more international audience. Through virtual seminars, panels, and discussions, the Institute connected with the global community of Harvard scholars and alumni, as well as the general population in over

During 2020-21, these events brought together world-renowned speakers, with high-profile speakers including Nirupama Rao, Former Foreign Secretary of India; Ajmal Maiwandi, Director, Aga Khan Trust for Culture; Laura Weinstein, Ananda Coomaraswamy Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson, Biocon Ltd.

As Harvard begins to loosen pandemic-related restrictions, the Institute will continue to serve as an international platform for experts to share ideas with each other and our audience.

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

WORKSHOPS Conservation Science, Training, and Research (CoSTAR) In April 2021, the Institute launched a workshop on Conservation Science, Training, and Research (CoSTAR). With more than 150 participants and 20 speakers representing over 50 cultural and scientific institutions, the program hopes to build a ‘Knowledge Commons’: a virtual platform to bring together museums and cultural and academic institutions to collaborate and share best practices that constitute a viable ecosystem for museums and the scientific study of the cultural heritage of the region. The first module took place from April-June 2021 and comprised of 10 sessions.

Session 2B: The intersection of art history and material science: the importance of systematic data collection and collaboration Jinah Kim; Michele Derrick

Session 5B: Practical Applications of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Conservation: Advantages, Challenges, and Planning Research Elizabeth Salmon

Session 3A. Researching and Exhibiting “Prince Shōtoku at Age Two” at the Harvard Art Museums / A Technical Study of the Sedgwick Shōtoku: the Materiality of the Sculpture and its Contents Rachel Saunders, Angela Chang

Session 6: Arches for Science: Linking Data through Technology Catherine Schmidt Patterson; Dennis Wuthrich

Session 1: Introduction to the Historic and Artistic Works of South Asia Anupam Sah

Session 4: Sustainable Preventive Conservation Joelle Wickens

Session 2A: The life of an object: Interdisciplinary approaches to technical research and interpretation Jinah Kim; Francesca Bewer; Joan Wright; Michiko Adachi

Session 5A: Intangible Cultural Heritage and Challenges to Conservation: Perspectives from working within Indigenous collections Ellen Pearlstein

Session 3B: Plastics in Collections Georgina Rayner; Susan Costello

Session 7: A Case Study: Mark Rothko’s Harvard Murals Narayan Khandekar Session 8: Understanding historical pigments in Indian painting: case study from Harvard Art Museums Jinah Kim; Katherine Eremin Session 9: Designing a Research Project Anupam Sah Session 10: Setting the road map for developing practical work in Conservation Science and Research Narayan Khandekar; Anupam Sah; Vinod Daniel PUBLIC TALKS Art and Science of Heritage Conservation Alison Heritage; Narayan Khandekar; Austin Nevin; Stefan Simon; Anupam Sah; Vinod Daniel; Anusha Kasthuriarachchi; Jinah Kim; Bijaya Kumar Shahi; Manager Singh; Sharda Srinivasan CoSTAR Public Talk Annabel Enrique; Dennis Wuthrich; Anupam Sah

Year in Review 2020-21

CONFERENCE Bangladesh at 50: Looking Back, Looking Forward To mark the 50 years of Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan, the Mittal Institute held a virtual two-day conference in March 2021. Organized by Martha Chen, Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Richard Cash, Senior Lecturer in Global Public Health at the Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health, the conference highlighted the arc of Bangladesh’s history from the Language Movement through the Liberation War to the present – and the future. Panelists discussed a wide range of topics, including the remarkable economic and human development of independent Bangladesh and the important role of civil society in its development. This arc was traced and analyzed through a set of panel presentations by leading Bangladeshi scholars and activists moderated by international scholars who have worked on and in Bangladesh. Sessions covered the role of women’s empowerment, global health and human devel-

opment, the nonprofit sector and the role it played in economic development and the main issues that need to be addressed in looking forward at the future of the country. Overall, the conference brought

together more than 20 speakers from academic institutions, non-profit organizations and think tanks as well as hundreds of audience members with an interest in the country’s past and future.

Naila Kabeer

SEMINAR SERIES Extreme Urbanism: A View on Afghanistan The “Extreme Urbanism: A View on Afghanistan,” a three-part seminar series in September and October 2020, organized and moderated by Rahul Mehrotra, John T. Dunlop Professor in Housing and Urbanization, Harvard Graduate School of Design, provided audiences the opportunity to receive an updated, informed view of Afghanistan, addressing its architectural, urban, and territorial features. This cycle

of talks created a platform where topics ranged from vernacular architecture and building traditions to infrastructure and cultural specificities and were discussed in conjunction with issues related to historic settlements and contemporary planning in Afghanistan. These seminars were co-sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, and Kabul University.

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

SYMPOSIUM 2021 Annual Cambridge Symposium “Although it has been a year of great hardship and sadness at many levels, I’m happy that the institute has adapted accordingly and found multiple new ways to engage with and contribute to society in these difficult times.…the sheer variety and diversity of topics and expertise makes our institute such a vibrant and vital place. — LAKSHMI MITTAL in his opening remarks at the virtual 2021 Annual Cambridge Symposium

The Annual Cambridge Symposium was held virtually in May 2020 and welcomed Mittal Institute donors and Steering Committee members to participate in threehour sessions over two days. The first day focused on Arts in South Asia. It included a session on Storytelling in the Age of Digital Access led by Laura Weinstein, Ananda Coomaraswamy Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art at the MFA in Boston, and Jinah Kim, George P. Bickford, Professor of Indian and South Asian Art at Harvard University. The discussion addressed how millions of artworks have become available digitally from

Year in Review 2020-21

museums and other repositories worldwide and how digital images can be given meaningful form through storytelling. This session was followed by a presentation, Walking inCommon: Creative Projects During COVID-19, a series of podcasts from the field, developed as a chain of creative collaborations with different practitioners, by artist Nazia Khan. Homi Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenberg, Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University moderated a conversation between the artist and the audience. Day two presentations featured a session titled, Animal Origins of Global Pandemics: Can Law and Policy Prevent the Next Crisis?

This focused on global policy responses to the risks posed by animal markets as sites for various zoonotic diseases such as avian flu, SARS, and COVID and how the global community may prevent future outbreaks. Featured speakers included Jayasimha Nuggehalli, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Global Food Partners, Vivek Mukherjee, Assistant Professor of Law at NALSAR University and Director of the Animal Law Centre and Ann Linder, Research Fellow at the Harvard Animal Law & Policy Program. Kristen Stilt, Director of the Harvard Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard Law School, moderated the conversation.

Naiza Khan

Seminars on South Asian History and P olitics July 9, 2020 SWARAJ: DADABHAI NAOROJI AND THE BIRTH OF INDIAN NATIONALISM Dinyar Patel; Sven Beckert (Moderator) August 22, 2020 CASTE IN TECH TOWN HALL Maya Kamble; Ajantha Subramanian; Sam Cornelius; Sareeta Amrute; Anil Dash; Thenmozhi Soundararajan (Moderator) Co-sponsored with the Equality Labs, Co-worker.org, and Data and Society September 1, 2020 REDISCOVERING PARTITION FROM NEW PERSPECTIVES Ian Talbot; Joya Chatterji; Yaqoob Bangash; Jennifer Leaning (Moderator) Co-sponsored with the Harvard Club of India and the Harvard Club of Pakistan September 28, 2020 THE BORDER CRISIS AND THE FUTURE OF INDIA-CHINA RELATIONS Shivshankar Menon; Tanvi Madan; Taylor Fravel; Vipin Narang

Co-sponsored with the Watson Institute at Brown University, the MIT Center for International Studies, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University October 23, 2020 DISCRIMINATION AND DEFIANT PRIDE: HOW THE DEMAND FOR DIGNITY CREATES SLACK FOR POOR GOVERNANCE Mashail Malik; Steven Rosenzweig (Moderator) Co-sponsored with the Watson Institute at Brown University, the MIT Center for International Studies, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University October 28, 2020 THE U.S. ELECTION’S IMPACT ON SOUTH ASIA Nirupama Rao; Vipin Narang; Ronak Desai (Moderator) November 20, 2020 GANDHI’S GIFT: SUCCESSFULMASS NONVIOLENCE AND IN-

DIA’S DECOLONIZATION Rikhil R. Bhavnani Co-sponsored with the Watson Institute at Brown University, the MIT Center for International Studies, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University December 3, 2020 Consequences: South and Southeast Asia and the 2020 U.S. Election Mattias Fibiger; Erik Kuhonta; Doreen Lee; Ashutosh Varshney; James Robson (Moderator) Co-sponsored with the Harvard University Asia Center December 4, 2020 BUSINESS, VOTERS, AND DISTRIBUTIVE POLITICS IN DEVELOPING DEMOCRACIES Gautam Nair; F. Daniel Hidalgo (Moderator) Co-sponsored with the Watson Institute at Brown University, the MIT Center for International Studies, and the Weather-

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

Co-sponsored with the Watson Institute at Brown University, the MIT Center for International Studies, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University

February 26, 2021 POLICING AND GENDERED CASES IN INDIA Nirvikar Jassal Co-sponsored with the Watson Institute at Brown University, the MIT Center for International Studies, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University head Center for International Affairs at Harvard University February 5, 2021 WEAPONS OF THE WEAK: THE VIOLENT CONSEQUENCES OF BIASED TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE Aditya Dasgupta Co-sponsored with the Watson Institute at Brown University, the MIT Center for International Studies, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University

Year in Review 2020-21

March 2, 2021 TEA WAR: A HISTORY OF CAPITALISM IN CHINA AND INDIA Andrew B. Liu Co-sponsored with the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University, and the Joint Center for History and Economics at Harvard University March 26, 2021 CAPACITY BEYOND COERCION: REGULATORY PRAGMATISM AND COMPLIANCE ALONG THE INDIA-NEPAL BORDER Susan Ostermann

April 1, 2021 ADVANCING JUSTICE: RESPONSES TO ANTI-ASIAN RACISM IN THE U.S. Elena Shih; Christina ong; Han Lu; Vivian Shaw (Moderator) Co-sponsored with the Harvard University Asia Center, Committee on Ethnicity, Migration, Rights; the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies; the Harvard-Yenching Institute; the Korea Institute, the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations; and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University April 2, 2021 MODERNIZING ASIA’S COUNTRYSIDE Han Do-Hyun; Nguyen Thi Phuong Cham; Nishikawa Kunio; Mini Sukumar; Wen Tiejun; Elizabeth J. Perry (Moderator) Co-sponsored with the Harvard University Asia Center, the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies; the Korea Institute; and the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies

April 7, 2021 THE HISTORY OF BRITISH DIPLOMACY IN PAKISTAN Ian Talbot; Mohammad Waseem; William Milam; Adil Najam (Moderator) Co-sponsored with the Boston University Center for the Study of Asia April 9, 2021 GENDER QUOTAS AND POLITICAL INCLUSION IN INDIA’S WEAKLY INSTITUTIONALIZED PARTY SYSTEM Tanushree Goyal Co-sponsored with the Watson Institute at Brown University, the MIT Center for International Studies, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University April 13, 2021 INDIA AND ASIAN GEOPOLITICS: THE PAST, PRESENT Shivshankar Menon; Nicholas Burns (Moderator) Co-sponsored with the Future of Diplomacy Project, and Center for Public Leadership April 28, 2021 BORDER CONFLICTS IN THE HIMALAYAS: BHUTAN, NEPAL, INDIA, AND CHINA Sudha Ramachandran; Shubhanga

Pandey; Xiaoyu Pu; Frank O’Donnell; Arunabh Ghosh (Moderator) Co-sponsored with the Harvard University Asia Center, the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, and the Harvard-Yenching Institute

Seminars on Energy and Environment March 30, 2021 THE FUTURE OF GREEN INDIA: ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE Abhishek Malhotra; Mahua Acharya; Narasimha D. Rao; Henry Lee (Moderator) Co-sponsored with the Harvard University Center for the Environment, the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, Environment and Natural Resources Program, the Belfer Center at Harvard Kennedy School, and Harvard Global Institute

Seminars on Education November 11, 2020 MODELS OF INNOVATION: EDUCATION IN SOUTH ASIA Ayaz Azizl; Nishant Pandey; Rumee Singh; Haroon Yasin; Emmerich Davies (Moderator)

Seminars on Entrepreneurship April 22, 2021 CULTIVATING TRUST CAN UNLOCK INDIA’S POTENTIAL Tarun Khanna; Ashok K. Chauhan; Aseem Chauhan; PB Sharma; Gunjan M Sanjeev In partnership with Amity University, Gurugram

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

Science and Technology Seminars December 19, 2020 WHY DO INDIANS SHUN SCIENCE? Tarun Khanna Organized by Manthan India in partnership with the Mittal Institute March 26, 2021 B4 WEBINAR: BUILDING BHARAT BOSTON BIOSCIENCES Venkatesh Murthy; Philippe Cluzel; Parvathi Sreekumar; Ramya Purkanti; Ajay Labade; Tarun Khanna Co-sponsored with the Harvard Global Research Support Centre India, Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB), Bengaluru and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune

Seminars on the Arts October 8, 2020 KHUSRAU’S RIVER OF LOVE: COSMOPOLITANISM AND INCLUSION IN SOUTH ASIAN TRADITIONS Ali Sethi; Himanshu Bajpai; Ali Asani

Year in Review 2020-21

November 12, 2020 ARTS OF SOUTH ASIA AT THE MFA: THROUGH AND BEYOND BINARY THINKING Laura Weinstein; Jinah Kim (Moderator) Co-sponsored with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Public Health Seminars

April 19, 2021 INNOVATING IN THE HEALTH SECTOR IN INDIA Satchit Balsari; Anant Bhan; Pawan Sinha; Rajani Ved; Manoj Kumar; Vikram Patel (Moderator) Co-sponsored with the Tata Trusts

October 7, 2020 COVID AND TELEMEDICINE: EXPERIENCE FROM CHINA, INDIA, AND THE U.S. Hongqiao Fu; Ajay Nair; Atveev Mehrotra; Winnie Chi-Man Yip (Moderator) Co-sponsored with the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard China Health Partnership, and the Harvard University Asia Center

May 13, 2021 THE COVID-19 CRISIS IN INDIA: WHAT IS THE WAY FORWARD? Gagandeep Kang; Peter Piot; Gautam Menon; K. Sujatha Rao; Sarah Jacob (Moderator) Co-sponsored with the Lancet COVID-19 Commission India Task Force

November 9, 2020 THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON MENTAL HEALTH IN CHINA, INDIA, AND THE UNITED STATES Xiao Shuiyuan; Yifeng Xu; Vikram Patel; Karestan Koenen; Winnie Yip; Arthur Kleinman (Moderator) Co-sponsored with the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University, and Harvard China Health Partnership

Mirai Chatterjee; Ajay Nair; Sunita

June 21, 2021 THE COVID-19 CRISIS IN INDIA: VOICES FROM THE FRONTLINE Rani; Priyadarsh Vijay Ture; Sreenivasan Jain (Moderator)

Mittal Institute Governance

Scenes from the 2019 Mahindra Lecture, 2019 and 2021 Annual Cambridge Symposiums and, and Mittal Institute Steering Committee meetings.

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

Year in Review 2020-21

Administration EXECUTIVE COUNCIL The Mittal Family (UK) KP Balaraj, MBA ’97 (India) and Sumir Chadha, MBA ’97 (USA), Chairs, Advisory Council Dipti Mathur (USA), Chair, Arts Council Tarun Khanna (USA), Director, The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute

ADVISORY COUNCIL

ARTS COUNCIL

Chairs: KP Balaraj, MBA ‘97 (India) Sumir Chadha, MBA ‘97 (USA)

Faculty Director: Jinah Kim, George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asian Art, Harvard University Chair: Dipti Mathur (USA) Arts Program Advisor: Shanay Jhaveri (USA)

The Mittal Family Syed Babar Ali, AMP ‘73 (Pakistan) Kushagra Nayan Bajaj (India) Kuntala Das and Bharat Das ‘08, s/o late Purandar Das (USA) Mark Fuller ‘75, MBA ‘78, JD ‘79, and Jo Froman (USA) Meera Gandhi (USA) Vikram Gandhi, MBA ‘89, ExEd ‘00 (USA/ India) Mala Haarmann ‘91, MBA ‘96 (UK) Anuradha and Anand Mahindra ‘77, MBA ‘81 (India) Dipti Mathur (USA) Karen ‘82, and Sanjeev Mehra ‘82, MBA ‘86 (USA) Victor Menezes (USA) Chandrika and Dalip Pathak (UK) Chandni and Mukesh Prasad ‘93 (USA) Sribala Subramanian and Arvind Raghunathan (USA) Rajiv and Anupa Sahney (India) Vijay Shekhar Sharma (India) Parul and Gaurav Swarup, MBA ‘80 (India) Tom Varkey, MBA ‘97 Osman Khalid Waheed ‘93 (Pakistan) Arshad Zakaria ‘85, MBA ’87 (USA)

Radhika Chopra, MPP ‘96 (India) and Rajan Anandan

FACULTY CABINET Tarun Khanna Director; Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School

Archan Basu ‘93 and Madeline Jie Wang ‘97 (USA) Poonam Bhagat (India) Anurag Bhargava (India/USA) Radhika Chopra, MPP ‘96 (India) Sunil Hirani (USA) Chandrika Pathak (UK/India) Pinky and Sanjay Reddy (India) Omar Saeed (Pakistan) Sana Rezwan Sait (USA) Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani (Bangladesh) Shilpa Sanger (USA) Osman Khalid Waheed ‘93 (Pakistan)

FRIENDS OF THE INSTITUTE Nadeem Elahi, MBA ‘01 (Pakistan), The Resource Group Anwarul Quadir Foundation (USA) Usha and Diaz Neesamoney (USA)

INDIA ADVISORY BOARD The Mittal Family Gobind Akoi, GMP ‘10 KP Balaraj, MBA ‘97 (India) Sumir Chadha, MBA ‘97 (USA)

Homi Bhabha Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences Jacqueline Bhabha Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health; Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Lecturer in Law, Harvard Law School; Adjunct Lecturer, Harvard Kennedy School Martha Chen Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School Sheila Jasanoff Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Harvard Kennedy School Asim Khwaja Sumitomo-FASID Professor of International Finance and Development, Harvard Kennedy School

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

Jinah Kim George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asian Art, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Satchit Balsari Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Fernando Reimers Ford Foundation Professor of Practice in International Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Jennifer Leaning François-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Senior Fellow, Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights

David Bloom Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Ajay Singh Senior Associate Dean for Postgraduate Medical Education, Harvard Medical School; Director, Master in Medical Sciences in Clinical Investigation (MMSCI) Program

Rahul Mehrotra John T. Dunlop Professor in Housing and Urbanization, Harvard Graduate School of Design Venkatesh Murthy Raymond Leo Erikson Life Sciences Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University Vikram Patel The Pershing Square Professor of Global Health, Harvard Medical School Kristen A. Stilt Professor of Law, Harvard Law School Conor Walsh Paul A. Maeder Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, John A. Paulson Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Associate Faculty Member, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering

FACULTY STEERING COMMITTEE * includes members of Cabinet Ali Asani Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies; Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures, Committee on the Study of Religion and Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University

Year in Review 2020-21

Emmerich Davies Assistant Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education Diana Eck Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Member of the Faculty of Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Member of the Faculty of Divinity, Harvard Divinity School Jerold Kayden Frank Backus Williams Professor of Urban Planning and Design, Harvard Graduate School of Design Karim R. Lakhani Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School Durba Mitra Carol K. Pforzheimer Assistant Professor, Radcliffe Institute; Assistant Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Harvard University Jukka-Pekka Onnela Assistant Professor of Biostatistics, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health Parimal G. Patil Professor of Religion and Indian Philosophy, Committee on the Study of Religion; Chair of the Department of South Asian Studies, Harvard University

Doris Sommer Ira Jewell Williams, Jr., Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and in African and African American Studies, Harvard University Pawan Sinha Professor of Vision and Computational Neuroscience, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ajantha Subramanian Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies, Harvard University SV “Subu” Subramanian Professor of Population Health and Geography, Harvard School of Public Health Milind Tambe Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Center for Research in Computation and Society (CRCS), Harvard University Ashutosh Varshney Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science, Brown University; Director, Center for Contemporary South Asia, Brown University Muhammad H. Zaman Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor of Biomedical Engineering and International Health, Boston University

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

Year in Review 2020-21

PHOTO CREDITS: Architecture Foundation India, Grant Baker, Marko Beljan, iStock.com/Supratim Bhattacharjee, Calcutta National Library, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) Museum (pp. 25, 34), Adobe Stock/Sam Cheng, Flickr Creative Commons/DFID – UK Department for International Development, iStock.com/Suprabhat Dutta, Eric Kanelstein, Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer, Adobe Stock/Lewis Tse Pui Lung, Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) Boston, iStock.com/Pakistan Press International (PPI)-Images, Project Prakash, Selmon Rafey, Sangath (Bhopal), iStock.com/SB Stock, iStock.com/Anil Shakya, Umbulizer Team, Unsplash/Shubhangee Vyas, and Adobe Stock/Ralf Wunder.

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University

CGIS South, 4th Floor, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA B- 43, Middle Circle, Connaught Place, New Delhi - 110001, India Lahore University of Management Sciences, DHA, Lahore Cantt. 54792, Lahore, Pakistan https://mittalsouthasiainstitute.harvard.edu/