2-8 October 2019

Dasara or Navaratri is a ten-day festival, usually falling in the month of October, and is celebrated all over India in the worship of the Divine as the Mother principle. Since the early sixties, the festival of Dasara in Prasanthi Nilayam has been closely associated with the Veda Purusha Saptaha Jnana Yagna. This yagnam is a week-long worship conducted in the Divine Presence in the Poornachandra Auditorium in Prasanthi Nilayam each year for the welfare of the whole world. The yagnam commences on the fourth day of Dasara and concludes with the Poornahuti – the final oblation that is offered on Vijayadasami, the tenth day.

In addition to other rituals, the most important component of the yagnam is the Rudra yagam where the oblations are made in the Yagna Kunda to Lord Shiva while chanting hymns from the Sri Rudram. The students of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning take active part by chanting the vedas, reading the scriptures and performing other parts of the worship along with the learned pundits.

The evening programmes during the seven days of the yagnam are held in Sai Kulwant Hall, under the auspices of the ‘Prasanthi Vidwan Mahasabha’, where many speakers—primarily students and functionaries of Bhagawan’s educational institutions—address the gathering on topics concerning spirituality and philosophy, Bhagawan’s teachings and experiences of devotees.

‘Swacch Bharat’ occupies a central theme alongside development goals of the Government of India. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has identified SSSIHL’s potential and requested to implement a ‘Swachh Action Plan’ (SAP) (since 2018) in nearby ‘adopted’ villages. You can see these in action on our posts on Grama Seva here, here and here.

The purpose is to use higher education skills to help meet a clean living environment and assist villagers in getting clean water and sanitation, health care, energy, education etc in a sustainable manner. Educated youth are also urged to develop skills, build capacity and mind set to address community problems in their surroundings.

In addition, the University has always adopted best practices towards the Greenery of the campuses, cleanliness, recycling and waste management. Some of these are highlighted in the photo collage below.

#SSSIHLIntegralEducation #SSSIHL

Campus Greenery

SSSIHL Kitchens

Liquid Biomedical Waste Decontamination Disposal

SSSIHL Solar Panels

Liquid Biomedical Waste Decontamination Disposal

A workshop for postgraduate and Ph.D. students on the potential applications of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) in the fields of chemical, biological, pharmaceutical and medical sciences to help solve complex biology problems was conducted on 14 Sep 2019 by SSSIHL Central Research Instruments Facility (CRIF).

The workshop was led by Prof. Ramakrishna Vadrevu, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad. Dr Ashish Arora, CSIR-The Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow and Prof. Siddhartha P Sarma, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore were the invited speakers.

Students were introduced to various NMR techniques including Basics of Magnetic Resonance, principles of one-dimensional, two-dimensional and three-dimensional NMR spectroscopy, and the like.

Detailed discussions about the potential of NMR, including elucidating the structures of complex biological samples like peptides and proteins along with Protein-Ligand interactions in relation to interactions of drug candidates with the therapeutic targets ensued.

Issues relating to using NMR to solve complex structures of the therapeutic targets by using various 2D and 3D NMR techniques in detail with case studies from the experts’ labs, as well as isolating toxins from venoms of snakes and cone snails were deliberated on.

#SSSIHLResearch #SSSIHLCRIF #SSSIHL

National Nutrition Week Celebrations – The Health Happy Week
1-7 Sep 2019

“Take in only simple, pure, clean food – what is called sattvic food by the sages – that is to say, food that will not arouse the impulses and emotions, sharpen the passions, upset the equanimity, or hamper health. Food offered to God is free from the evil vibrations that injure the individual in subtle ways. Food offered to the hungry and then also eaten has the same beneficial quality. Since food has a subtle impact on the feelings and thoughts of man, you have to be ever vigilant.”
Sri Sathya Sai Baba

The National Nutrition Week, an initiative by The Ministry of Health, Govt. of India, is aimed to address several major health issues in India, such as malnutrition, awareness of a proper diet and nutrition and their positive benefits on people’s well-being.

The Dept. of Food & Nutritional Sciences, SSSIHL celebrated this week by designing a nine-code initiative, The Health Happy Week. The nine codes included daily walking, pranayama and yogasanas/exercises, bhajans/meditation/relaxation with music, care of plants, laughter session, avoiding caffeine (tea/coffee) and sugar, and consuming a bowl of salt and vegetables.

The Doctoral Research Scholars spread the awareness of this with posters and information sessions. The sessions also included presentations on how to incorporate the five human values in nutrition: The truth about food, Dharmic perspectives from farm to fork, Cultivating peace through food, Love in action through food banking, and the value of vegetarianism and a plant-based diet.

#SSSIHLFoodNutritionalSciences #SSSIHL

#SSSIHL #SSSIHLResearch

Lord Ganesha. He removes our obstacles; He liberates our mind from fear. He infuses in us the courage to follow dharma, and ultimately protects us all.

This afternoon, at SSSIHL, the staff of the Administrative Office and students from all four campuses – Prasanthi Nilayam, Anantapur, Brindavan and Muddenahalli – came together in love and reverence for Lord Ganesha.

The individual chariots, made with immense love for Bhagawan Baba, and decorated with all the possible hues of colour — each with a creative story and message behind it, made their way from the office or the hostel to the final destination of immersion.

#SSSIHL #GaneshChaturthi #SSSIHLIntegralEducation

SAKURA Science Exchange Program – JAIST, Japan, 16-26 Aug 2019.

As part of prestigious SAKURA Science Exchange Program organized by the Japan Government, nine Doctoral Research Scholars and a teacher (from the departments of Physics, Chemistry, Biosciences and Food & Nutritional Sciences, SSSIHL) visited Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), in the Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan from 16 to 26 August 2019.

This year’s research focused on Sustainable Materials. A host of six professors at JAIST exposed SSSIHL researchers to the systematic protocols of research, engaged them in discussions (at the mentor group’s journal clubs), and trained the team in various advanced synthesis, characterization and applications undertaken at JAIST.

The various techniques picked up ranged from computational simulation to experimental hands-on work. The visit yielded a good amount of collaborations, ideas and a couple of publications under preparation and review.

Students and Teachers across all SSSIHL campuses celebrate India’s 73^rd #independenceday

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The #periodictable of elements – the backbone of Chemistry – turns 150! Back then, a Russian Chemist and inventor, Dmitri Mendeleev, formulated the Periodic Law, and his farsighted version brought us the Periodic Table. Most of us have fond (or in many cases, not so fond) memories of trying to memorize this table when we were in school.

As part of this celebration, the Department of Chemistry, SSSIHL arranged a talk by Prof. V Chandrasekhar, Centre Director, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad, on 8 August 2019. He spoke on the topic, Periodic Table @150: Some Stories.

He started with historical anecdotes of Mendeleev and his contributions to the development of the periodic table. He elaborated on why we need a periodic table and why (at all) do we need to establish a relationship between the elements? The answer lies in the fact that we use many — if not all the elements — as part of our daily lives.

Pluto stated that all matter is made of elements (earth, fire, air, water and space), and thus began the journey of science. Chemistry, on the other hand, began with the alchemist’s search for the philosopher’s stone to convert base metals into gold. In this regard, there were many alchemists, such as Henning Brand (who discovered Phosphorus – flask glowing in the dark), Robert Boyle (who gave the gas laws) and Lavoisier (who quantified science by coming up with the law of mass conservation).

In time, there were many elements and a growing number of attempts on finding a relationship between the elements, starting with Dobereiner triads, Newland’s octave and finally Mendeleev. Against all the odds, he completed his education and went on to develop a periodic table that was first arranged, based on the atomic mass of elements. He not only arranged the elements into a table but also predicted the possibility of the discovery of new elements by proposing gaps between the existing elements. Then, Lord Rayleigh and Sir William Ramsay discovered the noble gases and Chadwick discovered the isotopes.

The final piece of the puzzle in the periodic table, as we know of today, was solved by Henry Moseley, who arranged the periodic table by atomic number and then several gaps were filled later by the discovery of more elements of the periodic table by scientists such as Seaborg. The talk looked at the development of the periodic table from the layman’s perspective, offering a fusion of science and history. It was delightful, insightful and invigorating.

#SSSIHLChemistry #SSSIHL

Monetary Policy.
The most complex of all macroeconomic processes becomes even more complicated when you apply it to a developing country like India. Supply constraints, underdeveloped financial markets and resource gaps are just some of the challenges involved.

To deliberate on this, the Dept. of Economics held a one-day lecture series, Recent Developments in India’s Monetary Policy on 27 July 2019. The four lectures included:

Dr. G Raghavender Raju, Head, Dept. of Economics, SSSIHL, spoke about the objectives of monetary policy and gave an overview of the evolution of India’s monetary policy.

Mr. Jinu Jose, Senior Vice President and National Account Manager, UTI Mutual Fund, Bangalore, gave a lecture on Understanding Liquidity, Inflation and the Interest rates. He spoke on the theoretical relationships between them and correlated this relationship with current data of the Indian Economy.

Prof. V L Rao, Former Professor in Gitam University, Visakhapatnam, talked about the Emerging Trends in India’s Monetary Policy. He expanded on the monetary policy of India during and after the global financial crisis of 2008.

Ms. Vibhuti Koul, Senior Vice President and National Account Manager, UTI Mutual Fund, Mumbai, spoke on the Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFC) crisis and discussed the causes, implications and lessons to be learnt from it.

Dr. (Miss) Dibba Bhargavi, Asst. Professor and Ms. Prasanti Prabha, Doctoral Research Scholar from the Department of English Language and Literature, SSSIHL, presented a paper each at the niche and prestigious Iris Murdoch Centenary Conference at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford, UK, 13-15 July 2019.

The conference was organised by The Iris Murdoch Research Centre in association with the University of Oxford.

The Iris Murdoch Society, based at the University of Chichester, is run by the Research Centre of the University to promote the philosophical and artistic vision of Iris Murdoch, a post-modern British novelist and philosopher. Professors, researchers, critics and general readers of Murdoch attend the conferences that the Society conducts (once every two years) in order to enhance, promote and archive the research on Murdoch.

Scholars from across 19 countries enthusiastically participated in the panel discussions, round-table conferences and symposiums dealing with a wide range of topics like ethics, intertextuality, politics, mind, perception, sociability, poetics, philosophy, aesthetics, realism, løgstrup, film, music, art, form, and moral life reflected in Murdoch’s writing.

Since Murdoch was influenced by Indian philosophy, the papers presented focussed on tracing the subtle references to Indian philosophical concepts in her novels. Titled, “Who is the Master?: An Understanding of The Message to the Planet in the Indian Context” and “Meandering Through the Web of Illusion: Bruno’s Dream from an Indian Perspective”, both papers analysed Iris Murdoch’s work using narratology. They also highlighted the latent Vedantic undertones in some of her novels.

The presentations were appreciated for the novelty of the idea and interpretation.

As participants, the team visited and explored the exhibition (on Murdoch’s Oxford life) at Somerville College & Kingston Museum. Other interesting and educating activities that were a part of the Centenary Conference included:

• A first-ever summer school organised by the Iris Murdoch Society that included lectures, seminars, optional supervision, literary tours and excursions with professional guides.
• A book launch programme by well-known critics and authors like Anne Rowe, Lucy Boulton and Peter J Conradi.
• A launch of new editions to Murdoch’s most popular novels.
• A series of round table lectures by eminent professors and critics such as Peter Garrard, Gary Browning, Lucy Bolton, Justin Broackes, Niklas Forsberg, Miles Leeson, and Anne Rowe.
• An on-screen and stage performance on Murdoch by the University of Chichester.

#SSSIHL #SSSIHLEnglishLanguageLiterature