N ATIONAL I NSTITUTE OF A DVANCED S NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES TUDIES Bangalore, India ANNUAL REPORT 2016 – 2017 A NNUAL R EPORT 2016 - 2017 NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bangalore - 560 012 Tel: 080 2218 5000, Fax: 2218 5028 E-mail: [email protected] NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES Bengaluru, India ANNUAL REPORT 2016 - 2017 JRD Tata Founding Chairman The Vision and Mission of NIAS To integrate the findings of scholarship in the natural and social sciences with technology and the arts through multi-disciplinary research on the complex issues that face Indian and global society. To assist in the creation of new leadership with broad horizons in all sectors of society by disseminating the conclusions of such research through appropriate publications and courses as well as dialogues with leaders and the public. TABLE OF CONTENTS From the Director 5 School of Conflict and Security Studies 10 School of Humanities 30 School of Natural Sciences and Engineering 51 School of Social Sciences 72 Invited Visiting Chair Professors 101 NIAS and Intra-Institutional National and International Collaborations 105 BRICS Conclave 107 Training Programmes 108 Doctoral Programme 114 Annual Memorial Lectures 117 Public Programmes 118 Wednesday Discussion Meetings 125 Associates’ Programme 130 Literary, Arts and Heritage Forum 131 Library 132 Publications 133 Administration 147 Financial Reports 152 NIAS Council of Management 157 NIAS Society 158 NIAS Staff 159 NIAS Adjunct Professors and Adjunct Faculty 160 CONTENTS FROM THE DIRECTOR It is with delight that I write some of the thoughts for the annual report of National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), 2016-2017. The distinctive nature of NIAS has only become more pronounced in the years that pass by with new challenges, new solutions and new outlooks. Along with the needs of the nation and mandate of NIAS, we strive to contribute and participate in the building of both academic responses as well as to the processes of forming policies and platforms. We have increasingly been successful to realize policies in strategies, technologies, education, energy, etc. I would like to invite you to visit www.nias.res.in to get glimpses of our endeavours and successes. For the institute, the research activities during the last academic year were spread across programmatic research accomplishments, academic courses, leadership level training courses, public lectures and outreach events. All Programmes have endeavoured to focus on interdisciplinary issues with an effort to have impact on socio-cultural, scientific and philosophical foundations. Our PhD Programme is one of the best expressions for this academic year as well with a few bright students graduating out with the submission of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary theses, and new bright students joining the programme with original and relevant ideas to work on. During the last academic year, we had a formal peer review for the Programmes. While we received commendable views and appreciation from the reviewers, the Programmes also were given some suggestions for the road map ahead. I wish to share with you some of the highlights of achievements of the faculty members, and the NIAS Programmes housed within the Schools, during the last academic year. For the Conflict Resolution Programme, an edited volume by Narendar Pani and Anshuman Behera on “Reasoning Indian Politics: Philosopher Politicians to Politicians Seeking Philosophy”, has been accepted by Routledge for publication. The book essentially addresses the transition in Indian politics from a situation dominated by philosopher politicians, such as Gandhi, Ambedkar and Lohia, to one dominated by political practice with limited importance to philosophy. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) sponsored research work on China Space Capabilities was completed by the International Strategic and Security Studies Programme (ISSSP) with a three volume report. The study provides a comprehensive treatise on the Chinese Space Programme, starting from its origins and evolution graduating to an examination of the trends and future directions and concluding with assessments of the Programme and its implications for other countries especially, India. The Short Term Research Fellowships and its awardees made a major impetus to the initiatives of the Consciousness Studies Programme in terms of both research and mentorship for young students. The fellowships made possible for young students to identify relatively difficult but original interdisciplinary research areas to pursue connected to cognition and consciousness. Their research problems extended from intelligent agent in spatial awareness in the context of Artificial Intelligence to the cognitive basis of communication in wild lion tailed macaques. On behalf of the 5 Heritage Science and Society Programme the multi-institutional initiative of the India Digital Heritage project of DST entered its final year with work underway on the Knowledge Bank to demonstrate the application of digital technologies in the cultural domain. An Archaeoastronomy Initiative was flagged off on May 12, 2017, led by Srikumar Menon with Sharada Srinivasan, and for acoustic studies on Hampi musical pillars with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in July 2016. The work carried out by Animal Behaviour and Cognition Programme is synergistic and transdisciplinary involving collaborators from other disciplines both within the institute and outside, and employing methodologies and theoretical frameworks from various fields of research. An important highlight for the Complex Systems programme was the publication of the group’s paper in Nature Scientific Reports proposing a mathematical model for pest outbreak cycles. This study has incorporated climate parameters for the first time, explaining the observed periodicities in certain pest outbreak cycles at high elevations, cessation of expected cycles after 1981, absence of these cycles at certain other high altitude locations and variations from these periodicities elsewhere. Based on the premise that India will need multiple protocols for identifying the gifted children, the Education Programme team is conducting research followed by pedagogic and mentoring mechanisms. The protocol argues for the judicious mix of quantitative and qualitative techniques that reflect the cultural realities of the Indian sub-continent. Steering the National Programme, the first version of the protocol of identification of the gifted children in the age group of 3 to 15 in urban mainstream schools is ready for large scale testing and up scaling. The NIAS-UNDP Policy Research Initiative on Inequality and Human Development successfully carried out a set of large national surveys covering two important aspects of the Indian social reality, one on the transition from an agrarian economy to a non-agrarian one, and the other on circular migration. The RBI Programme on Inter-Disciplinary Approaches to Economic Issues has embarked on large-scale quantitative and qualitative surveys of rural Karnataka. Previous studies have shown that Karnataka can be divided into five regions viz. North–Eastern Karnataka, North-Western Karnataka, Coastal Karnataka, Malnad, and Southern Karnataka that are economically and socially distinct. The Water Programme is committed to facilitating access to water as a basic human right and ensuring availability of safe, adequate and equitable water for all. The programme engages in designing and implementing exclusive methodologies for evolving sustainable solutions in the water sector. An important activity of the Institute is the offering of the multidisciplinary week-long and fortnight long courses for scientists, science administrators, leaders and executives from public and private sector enterprises and corporate establishments. This academic year too saw successful conduct of the training programmes with participants attending from various establishments and across the country. Another important international initiative was the BRICS Young Scientist Forum: Bangalore Conclave 2016 meeting that was held at NIAS during September 25, 2016 – October 1, 2016 with participants from the BRICS countries. The discussions at this meeting focused on computational intelligence, affordable healthcare and energy solutions, and reflected the continuing interests of the Institute. The initiatives have led to India establishing leadership role for Young Scientist Forum and Science Technology Innovation led Entrepreneurship (STEP) in BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries. As we move towards the next academic year, NIAS focuses on those of the programmes which are central to not only institutional but also national growth and aspirations. I look forward to another academic year filled with academic and impact achievements that will create definite positive change to national and institutional transformations. Our pride and challenge at NIAS, is to stay relevant with excellence to the Nation. We need your advice and support to realize vision, mission, mandate and aspirations of connecting to well being of India. Look forward to your wishes, suggestions and thoughts, on the achievements of this year and for the coming year too. Baldev Raj Director, NIAS 6 SCHOOLS Each faculty member belongs to one of the four Schools, School of Conflict and