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Published on Tuesday, 26 April 2016

Phantoms-In-Transit – An Intriguing Solo Exhibition Inaugurated

12 April 2016: A solo exhibition tilted Phantoms-in-Transit by a young artist Subrata Das was inaugurated today by Dr. Kavita A. Sharma at the South Asian University Gallery in Akbar Bhawan, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. The exhibition unravels the lives and experiences of the migrant workers across cities. Seemingly, they become phantoms-in-transit in various parts of South Asia. The artist effectively captures the struggle, the journey and their experiences through an immaculately done dozen pieces in various mediums.

This series brings out the subtlety and mundane experience of construction labourers, who flock the urban locations all around South Asia from the countryside to help construct buildings, roads and other infrastructure. Such labouring hands seldom get the opportunity to experience the luxuries of living in the high-rises they build. In return for constructing such spectacular structures, they merely make a pittance, and gingerly return to the localities with unfulfilled fantasies. This series invites viewers to interrogate this structure of non-glamorous reality.

Subrata Das is a Delhi based visual artist and was trained at the College of Art, Delhi. The exhibition, which happens to be his debut solo show, will be on for public from 12 April 2016 till 1 May 2016.

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Published on Wednesday, 09 December 2015

SAARC Nations Should Solve Their Problems Together, Says Professor Gohwer Rizvi

New Delhi: Many of the major challenges facing the South Asian countries are trans-national and need to be solved together as most of them cannot be solved by national governments of the region in isolation, said Professor Gowher Rizvi. He said the complementarity of the nations of this region needs to be acknowledged and the region can become the largest market in the world.

Professor Gowher Rizvi, international affairs advisor to the prime minister of Bangladesh, was speaking at the 31st SAARC Charter Day celebration at the South Asian University. The day commemorates the signing of the charter of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation by seven heads of state in Kathmandu in 1985. After the idea of establishing a SAARC University was mooted by the then Prime Minister of India in the Dhaka Summit of SAARC in 2005, Prof. Gowher Rizvi, was entrusted with the task of preparing the Concept Paper for SAU. The South Asian University became operational in the year 2010 with its first batch of students.

SAU should be the breeding ground for future leaders of the region where they live, think and learn together. The university should become a world-class educational institution in the near future and it should expedite the South Asian Consciousness, he added.

Commenting about SAARC, he said the achievements of the regional body cannot be undermined and its failure, if at all, should not be its own making as it is what the member nations allow it to be. He further commented that the member nations should explore and take advantage of the enormous commonality that the countries share and the geographical proximity they enjoy with each other.

The event was chaired by Dr. Kavita A. Sharma, the President of SAU. She said the celebration of events like the SAARC Day, which is an annual affair at the university, is one of the ways to underline the importance of co-operation. She said the South Asian region could achieve much more with increased co-operation in various fields.

A panel discussion on the topic “Enhancing Economic Cooperation and Peace in SAARC” was also held. The discussion saw the participation of noted academicians from the South Asian region that include Dr. Shankar Prasad Sharma, former Vice Chairman of Nepal’s Planning Commission and former ambassador to the USA, Dasho Karma Ura, President of Centre for Bhutan Studies and GNH Research, Bhutan and senior academic from Sri Lanka, Professor Sumanasiri Liyanage. The discussion was chaired by Professor Santosh Panda, Dean, Faculty of Economics at South Asian University. The panel explored and discussed the areas of economic co-operation and the factors affecting them.

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Published on Tuesday, 10 February 2015

SAU TO HOST FIRST ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF SOUTH ASIAN BIOTECHNOLOGISTS

New Delhi: Faculty of Life Sciences and Biotechnology (FLSB), of the South Asian University (SAU) is organizing  “South-Asian Biotechnology Conference” from 12-14 February 2015. Biotechnologists from various SAARC countries shall participate in this three day event that will be inaugurated by Prof. GP Talwar, the erstwhile Director of the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi. Participants from SAARC countries will present their research and get first-hand information about the kind of research work being carried out in this part of the world. Besides basic Life Sciences, the Conference will have sessions on Plant and Medical Biotechnology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases.

A special panel discussion entitled “Initiatives to promote collaborative research in the SAARC region” has also been scheduled for the last day of the Conference and will be dedicated to discuss ways and means for enhancing research cooperation and intra-SAARC collaborations on shared problems.

According to Prof. RK Saxena, the Chairman of the Conference and the Vice President of SAU, this conference will mark the first step towards the goal of establishing SAU as a coordinator of intra-SAARC research collaborations in the areas of human health, agriculture and environment. South Asian Biotechnology Conference would hence-forth be an annual event on the calendar of SAU.

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Published on Tuesday, 09 December 2014

SAARC must overcome the legacy of mistrust of the past

New Delhi: Culture, commerce and connectivity can be the building blocks for a better future for the people of South Asia, said Ms Sushma Swaraj, India’s External Affairs Minister.

The Minister was speaking at a SAARC event organised by the South Asian University (SAU) to commemorate the 30th SAARC Charter Day at India International Centre here. The event was well attended by Ambassadors, High Commissioners, Heads of international institutions, SAARC organisations, think tanks and many other dignitaries.

Ms Swaraj said economic growth and social progress are possible only in a peaceful and secure environment. As neighbours we must remain sensitive to each other’s security concerns and neither encourage nor undertake any activity that might be detrimental to the security and welfare of the neighbour, she added.

She also reiterated the remarks made by Prime Minister Modi at the SAARC Summit about cooperation in energy, trade, connectivity and overcoming common challenges.

The South Asian University, by building a culture of understanding and regional consciousness, by nurturing a new class of bright, liberal minds can play a transformative role in this process, said the Minister.

In her welcome address, Dr. Kavita Sharma, the President of SAU said “the South Asian University embodies the idea of regional connectivity in more ways than one and a new generation of South Asians are being groomed who share collective experiences and contribute richly to a shared regional consciousness”. The recently concluded 18th SAARC summit in its Kathmandu Declaration acknowledged the significance of education in the region and the positive contribution of SAU in this regard, she added.

India’s Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, in the eighteenth SAARC Summit, mentioned about the need for the South Asian University to collaborate with at least one university in each member country. Dr. Sharma said, initiatives have been taken and the strategy for the same is being worked out.

A panel discussion moderated by Prof. SD Muni followed where the challenges and opportunities of the regional body were discussed. The panellists include senior journalist and political commentator HK Dua, Professor Amita Batra from the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Prof. Sasanka Perera from the South Asian University.

Dr. Sharma, President SAU also inaugurated an international workshop on Data and Text Analytics attended by participants from all SAARC countries in the afternoon.

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Published on Friday, 10 October 2014

REGIONAL YOUTH CONFERENCE TO CONCLUDE WITH A CULTURAL FIESTA


New Delhi: Young scholars and researchers from across the South Asian Region will debate on various socially relevant issues over two days in a regional conference. The event, Debating Identity – Dialogues across Boundaries, will be held on 16 and 17 October at the Akbar Bhawan campus of South Asian University.

The youth conference will see many young scholars and researchers from social sciences and humanities background from universities and research organizations from SAARC countries discussing on a variety of topics that include minority and transnational identity, cosmopolitanism, multiculturalism and alternative gender.


The two day conference will conclude with a day-long cultural journey called Jatra ’14 on 18 October wherein cultural activities of different hues and sounds will take centre stage. The activities will include South Asian food festival, photo exhibition, blood donation drive, musical concerts by artistes and bands from different South Asian countries. The events have been organised by the Sociology Department, Faculty of Social Sciences, SAU.

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Published on Wednesday, 12 February 2014

SOUTH ASIAN UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES ADMISSION

MORE FOCUS GIVEN ON ONLINE APPLICATION

New Delhi: It all can start with a click and finish off with another, literally. SAARC-established South Asian University has announced admission to its various Master’s as well as M.Phil/Ph.D. programmes and aspirants can complete the entire admission process online.

With student population at the university drawnalmost entirely from the eight member nations of the SAARC, going online seems like a logical step forward. In fact the university introduced online application last year.

This year the process of application has been further simplified to make it easier for aspirants to apply to programmes of their choice, said Prof. Rajiv Saxena, Vice President. Nine out of every ten applications the university received last year was through online and this trend is expected to continue this year also, he adds.

Students, who do not have access to internet banking, credit card or a debit card, to pay the entrance test fee can still apply through the offline mode by downloading the application forms from the university website.

SAU’s President Prof. GK Chadha said, “Compared to other universities in India, we cover much more geography as far as the aspirants we cater to are concerned. With SAU gaining more popularity, we are expecting an upward swing in the number of applications.”

The university is admitting students for its fifth academic year in Master’s as well as M.Phil./Ph.D. programmes in the areas of Applied Mathematics, Biotechnology, Computer Science, Development Economics, International Relations, Legal Studies and Sociology. There are 30 seats in each of the master’s degree programmes. The number of seats for M.Phil/Ph.D., though, vary from programme to programme.

To further facilitate free flow of information between the university and aspirants, SAU has opened an admission blog dedicated to the aspirants. The blog has, among other things, the detailed information about the courses, admission procedure, videos and the details of Admission Volunteers, to whom aspirants can ask questions and clarify their doubts. The aspirants can also communicate with the university through social networking pages.

While the last date of accepting applications at SAU is March 3, 2014, the SAARC-wide entrance test for both Masters &M.Phil/Ph.D. programmes is scheduled for April 6, 2014. All the details can be accessed from www.sau.ac.in