20 - 26 July, 2024

Prayaag Akbar, Visiting Associate Professor of Literature, SIAS (School of Interwoven Arts and Sciences), Krea University, and author of the award-winning novel Leila, has published his second novel, Mother India, with HarperCollins. In the words of the publishers, “Sparkling and unexpected, Prayaag Akbar's new novel brilliantly captures what it means to be young and alive in today's India.”

Know more

Dr Sunder Ramaswamy, the founding Vice-Chancellor of Krea University, was part of the Steering Committee of the Global India Conference at Princeton University, that took place on 12-13 April, 2024. This pan-USA academic conference was a collaborative effort between the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University and the M.S. Chadha Center for Global India at Princeton.

At the Framing the Arts & Humanities Keynote Conversation session, Dr Ranjana Khanna, Director of the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University, in her remarks about the "State of Humanities'' in India, acknowledged the World Humanities Report – South Asia Chapter anchored by Professor Bishnu Mohapatra, Professor of Politics, SIAS and Director of the Moturi Satyanarayana Centre for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Krea University. Dr Khanna also appreciated the contribution of Dr Ramaswamy at the Global India Conference.

The World Humanities Report was also analysed and covered by The Frontline, read more here.

Dr C P Anil Kumar, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, SIAS, Krea University authored a paper titled On Infinity Type Hyperplane Arrangements and Convex Positive Bijections, published in the Indian Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics (IJPA).

Consider a hyperplane arrangement, i.e., a finite collection of hyperplanes, in an n-dimensional Euclidean space. We say that an arrangement is generic if there are at least n hyperplanes and a codimension k intersection is formed by exactly k many hyperplanes.

This is an interesting arrangement – for example, for a fixed m ≥ n, a generic arrangement of m hyperplanes in an n-dimensional Euclidean space has the maximum number of regions. Two arrangements are (combinatorially) isomorphic (or equivalent) if there is an ambient linear homeomorphism which preserves incidences between strata and the polyhedral structure of each stratum. In general, it is an interesting (and difficult) problem to understand the isomorphism classes of arrangements. In this paper, the author introduces and defines a new type of hyperplane arrangements called infinity type hyperplane arrangements.  The concept of normal systems (which is a collection of normal directions to these hyperplanes) are used to uniquely identify such generic arrangements. The main theorem states that the equivalence of two infinity type generic hyperplane arrangements is equivalent to the isomorphism of corresponding normal systems. The author also considers the case of all generic arrangements and proves that equivalence of arrangements implies isomorphism of normal systems. Further, a counter example is provided to show that the converse need not be true.

DOI ID | The article

Deesha Jeppu, Tanvi Kadakol and Nivedita Naveen of the Post Graduation Diploma Cohort of 2024 at SIAS, Krea University had a poster presentation titled, Drivers of diversity differ between specialist and generalist avian malaria parasites at the Indian Wildlife Ecology Conference (IWEC) 2024, held at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru from 14-16 June 2024.

Elucidating the mechanisms shaping parasite diversity patterns is critical because parasites encompass about 40% of known species, and play crucial roles in maintaining ecosystem structure and function. In free-living species, patterns of diversity in the Anthropocene are known to be shaped by niche breadth because, as predicted by theory, environmental disturbance is more likely to negatively impact specialist vs. generalist taxa. Like free-living species, parasites too can be categorized as specialists or generalists according to their niche breadth (i.e., host taxonomic diversity). However, unlike free-living species, the effects of niche breadth on parasite diversity patterns remain unclear. In this study, the students use avian haemosporidian parasites as a model system to identify the factors affecting parasite phylogenetic diversity patterns, and test if these patterns differ between specialist (Haemoproteus) and generalist (Plasmodium) parasites. The results demonstrate that, in keeping with ecological theory, specialist vs. generalist parasites show: (i) higher α diversity and lower evenness, and (ii) higher β diversity due to changes in richness and lower β diversity due to taxon replacement. The results also suggest that in specialist parasites diversity is primarily shaped by host-related variables, unlike generalists which are impacted by a variety of host- and environment-related factors. The results have broad implications for understanding the role of parasites as indicators of ecosystem health, as well as the effects of anthropogenic environmental modification on the rise of emerging infectious diseases.

They worked under the guidance of Professor Guha Dharmaraja, Professor of Biology, SIAS, Krea University.

View Poster

As part of IFMR GSB's Marketing elective, 105 MBA students attended a session on brand marketing by Saurabh Bajaj - Practical Marketer, EVP of Prepaid Marketing at Vodafone Idea Limited and author of The Practical Marketer: Your Ultimate Guide to Consumer Product Marketing. He shared insights on FMCG marketing processes, STP approaches, and positioning grids, and answered questions on branding strategies of Mondelēz, Diageo, Britannia, Bisleri and Gillette.

Organised by Sathyanarayanan R, Sundram Fasteners Associate Professor, Marketing, IFMR GSB, Krea University, the session provided valuable industry perspectives.

The sixth feature in the Onwards & Upwards campaign series is Harshi Shah, Cohort of 2025, SIAS, Krea University. Harshi interned as a Research Intern in the People Consulting Team with Ernst & Young India for two months. Listen to her as she shares the experiences and exposure she gained during her internship.

View here

Krea University welcomed the latest members of the SIAS family. The Orientation Programme for the incoming Cohort of 2028 was held from 17-21 July, 2024, on the Sri City campus. The inaugural ceremony featured Krea’s internal stakeholders sharing their wisdom with the incoming cohort to ensure a smooth start for the students. Here is a roundup of the diverse sessions.

View more