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Towards a gleaming, brighter future...
Congratulations to the entire SICI community as we celebrate 53 years since the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute opened its doors to scholars and researchers in 1968. We are vintage, wiser and proud of how we have come together to foster bilateral cooperation, promote institutional partnerships, facilitate higher education and research linkages between India and Canada. As Director, I take enormous pride in the fact that SICI continues to demonstrate its value to the intellectual community of both the countries by providing opportunities to learn, grow and expand in building and strengthening academic and cultural relationship through research and dialogue. We promise to continue to fulfil our mandate and do so in a way that is consistent with our values and the trust our community place in us.
Right off the bat, my heartiest congratulations & best wishes to all the awardees who are winners in different categories of programmes & grants for the year 2020-21. As the health pandemic continues its march through our populations, SICI continued to advance its mission of supporting all levels of higher education and research from undergrad to postdoc and from faculty to collaborative research and not just that but also as a special initiative facilitating collaboration on understanding the Pandemic. Even as we are closer to the end of this year, we have a few more opportunities for scholars and member institutions to explore - SICI-Mitacs - Globalink Research Award Programme Thematic Call & Golden Jubilee Conference & Lecture Series Grants (GJCLSG) - 2020-21. Don’t miss, apply today!
I was all ears for Honourable Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi ji’s virtual address at the Invest India 2020 conference held in October. His emphasis on attracting opportunities for investment and enhanced cooperation in Education, Manufacturing or Services and Agriculture are surely the areas that would need activation and acceleration in the upcoming times. Even during the recently held talks between the two Foreign Ministers – Honourable S. Jaishankar of India and Honourable François-Philippe Champagne of Canada – a need to take this cooperation was expressed explicitly, keeping confidence in the further growth of this bilateral relationship.
In any and all movements of acceptance, SICI is already embarking on an extensive planning process to set goals and strategies for the next five years by building on our past achievements and addressing areas of importance. Having already engaged key stakeholders to identify themes and opportunities that resonate with faculty and students and, of course, based on the recent interactions between the two governments, SICI is planning to roll-out special programmes and grants in cluster areas such as Urban Issues/Sustainability, Digital Technologies, Gender Mainstreaming, Indigeneity and Decolonization, One Health, Ocean and Marine life (including fisheries, oil and gas, and clean energy), Artificial Intelligence & Robotics, Clean Energy, and so on & so forth. Our discussions on these aspects with the allied bodies, industry and governments is progressing superb!
We’ve spent this past year on panels and roundtables all on a screen! Creating this virtual community wasn’t easy. Our ever-widening circle today is a result of our continuous outreach to institutions, governments, researchers, scholars – both in digital and non-digital times. The pandemic cannot be allowed to dim our light and shroud our years of hard work. As we ring in a new decade, and with hope and optimism, I can’t wait to join all of you in this exciting and critical work ahead. On behalf of the Executive Council and my colleagues in both the offices, I wish a happy and peaceful new year to all of our partners, member institutions, peers and supporters.
Stay safe & take care!
Prachi Kaul, PhD
Twitter: @kaul_prachi
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Dr Michael Houghton, Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology, University of Alberta (SICI’s member institution), and Americans Harvey J. Alter and Charles M. Rice were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. The team identified a major source of blood-borne hepatitis that couldn't be explained by the previously discovered hepatitis A and B viruses. Their work helped save millions of lives, the Nobel Committee noted.
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SICI's Shastri Mobility Programme (SMP) fellows Dr Ashwani Kumar (left image), Assistant Professor, Dr Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya and Dr Indu Shekhar Thakur (right image), Professor, School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University were recently featured in the list of world's top 2% scientists in plant biology prepared by Stanford University. Many congratulations to both of them! |
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On November 19, Elijah Dalton of University of Guelph, SICI's young SRSF awardee in the student category, shared his insights via a webinar on 'The Influence of Cash Transfers & Remittances on Children – A case study of Bihar's Madhepura District, India'. His SICI-funded project led him to interview and interact with numerous stakeholders from NGOs, the Government of Bihar and individual actors. Besides research work, the opportunity to visit India provided Elijah a valuable intercultural interaction with people especially from rural areas, a broad range of PhD and MSC students as well as Professors from various universities including Patna Women’s College, Patna University, Benares Hindu University, University of North Bengal and IIT Patna (his Institution of affiliation in India).
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On October 8, 2020, Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi virtually delivered the keynote address at the Annual Invest India Conference held in Canada. The Hon'ble PM said that the Government of India has undertaken trinity of reforms in the areas of Education, Manufacturing or Services, and Agriculture, and that the time was ripe for the Canadian businesses and entities to explore partnership opportunities in these areas leading to a win-win situation for entrepreneurs and hardworking people. Especially in the field of Education, the Prime Minister talked about harnessing talent of the Indian youth and also, in the larger spectrum of things, setting the stage for more foreign universities to be able to come to India and forge academic partnerships and establishment of their offices to promote exchange of knowledge and scholarly activities. He also mentioned that with the introduction of liberalisation of Foreign Direct Investment, and by creating friendly tax regime for Sovereign Wealth and Pension Funds, the ground for collaboration and cooperation between India and Canada is fertile.
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On November 17, 2020, Dr Deep Saini (above), President & Vice-Chancellor, Dalhousie University, Canada and Dr Surapaneni Koteshwara Rao, Vice-Chancellor, Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya (RVSKVV) signed two partnership agreements for internationalization of Agriculture education for the faculty and students of the university under Institution Development Plan (IDP). "The agreement with RVSKVV, one of India’s leading agricultural universities, is both inspiring and instructive in how our global objectives can be maintained despite the suspension of international travel. This also showcases the impact international education has on students and which supports Canada’s global engagement efforts", said Dr Saini. He appreciated the contribution of SICI as a strong stakeholder and facilitator of such engagements on this important corridor for over 50 years. Dr Rao also expressed his strong desire to join the member council of SICI to enable greater ties between RVSKVV and Dalhousie university and also with other universities of Canada at-large. |
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Ankita Shroff, a Ph.D scholar, started her journey in the world of Textiles from the Department of Clothing and Textiles, Faculty of Family and Community Sciences at The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, in September 2016. It was her guide, Prof. Anjali Karolia, who suggested her to apply for SICI’s Shastri Research Student Fellowship in the Doctoral category and scouted for the Universities in Canada that worked on similar projects. She received the Fellowship in 2018 and to pursue the same she had the opportunity to visit the University of Alberta for a period of six months. Based on her performance, Ankita was offered to return to the department to work on the same project under the MITACS Accelerate Scholarship which is slated to begin in January 2021 | Read more
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Mr Aakash Yadav (left) with Prof. S R Valluri working in Professor Deshmukh's apartment after dinner...
INAE Innovative Student Project Award
The Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) instituted ‘Innovative Student Projects Award’ to identify innovative research projects undertaken by students. Mr. Aakash Yadav (IIT Tirupati) was selected for ‘Innovative Student Projects Award (undergraduate) 2020, jointly with Mr. Rayudu Rahul of NIT Raipur. The award is conferred after two-tier selection, including rigorous shortlisting and selection by a competent committee. Aakash worked under the guidance of Prof. P C Deshmukh and was a part of Shastri Institutional Collaborative Research Grant (SICRG) project, between Prof. Deshmukh (IIT Tirupati) and Prof. S Basu & Prof. S R Valluri (University of Western Ontario, Canada). The team worked on optimization of thermoelectric material efficiency. The work involved the calculation of Fermi–Dirac integrals which enabled generalization of Wiedemann–Franz law to augment thermoelectric figure of merit. Generalized Lambert W functions (offset log) were used to optimize thermal and electric conductivity of thermoelectric materials. This project involved development and use of innovative mathematical applications. The solutions, thus, obtained will enable the search for new and efficient thermoelectric materials.
Check out the research paper published by the team here
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The Centre for Canadian Studies, University of Delhi organized the "Inaugural Webinar" (in a series of webinars on Impact of COVID 19 on economies of India and Canada) on "COVID 19: Strategy and Experience of India and Canada" on 9th November 2020 in association with Department of Finance and Business Economics UDSC. His Excellency Ajay Bisaria, High Commissioner of India to Canada, was the Chief Guest for the webinar. The session was also attended by the Acting Vice-Chancellor, Director South Campus and Deputy Director, Centre for Canadian Studies.
Delhi University has served as an ‘Area Studies’ Centre for Canadian studies for almost 25 years now. Supported through many awards and grants by SICI, we take pride in centre’s achievements till date and wish them all the very best to rejuvenate its activities under the able guidance of the new Director, Dr Suman Kundu.
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The Indo-Canadian Studies Centre, the University of Mumbai in collaboration with the CoHaB IDC, University of Mumbai organised online launch of the book titled "The Sikh Next Door: An Identity In Transition" penned by Centre's Research Fellow Dr. Manpreet J. Singh on October 22, 2020. The link to the report of this book launch can be accessed here .
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Check out previous issues of Engage...
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