Article "Public understanding of participation in regulatory decision-making: The case of bottled water quality standards in India" by CSSP Scholars

Public understanding of participation in regulatory decision-making: The case of bottled water quality standards in India
by Saradindu Bhaduri and Aviram Sharma
Public Understanding of Science, Published online before print July 24, 2012

Abstract
"Science-based" standards are an integral part of modern regulatory systems. Studies on "public understanding of science" mostly focus on high technology areas in advanced economies. In contrast, the present study analyses the public understanding of regulation in the context of standard-setting for bottled water quality in India. Using primary data, the econometric models of this paper show that public understanding of participation in regulation depends on awareness of, and trust in, existing regulatory practices in a complex, non-linear manner. In this light, the paper argues that "deficit model" and "dialogue model" frameworks cannot be seen as two mutually exclusive frameworks of analyses.

Full-text Access: http://pus.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/07/06/0963662512452231.full.pdf+html

JFTC Essay Competition 2012 - Topic: “Strategies for a Depopulating Japan”

JFTC Essay Competition 2012
Essay Topic: "Strategies for a Depopulating Japan"

Since 2005, the Japan Foreign Trade Council, Inc. (JFTC) has sponsored an annual essay competition to encourage students, young researchers and business people to express their opinions on matters of national and international importance.
For the best essays, judges will award one Grand Prize of 1 million yen and three Prizes for Excellence worth 200,000 yen. Award winners from abroad will also be provided with a round-trip flight to Tokyo to attend the award ceremony on 8 January, 2013.

"Strategies for a Depopulating Japan"
The essay topic for this year's competition is "Strategies for a Depopulating Japan". The population of Japan peaked at 127.79mn in 2004 and, according to the medium-variant projection of the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, it will decrease to 115.22mn by 2030 and continue falling below the 100mn level to reach 95.15mn by 2050.
A variety of proposals to keep our society running with a dwindling population have been developed, including encouraging people to have larger families, new business models focusing on enhancing the standards of living for the ageing, reforms to the political and social security systems, and efforts to import manpower. However, none have proven remarkably effective. What kind of country should we create in the future? And how can we achieve it? The drastic decline of a population in a rapidly ageing society is expected to have a negative impact in various areas of people's lives—slowing economic growth, draining the national revenue, threatening the quality of social security systems, and even causing a serious concern over national security.
Population decline due to a low birth rate in an ageing society is not a unique problem to Japan and represents a globally developing concern—including in China and European nations. As the first country to face this problem, the rest of the world is watching closely to see how Japan will cope effectively.
Based on the issues outlined above, JFTC invites all participants to write freely about their ideas on a depopulating Japan—unrestricted by conventional ideas worldwide.

How to submit
Individuals of all nationalities and ages are free to enter the competition. Essays must be submitted using the downloadable entry form on the JFTC website, together with both essay title and summary.
Essays can be submitted in English (max. 4,000 words) or Japanese (max. 10,000 characters) with an accompanying essay summary of no more than 400 words in English and 1,000 Japanese characters.
Deadline for submission is 15 September, 2012 at 24:00 (JST).
Winners will be announced on 14 December, 2012.
All submissions must be original and no previously published materials will be accepted.

About JFTC
JFTC is a trade-industry association with a membership comprising trading firms, trade organizations and so on, aiming to build a stable future and forge closer global links.
JFTC's objective is to contribute to the prosperity of the Japanese economy and enhance international society through the mutual exchange of people, goods, money and information with overseas countries—helping Japan become a new trading nation. The JFTC works towards developing a consensus within the business community regarding various trade-related issues—contributing to the revitalisation and development of the Japanese and global economies.
Japan Foreign Trade Council, Inc.
Public Relations Group
Tel: +81(0)3-3435-5964
E-mail: kouhou (at) jftc.or.jp
Website: www.jftc.or.jp
http://bccjacumen.com/features/publicity/2012/07/jftc-essay-competition-2012-2/

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CfPs: 1st JNU National Interaction Programme for Ph.D Scholars in Social Sciences and Humanities, 5-9 Nov. 2012

Academic Staff College, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Invites Application for Short-Term Programme

1st JNU National Interaction Programme for Ph.D Scholars in Social Sciences and Humanities

5-9 November, 2012

• Please submit your application at least 60 days before the start of a course so that we have sufficient time to correspond with you.
• JNU, ASC provides Hostel and Mess facilities to all outstation candidates..
• For further details visit http://www.jnu.ac.in/ASC or call at 011-26742566, 011-26742532, or email at asc.jnu@gmail.com

 

Application Form

CfPs: International Conference on Science and Technology for Economic Diversification (INSCITED) 2013, Trinidad

International Conference on Science and Technology for Economic Diversification (INSCITED) 2013

Conference Dates: February 27 – March 01, 2013

Venue: Hyatt Regency, Port of Spain, Trinidad

Organizers: National Institute of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (NIHERST), Trinidad and Tobago; National Institute of Science Technology & Development Studies (NISTADS), CSIR, India

Call for Papers

About the Conference
Scientific knowledge and technology provides countries with the tools needed to support economic transformation and sustainable development. In emerging market nations, science and technology institutions must now focus on areas over which they have influence - higher education and training, labour market efficiency, technological readiness and innovation – to diversify their countries' economic base and strengthen global competitiveness. Moreover, science can make a valuable contribution to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), improving the lives of those in emerging market and developing countries.
The National Institute of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (NIHERST), Trinidad and Tobago and CSIR-National Institute of Science Technology & Development Studies (NISTADS), India invites participation in their first joint conference entitled "International Conference on Science and Technology for Economic Diversification-INSCITED-2013."
INSCITED 2013 seeks to promote scientific research collaboration between India, Trinidad & Tobago and other emerging economies facing similar developmental challenges. The Conference aims to introduce practical policy solutions to the following challenges:

• Weak links between science institutions and the private sector
• Outdated or non-existent science and technology policies in most countries
• 'Brain drain' associated with scientists, engineers and technicians leaving the region to work in developed nations; and
• Weak and thinly spread R&D institutions or centres

INSCITED 2013 will serve as a platform for interactive learning between India, Trinidad & Tobago, and international experts, policy-makers and researchers in the various areas of higher education and training, labour markets, and science and technology. We welcome papers on the following themes/areas:

• Inclusive Growth and Economic Diversification
• Human Resource Development: Higher Education, Training and Labour Markets
• Technology and Growth

List of topics
1. Inclusive Growth and Economic Diversification
a. S&T policy framework for supporting inclusive growth, economic diversification, and sustainable development
b. Role of S&T meeting MDGs
c. Leveraging the Diaspora for reverse brain drain
2. Human Resource Development
a. S&T human resource and skills mapping
b. Emerging patterns of higher education
c. Educational linkages; professional, technical and higher education areas through use of IT enabled services such as e-Education
3. Technology and Growth
a. Promoting technology transfer in the agricultural-rural sector and SMEs
b. Developing high technology and ICT-enabled businesses
c. Advanced materials and manufacturing

We particularly welcome research papers highlighting cross-country comparative policy studies on different national institutions and policy practices, which may offer new insights for improving international competitiveness, labour market and human capital development, and creating national innovation systems.

Important Dates
Submission of abstract by 17th September 2012
Notification of acceptance of abstract by 5th October 2012
Submission of full paper by 28th December 2012
Please register by 28th September 2012

Preparation of Abstracts & Papers
Abstracts must be 150-175 words in length using Times New Roman in Microsoft Word with title in 12-point font and everything else in 11-point font. Typing should be fully justified, with 2.5 cm (one inch) margins at the top and at each side. The entire abstract, including title name of the author(s), affiliation(s), text and acknowledgements should be typed within these limits.
The Abstract title should be centred and typed in bold, 'title style' in 12-point font. On the next line, the name(s) of the Author(s) (lower case, 11-point font, in bold) should be written as initials(s) followed by family name(s). Names of author(s) must be centre and separated by semi-colons, underlining the name of the person who will present the paper. On the next line (no extra line spaces), the institution(s) of the author(s) must be typed in italics and centred. When the authors are from different institutions, the authors and institutions should be numbered using superscripts to the top right of the names and the top left of the institutions.
The body of the Abstract (without any sub-headings) should start two line spaces below the institutional identification. The text should be typed using 1.5 line spacing with an extra space separating paragraphs. Paragraphs should not be indented.
It is suggested that Abstracts include: a definition of the problem, a working proposition, methods or techniques employed, results, discussions and conclusions.
Separate guidelines will be given for the preparation of full Papers on acceptance of abstracts. The length must be below 7000 words, and only full submitted papers will be accepted.

Contact Details
Ms. Joycelyn Lee Young (joycelyn.leeyoung@niherst.gov.tt)
Dr. Naresh Kumar (nareshqumar@yahoo.com)
Mr. Robert Martinez (robert.martinez@niherst.gov.tt)

Further Details

CfPs: International Symposium on Producing knowledge, governing populations; ENS, Lyon, France; 10-13 September 2013

International Symposium on Producing knowledge, governing populations: Anthropology, science studies and health policies
ENS, Lyon, France
10-13 September 2013

Organizers
Charlotte Brives (LAM – UMR5115), Frédéric Le Marcis (IRD & ENS-Lyon) & Josiane Tantchou (LAM-UMR5115)

Scientific Committee
Jean-Pierre Dozon (EHESS), Didier Fassin (Princeton & EHESS), Wenzel Geissler (LSHTM), Marc-Eric Gruénais (U Bordeaux), Bruno Latour (Sciences Po – Paris), Anne-Marie Moulin (CNRS), Vinh Kim Nguyen (U Montréal), Kaushik Sunder Rajan (U. Chicago), Laurent Vidal (IRD)

Research in what is called the anthropology of health (in France) and medical anthropology (in the English speaking world) share a common concern for how bioscience, biotechnology, and biomedicine raise issues at the heart of contemporary society. Francophone and Anglophone anthropologists have worked theoretically side by side (but sometimes in ignorance of each other) to examine health inequalities, patterns of resort, pharmaceutical developments, public health policies, interventions on populations. They have placed the body in context and decentered biomedical notions of health and illness as they have revealed changing definition of old age and death or the patenting of life. These developments index a transforming relationship between humanity and health, one made visible in the relationship between subjectivity, misfortune –embodied or not – and the forms of political engagement these incite. This research, sensitive to how life is not at the heart of our ways of thinking and doing politics, remains haunted by Foucault's works on biopower and, increasingly, the care of the self.

Science and technology studies (STS) has over the past 30 years shown how scientific production creates new standards and values, how such works fans out through complex networks, each time redefining the world in which we live. STS research on biomedicine has also grown, but often isolated from conversations and debates in the anthropology of health and medical anthropology. These two disciplinary solitudes (medical anthropology and STS) have been maintained by critics that accuse STS of inadequate fieldwork and a heavy-handed approach to forcing data to fit pre-established theoretical framework, or critics of medical anthropology who complain that rich accounts of local illness knowledge and practice are too often opposed to a monolithic and "black-boxed" version of biomedicine. Yet can we still do without a real exchange between these two disciplines?

While the paradigm of evidence-based medicine seems to enjoy unquestioned legitimacy today, everyone agrees that this legitimacy is the byproduct of ongoing work engaging life sciences experts, health specialists and of the mobilization of social and political dynamics.
Thus evidence-based medicine is the result of an effort which, although taking the appearance of evidence, is the result of a process aiming at building its own legitimacy. Based on processes rather than given facts, evidence-based medicine is at the heart of the debate we hope to develop during this meeting. The foundations of such omnipresence of evidencebased medicine has to be studied, in that it allows the understanding of the logic of practices associated with it in contemporary societies. The primary objective of this conference is therefore to open, or rather to broaden, the space for exchanges between anthropology of health and science studies around evidence based-medicine: what are its contributions, its limitations, but also its constraints? How does it produce, impose or recompose within its everyday activities norms and standards of care? How does it redefine our conceptions of health, body and ailments afflicting us? How does it change our system of values? How does it influence the politics defining policies implemented within our health systems?
As a rough guide we suggest three main questions that will define our meeting. Although we invite papers to enroll concerning these three questions, they are far from exhaustive.

Making evidence
In most developing countries research activities are conducted within health systems. Clinical trials, scaling up interventions, and various tests and trials are inscribed into multiple dimensions. On the one hand they take part in the production of knowledge at a global level and turn research frameworks into spaces within which many questions are examined. Furthermore, this knowledge produced by researchers from the South (often in collaboration with researchers from the North) is mobilized to help a particular policy along, to defend such or such modification of an international recommendation (e.g. WHO). The problematic link between knowledge produced in these contexts, even from an operational logic standpoint, is rarely discussed. How does one go from protocol, from a test by its very nature "beyond real life" (as scientists like to put it) to public health recommendations and to practical implementations in the field? What are the rationales at stake, what are the operations of translation? What are the negotiations involved between researchers, public health specialists and political actors from global to local stances? It seems to us quite useful to read these negotiations through the lenses of the historical development of medical evidence (Marks 1999). Trial participants are indeed people who remain with their own history and daily life. Health workers have their own conception of medicine and care, which they developed through their experiences. Political, economic and social contexts vary, so do the schools of thoughts. Within trial set ups, trajectories and ontologies are multiple and the production of facts adds further to the different social worlds into which individuals are inscribed. Therefore the issue is not only to understand the production of biomedical facts in the light of the context (presence of other types of medicines, influence of religion and of the socio-political), but also to understand how this production comes to construct ontologies, professional environments, and ways of life. What does it imply for individuals, patients or health professionals? What ontologies of the body, health or disease are emerging from these practices and what is their impact? What consequences can this specific practice of medicine have on the actors involved, willingly or not? And how can we from this questioning conceive ethics or at least try to reframe some of its foundations, or else notice some inadequacies of its standardization? It is clear from these lines that we stand here far from the reductionist label attached to science, quite the opposite. We would rather understand how a new wealth and complexity find their origins in these practices, how within the space of clinical trials it is not so much the opposition of two worldviews which is displayed, rather it is their productive encounter.

Making bodies comparable
The rise of biology as a discipline, the development of statistics, and the practice of care, helped make bodies commensurable and standardizable, condition sine qua non for the development of biomedicine. However this configuration is by no means fixed. It is in fact constantly changing. Indeed, bodies are not comparable in nature and it is biomedicine's tour de force along with sciences in general to let us think they are (Latour 1997). Research carried out in Medical Anthropology highlights the idiosyncrasies peculiar to the living, and understand the materiality of the body as the product of history, social change and ongoing interactions between humans, their environment and the context in which they live, what Lock and Nguyen have summarized by forging the term "local biologies" (Lock and Nguyen 2010). When one considers human beings as unique both in terms of their genomes as in terms of their everyday experiences, there is reason to believe that the biological sciences can only produce partial picture, snapshots of the materiality of bodies. This observation allows us to offer another reading of biomedical failures and permits a better understanding of some of the problems associated with the implementation of biomedical and clinical research results originating from different contexts. Moreover it also allows for further reflection on the consequences of the biomedicalization of life and its impact on subjectivities, on the relationship that individuals have with themselves, with their image, their body, or their identity. The question of both the commensurability of the body and the generalization of data is at the heart of the issues we wish to see addressed during our meeting: while clinical trials along with the emergence of new technologies, and biomedical experiments in general are geographically and historically situated, their results can be generalized to give rise to public health policy. We are interested in all the dimensions of this journey: how, at the experimental level, is the body turned comparable to the point of adding them up, one to another? How do we produce the data? How does one objectify the living? However, this journey cannot account for its 'success', or rather cannot give an answer the age old question "why does it work", a question we must immediately replace with "how does it work." How does one render bodies comparable? How does one produce knowledge, how does one generalize to the point of making recommendations sometimes leading to real public health policies? And what are the consequences? An approach articulating science (in its most concrete modalities) and politics (at the more global scale) is strongly expected.

Standardizing practices, practicing standards
We all know that standardization is at the heart of the production of scientific statements, whether it be practices (Berg, 1997), protocols (Timmermans and Berg, 2003), or even living entities such as cells (Landecker, 2009) or organs (Hogle, 2009). This standardization aims at making facts transportable to other places, with other actors, to make them immutable mobiles (Latour). However, science studies have taught us that such standardization is never complete, never perfect. This is due to the many idiosyncrasies of the living on the one hand, and on the other to the fact that the reproducibility of a result, of a technology or statement lies foremost in the reproducibility of the conditions of their production, and therefore in the standardization of a large number of elements. Therefore, once produced, how are such data, facts, tools, technologies treated to be translated, transported, and distributed? And how are they received? Many studies in medical anthropology underline the richness and diversity of contexts in which they must take root, which sometimes means a temporary or permanent inconsistency between proposed health policies and local contexts in which we want to implement them. How are these contexts "redefined" by these policies and technologies, and with what consequences? How do experiences of populations, health, and people in the interface between science and politics fit? Of course, on this topic historians are probably better equipped than anthropologists to address this issue (Packard 1989, Vaughan 1991; Jochelson 2001) although anthropologists are not totally out of the picture (Dozon 1985, Carton 2003). People themselves are not a passive receptacle for biomedical technologies, practices, or even health policies, policies that carry the characteristic of being based on a type of amnesia when people on their side do remember (Fassin 2006). Today's recommendations may be echoing previous policies (i.e. indoor residual spraying and community mobilization in the fight against malaria). To forget this means not taking into account the history of health policies nor the memory of the people or contexts. How do patients cope with, bypass, reinvent, adapt or adjust pragmatically to implemented medical practices and technologies? How is history mobilized to understand the present? What are the continuities (or breaks) between the colonial and postcolonial eras that matter? For the African continent we invite the panelists to try and answer the question of the place and status of life science in times of necropolitics (Mbembe).

Our meeting in its purpose and questioning is inherently interdisciplinary. We claim therefore an interdisciplinary openness and invite representatives from various disciplines to propose papers (history, political science, anthropology, sociology, science studies but also clinical research, public health ...). Although the fieldwork of conference organizers mainly takes place on the African continent, papers based on other continents are most welcome. Beyond the relevance and quality expected for papers in an international symposium, their selection will be based on the appreciation of their grounding in a real fieldwork. We give to fieldwork a broad meaning: it may be archival or ethnographic. We expect original contributions based on work in progress or recently completed. We will pay particular attention to research including a historical dimension. Indeed we consider it necessary to articulate ethnography with a reflection based over a long time period. Research based on the use of archives will therefore be most welcome.

Deadline for abstract submission (500 words) : December 15th, 2012.
Notification of acceptance : March 1st, 2013
Deadline for papers : July 1st, 2013.
Email: colloquehssa@gmail.com

Public Conference on Consumer Privacy at IIC Delhi; July 7th, 2012

Public Conference on Consumer Privacy

Venue: Indian International Centre, New Delhi

Saturday, July 7th, 2012, from 9:00 am - 5:00pm

On behalf of Privacy India, and in partnership with the Centre for Internet & Society, IDRC, Society in Action Group and Privacy International, we would like to invite you to a public conference focused on discussing the challenges and concerns to consumer privacy in India.
According to the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, a consumer is a broad label for any person who buys any goods or services for consideration with the intent of using them for a non-commercial purpose. Certain services that consumers use may, by their very nature, put an extraordinary amount of sensitive personal information into the hands of vendors.
Consumer privacy is concerned with accuracy of how a consumers information is collected and used. Because a consumers relationship with another entity is based on an exchange along consented terms, a breach in consumer privacy can be constituted as an action that was not agreed to. In the age of data collection – a breach in privacy occurs when information is used in different ways than was intended. Consumer privacy in India is determined at the sectoral level, and differs depending on the services that is provided for.
As corporations sell data banks, ISP's expose consumer habits, or ones personal information falls in the wrong hands – the consequences are far reaching, and can result in spamming, unwanted marketing, theft, or the violation can impact an individual's ability to buy a home, potential employment opportunities, or gain access to credit.
In India, the right to privacy has been a neglected area of study and engagement. Although sectoral legislation deals with privacy issues, India does not as yet have a horizontal legislation that deals comprehensively with privacy across all contexts. The absence of a minimum guarantee of privacy is felt most heavily by marginalized communities, including HIV patients, children, women, sexuality minorities, prisoners, etc. - people who most need to know that sensitive information is protected.
Since June 2010, Privacy India in collaboration with Privacy International, based in London, has been conducting workshops and engaging in public awareness. Participants include policy makers, researchers, sectoral experts, NGOs, and the public to discuss and deliberate different questions of privacy, its intersections and its implications with our everyday life. The discussions have ranged from topics of online privacy to minority rights and privacy and e-Governance initiatives privacy. The workshops have been organized in different cities - Bangalore, Guwahati, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Goa, etc.
Please confirm your participation to Ms. Natasha Vaz at Natasha@cis-india.org.

RSVP
Natasha Vaz
Centre for Internet & Society
No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Domlur 2nd Stage Bangalore 560071
Telefax: (+91)-080-25350955
Email: Natasha@cis-india.org

Further Details

"Understanding Innovation: the Indian Context" February 2012 issue

Understanding Innovation: the Indian Context

February 2012 issue

A Bulletin Initiated by:
National Science and Technology Management Information System (NSTMIS), DST, India
National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS), New Delhi, India

Download Full-text PDF

Download November 2011 Issue

CfPs: International Conference on India-Japan Relations: Transforming into Potential Partnership; 7-9 Dec; Tirupati

International Conference on India-Japan Relations: Transforming into Potential Partnership [IJR-TPP]

7-9 December 2012

organized by: Centre for Southeast Asian & Pacific Studies, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, India

Call for Papers
India and Japan are the two Asian majors cooperation and understanding between whom is critical in moulding the 21st century as the 'Asian Century'. Historical and civilizational links spanning several centuries, mutual goodwill, amity and respect; absence of conflicting strategic interests; and commitment to promote peace and stability, to maintain regional equilibrium and to strengthen  institutionalized multilateral cooperation in Asia, have lent credence to the claim that India and Japan are natural allies. While the Japanese held India in high esteem as the land of the Buddha, Japan has always remained a source of inspiration to the Indians, in as much as Japan exposed the myth of European invincibility by defeating Russia in 1905; sought to eclipse European colonialism; offered moral and material support to the freedom struggle carried on from Japan by Rosh Behari Bose and Subash Chandra Bose; and demonstrated its saga of rapid recovery from the devastation during the World War II to emerge as an economic and technical powerhouse.

Even though India-Japan cooperation encapsules diverse areas, there are certain areas which are not covered yet. As a country with rising demand for energy to meet the requirements of its rapid economic growth India wanted Japan – a global leader in energy efficient technologies – to participate in the expansion of India's nuclear energy programme. In fact, in June 2010 Tokyo agreed  to enter into an agreement with India on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. However, in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident after the massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 which caused immense destruction, Japan remained less enthusiastic about cooperation with India in the sphere of nuclear energy. India is keen to obtain bullet train technologies from Japan, but Tokyo sees no urgency is speeding up this matter.

At a time when India and Japan are striving to strengthen their political, economic and strategic ties and to promote the peace, security, and prosperity of Asia as well as to advance international peace and sustainable development, the Centre for Southeast Asia & Pacific Studies is holding three-day International Conference on "India-Japan Relations: Transforming into Potential Partnership" on December 7-9, 2012. It is our true pleasure to request you to contribute a scholarly paper on one of the following sub-themes:

• Historical perspective of India-Japan relations
• India and Japan in Asian regionalization
• Geopolitics and the role of India and Japan
• Bilateral Trade
• Foreign Direct Investment
• Energy security and environmental sustainability
• Maritime security and cooperation
• Cultural relations
• Comparative Literature, Religion and Philosophy
• People to people contacts
• Information and Communication Technology
• Pharmaceuticals
• Any other relevant theme

Deadlines

• Abstract submission: 31 July 2012
• Full Paper submission: 31 October 2012
• Date of Conference: 7-9 December 2012

Further details

Bibliography of Books and Monographs available with CSSP Library

• Bibliography of Books and Monographs available in the CSSP Library

Sitaram Rao Livelihoods India Case Study Competition 2012

Sitaram Rao Livelihoods India Case Study Competition 2012

ACCESS Development Services and Fr. Arrupe Center for Ecology and Sustainability (FACES), XLRI Jamshedpur jointly announce the Sitaram Rao Livelihoods India Case Study Competition 2012. This competition is supported by Oxfam India.

Theme

A number of large scale programmes of the government, as well as multilateral and bilateral organizations are putting much effort into poverty reduction. However, the poorest of the poor have been bypassed by most mainstream development initiatives. Different approaches are required for alleviating extreme poverty since the poorest of the poor face fundamentally different set of deprivations as compared to the poor. The biggest challenge they face is the lack of a stable income. Enhancing sustainable livelihoods of the poorest of the poor is thus a significantly important step towards reduction of extreme poverty.

The 2012 case study competition, therefore, seeks case studies of experiences in enhancing the livelihoods of the poorest of the poor. The case studies should cover the following:

1.       Socio-economic conditions and needs of the community within the context of which the programme was initiated and implemented;

2.       Nature of engagement, intervention, support and strategies of the implementing agency for reaching out to the poorest of the poor;

3.       Impact of the programme in promoting sustainable livelihoods;

4.       Factors that contributed to the success of the programme;

5.       Critical challenges faced; and

6.       Issues in achieving scale and sustainability and efforts made by the programme to address them.

How to register?

Participants are required to fill in a registration form and provide an abstract (in 500 words) of their cases by June 25, 2012 (Monday). Please click here to go to the registration form. Please go through the details of the Competition on the website before sending in your registrations (http://accessdev.org/lh-li-case-study.php):

 Process

·         All participants are requested to send an abstract of maximum 500 words of their case studies by June 25, 2012.

·         Abstracts will be reviewed and a shortlist will be announced on July 10, 2012.

·         The shortlisted candidates will be requested to send the full case study, not exceeding 5000 words, by September 10, 2012.

·         Once the final cases come in, they will be reviewed and 10 best cases would be selected.

·         The authors of the 10 best cases will be invited for a Jury Meet where the top 3 cases will be selected.(tentatively in October)

·         The top 3 case study authors will receive cash prizes of Rs. 1,00,000, Rs. 75,000 and Rs. 50,000 respectively and a compendium of the 10 best cases will be released during the Livelihoods India Conference 2012 (November 29-30, 2012).

 Look forward to receiving your entries!

Further Details: http://accessdev.org/lh-li-case-study.php

Conference on 'Global Strategies for an Emergent India' at IIM, kozhikode [1 Attachment]

International Conference on 'Global Strategies for an Emergent India'

Dates: December 27 & 28, 2012

Venue: Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK)

Organizing Institutions: Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK); Emerging Market Internationalization Research Group (EMIRG), University of Sydney Business School

Unique features of the conference
A Paper Development Workshop (PDW) where experts will provide in-depth and specific inputs on selected papers. The aim of the PDW is to help the authors to modify their papers so that they can be sent to high impact journals for publication. The experts would be mostly from reputable Business Schools in India and abroad and their names would be announced later. Authors need to specifically mention whether they would like their paper to be included in the PDW when they send in their paper.
It is likely that selected papers presented for the conference will be considered for inclusion in a special issue of a peer-reviewed journal. These papers will have to go through the normal review process of the journal. Further details will be circulated in due course.
   
Guidelines and Information
Please submit an extended abstract of 800 - 1000 words by 30th September 2012. Only original unpublished papers are sought. Contributors will receive decisions by 30th October, 2012. Based on the extended abstract, few authors would be invited to attend the Paper Development Workshop (PDW). Authors invited to the PDW need to submit their full papers by 30th November, 2012.Please visit the conference website for submitting the abstract.
Confirmed participants are required to register. Registration is free for presenting participants and includes lunches, coffee breaks and the conference dinner on December 27. Participants whose paper is selected for PDW would be provided free accommodation. All participants have to register by 30th November, 2012.
Participants can send in their papers in the following conference email address: iimksydneyconf@iimk.ac.in

Further Details

CfPs: IIMA Doctoral Colloquium 2013

IIMA Doctoral Colloquium 2013

The 6th IIMA Doctoral Colloquium organized by IIM Ahmedabad will be held on 7th - 9th January 2013 at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad campus. The event will provide a platform for those doctoral students and recent pass-outs in different areas of management studies to present their work to the international scientific community. Various tracks of the colloquium cover areas such as Business Policy and Strategy, Finance and Accounting, Marketing, Organizational Behaviour, Personnel and Industrial Relations, Production and Quantitative Methods, Public Policy & Public Systems, Computer and Information Systems, Economics, and Agriculture Management. The event will also host a one day long rigorous Doctoral Workshop conducted by eminent faculty members and researchers from across the world on contemporary issues in management and management research.

Eligibility
All students who are currently enrolled in any full time doctoral / PhD. program in any discipline of management OR those who have completed their PhD. no earlier than January 2011 are eligible to participate in this event.

Categories
In order to enrich the experience of presentations, discussions and feedback, abstracts are invited in two separate categories: Entry Level Proposals and Advance Proposals.

Entry Level Proposals
Students in an early stage of their dissertation process can participate under this category. They should have a (tentative) proposal for the topic they want to study, the method they want to use, and the potential contribution. They will receive suggestions on how to focus and position their work. Selection to this category will be on competitive blind-review basis and the most progressive proposals from among the entries received will be accepted. One paper in each category and track will be awarded as the Best Proposal.

Advanced Proposals
Students in this category should have a good knowledge of the literature in their domain of study and clear research questions. They should be in the process of data collection and should have some preliminary results to discuss. They will benefit from the colloquium by receiving a critical review on the positioning of their research, refining their data collection approach, and receiving suggestions for translating their work into publishable papers. Selection to this category will be on competitive blind-review basis and the most progressive proposals from among the entries received will be accepted. One paper in each category and track will be awarded as the Best Paper.

Tracks
Please submit your proposal in one of the following six tracks:
Track A: Business Policy, Strategic Management, Innovation Management, Entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship
Track B: Organization Behaviour, Human Resource Management, Personnel Management, Industrial Relations, Ethics, CSR, Qualitative Research Methods
Track C: Marketing Management
Track D: Production Management, Operations Management, Quantitative Research Methods, Supply Chain Management, Computer and Information Systems, Information Management
Track E: Economics, Public Systems, Public Policy, Agri-Business Management
Track F: Finance & Accounting

Last Date for Proposal Submission: September 15, 2012
Notification of Acceptance: October 15, 2012
Last Date for Registration: November 15, 2012
Doctoral Workshop: January 7, 2013
Doctoral Colloquium: January 8-9, 2013

Further Details

CfPs: Annual Convention on "the Dawning of the ‘Asian Century’: Emerging Challenges before Theory and Practices of IR in India";

Call for Papers

Indian Association of International Studies (IAIS) is holding its 1st Annual Convention in collaboration with the Institute for Research on India and International Studies (IRIIS) on 10-12 December 2012 at the India International Centre, New Delhi. Prof. Amitabh Mattoo, President, IAIS invites papers for the Annual Convention on the theme – The Dawning of the 'Asian Century': Emerging Challenges before Theory and Practices of IR in India.

 

We invite proposals for papers and panels on the following sub-­themes:

1. Pedagogy of IR in India.

2. Peace and Conflict Studies

3. Resurgence of Asia, Global Governance and IR Theory

4. Indian IR Engagement with IR Theory

5. Political Geography and Geo-­Politics

6. India and its Neighbours

7. India and the Great Powers

8. South East Asia: New Neighbours

9. Ethnicity, Nationalism and Violence

10. Gender Studies and IR

11. Political Economy

12. History and IR

13. Domestic Politics and IR

14. IR Theory and the War on Terror

15. Changing Conceptions of Security/ Sovereignty

16. Sustainable Development and Climate Change

17. India's Strategic Thought/Praxis

18. Political Theory and IR Thought

19. Non-Western Perspectives on IR

 

Deadline for Submission of Proposals: June 15, 2012.

Confirmation of Paper/Panel Proposals: July 31, 2012.

Deadline for Submission of Papers: October 20, 2012

Conference Dates: December 10-12, 2012

All proposals should be submitted online at: indianirconference@gmail.com

 

Participant Guidelines

Paper and Panel Proposal Submission The deadline for paper and panel proposals is June 15th, 2012. All proposals should be submitted online at indianirconference@gmail.com. Each proposal should not exceed 500 words.

 

Further Details

CfPs: International Conference on China (CoC): The Rise of China Policy Parameters and Prospects; 23-25 August 2012; MGU, Kottayam, India

International Conference on China (CoC)
Theme: The Rise of China: Policy Parameters and Prospects

23-25 August 2012

Venue: Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, India

Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam shall organize the ICCS Inaugural International Conference on China during 23-25 August 2012 at Kottayam, Kerala. The theme acquires considerable signifi cance in the wake of the structural changes now underway in China (Transition from a planned economy to a market economy, from an agrarian to industrial society as well as the political transition from the 17th to 18th Congress of the CPP) that have immense implications to India, South Asia, the entire Asian region and rest of the world. The focus of the Conference shall be towards an assessment of the continuity and change in China's relations in this regard on the eve of the 18th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. The Conference shall be organized by the Institute for Contemporary Chinese Studies (ICCS – UGC Centre), School of International Relations and Politics and the University Centre for International Co-operation (UCIC) at Mahatma Gandhi University. The Association of Asian Scholars, New Delhi and Indian Council for World Affairs, New Delhi are among the Conference Partners.

Deadline for submission of Abstract 30 June 2012.

Conference details are available online at www.iccsmgu.in.
For Registration and further details, contact:
Raju K. Thadikkaran, Chair, Conference Academic Committee
Email: rthadikkaran@gmail.com; iccsmgu@gmail.com
Telephone/Fax: 91-481-2731040 (O) 91-481-2732279 (Tele-fax) 9496161060 (M)

Science Writing Internships at Current Science

Science Writing Internships at Current Science

The Current Science Association has instituted Science Writing Internships for working in the editorial office of Current Science. The internships are awarded initially for a period of 6 months, extendable for a further period depending on performance.

Qualification: Candidates must possess a basic degree in any branch of science and show evidence of scientific writing skills in diverse areas of science. Those who possess a postgraduate degree in literature, journalism or mass communication can also apply.

Age: Not more than 35 years as on 1 March 2012.

The candidates should not have any position (full time or part time) that entitles them to any remuneration.

Job description: Selected candidates will be based in Bangalore and will assist in the publication of the journal besides writing for the News, Research News and General sections of the journal.

Fellowship: Selected candidates would be offered a fellowship depending on qualification and experience. Applications, including a detailed CV and reprints of popular science articles of the candidate, must be sent to:

The Executive Secretary
Current Science Association
P.B. No. 8001
Sadashivnagar P.O.
Bangalore 560 080
e-mail: madhavan@ias.ernet.in

Applications may be received throughout the year.

Source: http://cs-test.ias.ac.in/cs/Volumes/102/03/0530.pdf

Article "Sustainable Energy Through Carbon Capture and Storage: Role of Geo-Modeling Studies" by Malti Goel, CSSP

Goel, Malti (2012). Sustainable Energy Through Carbon Capture and Storage: Role of Geo-Modeling Studies. Energy & Environment, 23(2-3), pp. 299-318.

Special Issue: Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS)

Abstract
The technology for CO2 sequestration is developing fast and a lot of activity to launch pilot and demonstration projects in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is taking place internationally. The technologies are large-scale and their sustainability is dependent on cost, reliability and acceptability. Geo-modeling has an important role to play in assessing the potential and feasibility. This paper describes recent developments in CCS technology, examines the various options for CO2 fixation and the possible role of geo-modeling studies. We present issues and challenges in modeling and monitoring studies in CO2 fixation and provide glimpses of current research in India. Future research needs are discussed.

Malti Goel is Emeritus Scientist & Research Affiliate, Center for Science Policy Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

Further Details

IIPA Annual Essay Prize Competition 2012

IIPA Annual Essay Prize Competition 2012

Entries are invited for the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA's)  Annual Essay Prize Competition 2012. The value of the prize for the competition will be as under: First Prize Rs.5,000; Second Prize Rs.3,000; Third Prize Rs.2,000.

The following subjects have been prescribed and it is open to competitors to choose any of them.

1. The Meaning and Relevance of Public Administration in Today's India
2. Civil Society and Parliamentary Democracy in India
3. Administrative Measures for Increased Agriculture Production

A competitor may attempt a comprehensive survey of all these factors or may opt for focusing only on problems of a specific sector. These are flexible guidelines, illustrative rather than comprehensive. The competitors may not feel in any way rigidly bound with them. Essay should be based on personal research or experience of the competitors and show evidence of original thinking and scholarship as well as a critical analysis of the subject. Broad generalizations should be avoided. The essay should be in English or Hindi. The length of an essay should approximately be 5000 words and the competitors must indicate the total number of words of the essay contributed by them. Essay exceeding 5500 words will not be accepted. The contestants must indicate the total number of words of the essay, failing which it will not be accepted. All essays must be typed in double space on one side of the paper only and those entries which do not adhere to the stipulation can be rejected. It should be submitted in triplicate under a "nom-deplume or alias. The full name and address of the competitor should be given on a separate sheet and enclosed in a sealed envelope bearing the nom-de-plume on the outer cover with the following inscription: Annual Essay Prize Competition-2012, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. All essays should be sent to the Director, Indian Institute of Public Administration, Indraprastha Estate, Ring Road, New Delhi-110002, by Registered Post, so as to reach him not later than the 14th August, 2012. The envelope should be marked "Annual Essay Prize Competition 2012". The entries received after the due date may not be entertained. The essays will be adjudged by a body of judges and the award of the judges shall be final. The institute reserves the right not to make any award if none of the essays submitted meets the necessary standard. Any essay which receives an award shall become the joint intellectual property of the author and IIPA.

Word Limit: 5000 words

Last Date for Submission: 14th August, 2012

Further Details

Artist-in-Residence Program in Iceland

Artist-in-Residence Program in Iceland

AiR PROPOSAL - Residency in East Iceland
Writers, composers, artists, musicians, dancers and scholars are eligible to apply for 3-8 weeks residency in Klaustrid at Skriduklaustur, East Iceland every year.
Klaustrið (the Monastery) is a residence managed by The Institute of Gunnar Gunnarsson. It is situated at Skriðuklaustur Culture Centre in East Iceland in the beautiful home of the Icelandic writer Gunnar Gunnarsson.
The living/working facilities consists of a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and a living room with big desk for working. Wi-Fi internet connection and a piano in place.
There is no grant along with the residency but the apartment is free of charge and local transportation is guaranteed.
The apartment is only for one person or a couple at time.

Criteria
Klaustrið uses the following criteria when evaluating applicants:
* Primarily the quality of the applicants project as indicated by submitted application.
* A record of works and curriculum vitae.
* Projects concerning Gunnar Gunnarsson, his life and his works, have priority just as any project concerning East-Iceland, its nature and culture.
Application deadline is 15th June every year for the following year.
Application form is available at www.skriduklaustur.is along with more information.

Required documents:
* Project description, see application form
* Artists CV, please do not send a CV exceeding 2 pages
* A few examples of works (3-5), either as prints, on CD or weblinks

Application should be sent by mail to:
Klaustrið - Gunnarsstofnun, Skriðuklaustur, 701 Egilsstaðir, ICELAND
For further information send an e-mail to klaustur@skriduklaustur.is or call + 354 471 2990.

Practical information
The nearest town with airport and all service is Egilsstadir (EGS), (39km). The main international airport is in South-West Iceland, Keflavik (KEF) close to the capital Reykjavik (REK) where the national airport is (700km). Another way to get to Iceland is to travel by sea. There is a ferry linking  Danmark, Foryoar Islands and Iceland. The company is called Smyril-line and. Their habour is in Seydisfjordur (65km).

Further Details

CfAs: Sangam House - international writers' residency program in India

Sangam House is an international writers' residency program located in India which brings together writers from across the world to live and work among their peers in a safe, supportive and nurturing space.

The Idea
The word sangam in Sanskrit literally means "going together." In most Indian languages, sangam has come to mean such confluences as the "flowing together of rivers" and "coincidence." The intention of Sangam House is to bring together writers from around the world to live and work in a safe, peaceful setting, a space made necessary on many levels by the world we now live in. Our residency programs are designed for writers who have published to some acclaim but not yet enjoyed substantial commercial success. Sangam House seeks to give writers a chance to build a solid and influential network of personal and professional relationships that can deepen their own work, in effect, expanding and diversifying literature. We believe that literature can and must remain a thriving force of illumination for our times.
Assembling writers from various cultural backgrounds broadens the scope of each individual's work. Exposure to regional and national trends in literature, to multiple political and economic obstacles and varied social and cultural milieus enhances each writer's understanding of his/her work, as well as his/her own notions of identity and home. We recognize the dearth of such opportunities in South Asia and strive to encourage the work of those writing in all langauges, regional and dominant. Such a unique environment enriches the work of its participants and the texture of international literature. Our program also facilitates interaction between the visiting writers and the local communities. Cultivating such an intersection infuses the local communities with inspirations and new ideas, while allowing each participating writer to deepen his or her understanding of the diverse emotional and social climates in which literature is conceived and received.

The Application
Applications for 2012-2013 must be received by July 31, 2012.

Dates for the next Sangam House Session are
4th November 2012 to 27th January 2013

Fellowships
All applicants are automatically considered for the appropriate fellowships.
The Lavanya Sankaran Fellowship supports new writing from India.
The Nevatia Fellowship supports non-fiction writing in English, especially in the areas of social and cultural change.
The Prakriti Foundation Fellowships support writing in Tamil and Kannada.
The Bianca Pancoat Patton Fellowship supports the work of young women writers from India.
The Asif Currimbhoy Fellowship supports writing for the stage in all Indian languages including English. Asif Currimbhoy was a leading Indian playwright in the 1960s and 70s. He wrote in English and his plays were performed all over the country as well as at the La Mama theatre in New York City.
A donor who wishes to remain anonymous supports contemporary writing in Hindi.
A residency at Sangam House covers only board and lodge. Writers are required to cover travel costs to and from our location.

How to Apply:
All applications must be submitted electronically. Instructions and forms can be found at http://sangamhouse.submishmash.com/Submit .
All notifications will be provided electronically by September 15, 2012.
If you are unable to submit an application electronically, please write with an explanation of the circumstances to:
In South Asia – Arshia Sattar at arshia.sangam@gmail.com
Outside of South Asia – DW Gibson at dwmgibson@yahoo.com
If selected, all non-Indian applicants will be responsible for obtaining a tourist visa to India 6 weeks in advance of their travel date.

Further Details

Madeleine P. Plonsker Emerging Writer’s Residency Prize

Madeleine P. Plonsker Emerging Writer's Residency Prize

Each spring, Lake Forest College, in conjunction with the &NOW Festival, sponsors emerging writers under forty years old—with no major book publication—to spend two months in residence at our campus in Chicago's northern suburbs on the shore of Lake Michigan.
There are no formal teaching duties attached to the residency. Time is to be spent completing a manuscript, participating in the annual Lake Forest Literary Festival, and offering a series of public presentations.
The completed manuscript will be published (upon approval) by &NOW Books imprint, with distribution by Northwestern University Press.
The stipend is $10,000 with a housing suite and campus meals provided by the college.

Apply for the Madeleine P. Plonsker Prize
Guidelines (Deadline March 1 (formerly April 1), every year):
We invite applications for a writer under forty years old, with no major book publication, to spend two months (February-March or March-April) in residence at Lake Forest College.
Cross-genre works are always welcome. Beyond this, even residency years (with odd year deadlines) look for prose writers. Odd residency years (with even years deadlines) look for poets.
 2013 residency, deadline March 1, 2012: poetry
 2014 residency, deadline March 1, 2013: prose
 2015 residency, deadline March 1, 2014: poetry
 2016 residency, deadline March 1, 2015: prose
We are now taking applications exclusively through Submishmash . We will only consider the first 200 submissions.

Send, in one file, WITHOUT your name, contact information, or other identifying marks:
A) A one-page statement of plans for completion
B) No more than 30 pages of manuscript in progress

Your cover letter, pasted into the text box, should include the basic details of your cv: education, employment, significant publications, etc. These may be in narrative form.
Submissions must be postmarked by March 1 (formerly April 1), each year for consideration by judges Robert Archambeau, Davis Schneiderman, and Joshua Corey and that year's guest judge.
Direct inquiries to andnow@lakeforest.edu with the subject line: Plonsker Prize.

Further Details

Inaugural B.B. Ferencz Essay Competition 2012 to Commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the International Criminal Court

The Inaugural Benjamin B. Ferencz Essay Competition held to Commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the International Criminal Court

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF ENTRIES Friday, August 31, 2012, at 5:00 PM (Central Daylight Time).

CALL FOR ESSAYS
The Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University School of Law seeks submissions of essays for the Benjamin B. Ferencz Essay Competition, held on the occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of the International Criminal Court.

ESSAYS QUESTION PRESENTED
The essay must address the following question: Under what conditions may acts that constitute illegal use of armed force and that result in the widespread or systematic attack upon a civilian population be prosecuted as crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, pursuant to the Rome Statute.

ELIGIBILITY AND REQUIREMENTS
Contestants must be 20 years of age or older. Contestants must have completed their high school studies. Law students, PhD students and young scholars are especially invited to apply. The essay must be written solely by the candidate. The essay should take the form of a law review style article. Submissions must be original and unpublished works of under 6,000 words, including footnotes. Footnotes must conform to authoritative standard rules of legal citation and must include a description of each authority adequate to allow a reasonable reader to identify and locate the authority in a publication of general circulation. The essay must be typed and double-spaced.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
Contestants are strongly encouraged to participate in our commitment-free registration process. Please visit our website to register for the competition. Submissions must be made electronically at the following website: http://law.wustl.edu/harris/pages.aspx?id=9126 A complete submission includes a cover page with the author's relevant information (name, current address, contact information and CV) and the essay in a Microsoft Word document. Contestants may submit only one entry. Multiple or incomplete submissions will not be considered. Contestants will be assigned a number, which will serve as an identification number for the purpose of the competition. This will be done in order to ensure anonymity of the authors with respect to the judging of submissions.

AWARD
The first-place winner of the Essay Contest will receive an award of US$10,000. Second- and third-place runners-up will each receive an honorable mention and a plaque as well as runner-up awards in the amount of US$2,500 each. The first-place winner of the Contest will be invited to St. Louis, Missouri, for an award ceremony that will take place during the International Criminal Court at Ten conference in November 2012. The essay will be included in the symposium issue published by the Washington University Global Studies Law Review resulting from the conference. The Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute will cover the winner's travel expenses to St. Louis, including airfare, accommodations and meals.

Further Details: http://law.wustl.edu/harris/pages.aspx?id=9126

2012 Essay Competition 'Next steps to peace in Kashmir'

2012 Essay Competition 'Next steps to peace in Kashmir'

The Australia India Institute and The Sajid Iqbal Foundation for Peace & Human Rights are happy to announce an essay competition for Kashmiri youth - in the 18-30 year-age group.

The essays must be under 3000 words, original and the participant's own work. The essays must be emailed on or before 7th June, 2012, to sehar@thesajidiqbalfoundation.com

The top three essays will be presented at the International Conference on Kashmir slated for 18-19th June, 12, in SKICC Srinagar.

Prizes: First - cash prize of Rs 100,000; Second - cash prize of Rs 50,000; Third - cash prize of Rs 25,000.

Any research or references used in the essay must be cited.

Last Date:  7th June, 2012

Further Details

2012 International Energy Essay Contest "Sustainable Energy for All: Vision, Reality and Solutions"

2012 International Energy Essay Contest

Sustainable Energy for All: Vision, Reality and Solutions

Introduction
World Energy Forum is pleased to announce the 2012 International Energy Essay Contest. As a mission-driven movement, World Energy Forum is dedicated both to educate and campaign for long-term energy solutions by encouraging global conversations on pivotal energy issues.
Since 2012 has been declared by the United Nations General Assembly as "International Year of Sustainable Energy for All" the International Energy Essay Contest calls upon university students from around the world to participate in the movement towards an energy-secure future by presenting their thoughts on how this can be achieved.
Through this contest, World Energy Forum hopes to provide a platform for students from different backgrounds with an opportunity to share and expand their unique understanding of the worldwide urgency that must be recognized for important changes toward a safe, accessible, and sustainable energy future.
The winners of the essay contest will receive a number of prizes, including the opportunity to discuss their creative approaches for solving the world's present energy problems at the World Energy Forum's annual high-level energy conference. This year's conference, entitled World Energy Forum 2012: Safe, Accessible, Sustainable - Energy for All, will take place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, October 22-24, 2012.

Essay Topic
All eligible students can participate in the contest by writing a letter in the form of an essay to the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and share their views on the topic: "Sustainable Energy for All - Vision, Reality and Solutions."
Essays should be written and submitted according to the guidelines below.

Essay Guidelines:
The essay should be written in English
The essay should contain between 1500 and 2000 words (not including bibliography and citations). Please cite your word count at the end of the essay.
The essay should be typed and double-spaced.
The essay should include a coversheet including: first and last name, telephone number, email address and university name
Students must produce their own work, using information from other sources where appropriate.All references should appear as endnotes. Do not use footnotes.
Information used for research that is not cited in the essay should be listed in a bibliography page at the end.

Eligibility:
Participants must be currently enrolled as a student working towards any degree program (eg. B.A., B.S., M.A., M.S., M.B.A., M.Ed., Ph.D.)Participants' applications must receive a recommendation from a current professor in their field of study
We encourage students of all backgrounds and ability to participate.
 
How to Enter:
Submit your essay, either:
Online at www.worldenergyforum2012.org in Word or PDF format, orAs an email attachment, along with a completed entry form to the following address: essaycontest@worldenergyforum2012.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . The subject line of the email should read: "International Energy Essay Contest 2012"Please save your essay as follows:
First & Last Name_ University (eg. John Smith _University of Richmond)
All entries must be received by July 15th, 2012.Under no circumstances will late submissions be accepted.

Essay Selection:
All eligible essay submissions received by June 15th, 2012 will be reviewed in-house. 10 finalists will be selected for review by a qualified panel including energy experts from:
The United Nations, The World Bank, Academia, Leading energy companies
Essays will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
The student's understanding of the issue
The student's analysis and reasoning
Quality and use of research
Originality and creativity in treatment of the topic
Clarity and effectiveness of writing and organization

Winners will be notified by July 31st, 2012.

Prizes:
First Place  $5,000 cash prize; Essay will be sent to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Second Place  $3,000 cash prize
Third Place  $2,000 cash prize
In addition, the top three contestants will receive: 
Airfare and accommodation to Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Waived registration fee ($800) to attend The World Energy Forum 2012; Opportunity to be a speaker in The World Energy Forum 2012 session titled: Students for Sustainable EnergyPublication of essay; The top ten essays will be recognized at The World Energy Forum 2012 and will be published on the website.
 
Contest Entry Deadline: July 15, 2012

Further Details and Online Submission

Olympic Values Essay Competition

Olympic Values Essay Competition

Win a Trip to London!

Worldwide Support for Development (WSD), World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD) and Georgetown University are co-supporting an online essay competition on Olympic Values in today's world. The competition is designed to spark a global online conversation in advance of the Olympic Values Symposium to be convened in London by Lord Colin Moynihan, Chair of the British Olympic Association (BOA), from June 29-July 1, 2012.
The awards (three in all) include two stays in London – three days at the Olympic Values Symposium and three days during the London Olympic Games, with travel and accommodation costs covered.
Any student currently enrolled at an institution of higher learning anywhere in the world is eligible to participate in the Olympic Values Essay Competition. Consideration of essays will begin immediately and submissions will be accepted through May 31, 2012.
Interested students should send an email to olympicvalues@gmail.com that includes the following English language materials: a curriculum vitae; a 125-150 word biography; and a 400 – 500 word essay that addresses their interpretation of the meaning of Olympic Values for the 21st Century and outlines a creative way to realize them in the years ahead through sport, education, culture, or other public initiatives.
A Joint Committee chaired by Georgetown faculty and Lord Moynihan will lead a three-step selection process. Good essays will be posted as blogs online; Skype or phone interviews will be conducted with a narrower group of finalists; and it is anticipated that awards will be announced by June 11, 2012.
By submitting an email with an essay, participants consent to it being posted as a blog online. Selected students must meet all conditions of participation to take part in the Olympic Values Symposium and attend the London Olympic Games.

More Information and How to Apply

International Essay Contest organized by Japan’s Goi Peace Foundation and UNESCO

International Essay Contest organized by Japan's Goi Peace Foundation and UNESCO

As today's young people are crucial for the shaping of our future, it is imperative that they are enabled to develop to their full potential. UNESCO's objective is to help empower young people, reaching out to them, responding to their expectations and ideas, and fostering useful and long-lasting skills.

This annual essay contest is organized in an effort to harness the energy, imagination and initiative of the world's youth in promoting a culture of peace and sustainable development. It also aims to inspire society to learn from the young minds and to think about how each of us can make a difference in the world.
 
THEME: "Creating the Future We Want"
Future begins with the vision we hold now. What kind of future do you wish to create for yourself and the world? Please share your dream and ideas for making it a reality.
    
GUIDELINES:
1. Essays may be submitted by anyone up to 25 years old (as of June 30, 2012) in one of the following age categories: (a) Children (ages up to 14) (b) Youth (ages 15 - 25)
2. Essays must be 800 words or less in English, French, Spanish or German; or 1600 characters or less in Japanese, typed or printed.
4. Entries may be submitted by postal mail or online at http://www.goipeace-essaycontest.org/.
5. Essays must be original and unpublished.
6. Essays must be written by one person. Co-authored essays are not accepted.
7. Copyright of the essays entered will be assigned to the organizers.

DEADLINE: Entries must be received by June 30, 2012.

AWARD: The following awards will be given in the Children's category and Youth category respectively:
1st Prize: Certificate and prize of 100,000 Yen (approx. US$1,300) ... 1 entrant
2nd Prize: Certificate and prize of 50,000 Yen (approx. US$650) ... 2 entrants
3rd Prize: Certificate and gift ... 5 entrants
Honorable Mention: Certificate and gift ... 25 entrants

Online Submission

Further Details

CfPs: International Conference on Rural Innovation, Capacity Building, Knowledge Management, Entrepreneurship and Technology 2013

International Conference on Rural Innovation, Capacity Building, Knowledge Management, Entrepreneurship and Technology (ICRICKET)

New Delhi, India
Organized by IMT Ghaziabad

2-3 January 2013

Call for Papers
We are pleased to announce that Institute of Management Technology (IMT) Ghaziabad India will be organizing ICRICKET -- an International Conference on Rural Innovation, Capacity Building, Knowledge Management, Entrepreneurship and Technology at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on 2nd & 3rd January 2013. The Conference is being organized in collaboration with Centre for Entrepreneurship, Essex Business School, University of Essex, UK, and has the following objectives:

• Facilitate sharing of ideas and concepts on the inter-linkages between the research issues related to innovation, knowledge, entrepreneurship and technology
• Provide a forum for sharing of initiatives taken by eminent innovators, entrepreneurs and practitioners in advancing the practices related to these disciplines
• Obtain the perspective of the various stakeholders in the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems on enhancing the effectiveness of these ecosystems in achieving development objectives through appropriate policy interventions
• Develop the contours of an action plan to integrate various measures for capacity building and strengthening the inter-linkages in these areas
• Provide an opportunity to academicians and practitioners in these areas from the international community to network with each other

We are inviting participation for this Conference from faculty members and researchers from Industries, Universities, Business Schools/ Management Institutes, Engineering Colleges and Research Institutes from India and abroad; International Development and Research Funding Agencies; and Central and State Government Ministries and Departments engaged in programmes related to the themes of the Conference.
The tracks of the invited Papers include but are not limited to the following:

• Innovation
• Rural Innovation
• Capacity Building
• Knowledge Management
• Knowledge Based Development
• Entrepreneurship
• Social Entrepreneurship
• Technology Management
• Emergent Technologies
• ICT & Rural Development
• Multi-disciplinary Papers covering two or more of the above tracks

Besides having dedicated parallel sessions for presentation of papers by the participants, the two-day Conference would have novel features of academic-industry discussions supported by a number of joint panel sessions and addresses by eminent keynote speakers from industry, social enterprises, Government and international development agencies. The Conference will aim at value addition through various forms of interactivity among the participants.
We invite you and your colleagues to participate in ICRICKET and send in your Paper for the Conference. The attached Announcement/ Call for Papers provides more details about the Conference.
Should you have any queries, please feel free to contact me or Mr Neeraj Awasthy at nawasthy@imt.edu

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Dr. Surinder Batra
Professor, IT Management Area
Also, Dean (Research) and Head (CRICKET)
Centre for Rural Innovation, Capacity Building, Knowledge Management, Entrepreneurship and Technology
Institute of Management Technology
Ghaziabad 201001, India
Phone: +91 120 3002241; 3002200, Ext. 241
Fax: +91 120-2827895,2825020; Cell: 9810336641
Email: sbatra@imt.edu
URL: www.imt.edu
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CSSP Seminar on “Rethinking Policy Innovations & Research Questions for Revitalizing Rainfed India” on 5th May 2012 at JNU

Seminar on "Rethinking Policy Innovations & Research Questions for Revitalizing Rainfed India"

Venue: Committee Hall, Convention Centre, JNU

Date: 5th May 2012

Organized by: Centre for Studies in Science Policy- Economics Research Unit, JNU

Context
Rainfed India has been languishing in the rain shadow of the Green Revolution for close to four decades. The skewed public investment paradigm towards perennially irrigated areas has led to the exclusion of close to 68% of Indian farmlands. Similar has been the status of low input animal husbandry and inland fisheries. The livelihood and incomes of more than half of India's workforce depend crucially on this triad of agriculture-livestock and fisheries. Yet, there is no relevant paradigm for revitalising these sectors. Rainfed India straddles a wide range of agro-ecological and agro-climatic zones thereby making a universal policy prescription unviable. The need of the hour is to make policy a function of typologies so as to be able to deliver the required results. Research questions suited to this end also need to be evolved so as to provide a foundation for effective revitalisation.
Irrigated areas as opposed to rainfed areas, have been has been the bedrock of the Green Revolution paradigm of high yielding modern agriculture. The agrarian backwardness of rainfed areas contributes to the continuing underdevelopment of such areas. The "area development" approach has been the core principle of Indian planning as a route out of underdevelopment for areas lagging behind. This approach necessarily includes agricultural as well as non-agricultural issues in it's ambit. Rainfed area development, hence, is a multi-dimensional (or multi-disciplinary) approach primarily aimed at developing an area starting from a position of agrarian backwardness. A big-push public investment is therefore going to be a function of typologies. A differentiated and larger magnitude of public investment has become a necessity to revitalize the diversity of Rainfed India.
The Centre for Studies in Science Policy - Economics Research Unit (ERU), has been set up with the mandate to evolve policy instruments for directing public investments to rainfed agricultural strategies and low-input animal husbandry. In effect, the CSSP ERU has attempted to frontally address the skewed nature of existing public investment patterns in which rainfed areas (as opposed to perennial irrigated zones) and low input husbandry (as opposed to high-input) receive inadequate policy attention and in part causing the continued aggravation of regional economic imbalances. The deliberations of this seminar would lead to raising critical policy issues and research questions by arguing for decisive restructuring public investment regimes in India, which can yield positive economic outcomes in agriculture, animal husbandry and fishery. We are planning to organise a Seminar "Rethinking Policy Innovations & Research Questions for Revitalizing Rainfed India" so as to bring together academics and planners for a deliberation on the path ahead for rainfed India in the 12th Five Year Plan.

Programme Schedule
Inaugural: 10:00 am to 10:30 am
Speakers:
Prof. V.V.Krishna, Chairperson CSSP, JNU
Prof. S.K.Sopory, Vice Chancellor, JNU
Dr. Rohan D'Souza, Project Director, CSSP-ERU, JNU
Dr. Kaustav Banerjee, Co-ordinator, CSSP-ERU, JNU

Round Table: Policy Dimensions for Revitalizing Rainfed India
11:00 am to 01:00 pm
Chair: Prof. S.K.Sopory, Vice Chancellor, JNU
Speakers:
Prof. Abhijit Sen, Member, Planning Commission, GOI
Dr. Peter Kenmore, Country Representative, FAO
Prof. Amit Bhaduri, Emeritus Professor, CESP, JNU
Dr. N.K Sanghi, RRA Network

Session 1: Research Questions for Revitalizing Rainfed India
02:00 pm to 03:30 pm
Chair: Prof. Amit Bhaduri, Emeritus Professor, CESP, JNU
Speakers:
Dr. Himanshu – Comparative Poverty Analysis of Rainfed India
Dr. Milap Punia – Spatio-temporal analysis of Rainfed India: some Issues
Dr. Kaustav Banerjee – Interlocked nature of Agriculture-Nutrition pathways in rainfed areas

Session 2: Research Questions for Revitalizing Rainfed India
03:45 pm to 05:15 pm
Chair: Prof. Kanchan Chopra, Emeritus Professor, IEG, Delhi
Speakers:
Dr. Vijayshankar – Watershed Programs in India's drylands
Dr. Nandan Nawn – Energy Costs of agricultural practices in rainfed areas
Ms. Aditi Poddar – Decadal Analysis of Green Revolution & Policy issues for rainfed India

Concluding Remarks: Dr. Rohan D'Souza, Project Director, CSSP-ERU, JNU

All Are Cordially Invited.

RSVP: economicsresearchunit@gmail.com

Article "Universities in India's National System of Innovation: An Overview" by V.V. Krishna, CSSP

Universities in India's National System of Innovation: An Overview
by
Venni V. Krishna
Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy (2012) 1: 001 - 030

Abstract
The status and functioning of Indian universities is explored in the Indian context from an NSI perspective. Whilst NSI is the main guiding post, the very social and economic context of Indian situation reflect the theoretical underpinning of this paper. The First part serves as a background to knowledge institutions and university sector in India. Basically, it identifies the main actors and laboratories, main science and technology agencies and councils and the university system. Given the focus of the paper on Indian universities in a macro historical perspective, the Second part is devoted to trace the growth and structure of university sector in terms of three phases, namely, 1940s to 1980; 1980 to 1990; and the era of liberalization after 1991. The Third part of the paper is devoted to knowledge production and knowledge diffusion. There are some important findings coming out of the quantitative data. It is argued that Indian production of doctorates is falling behind countries like China. Further, Indian universities are yet to achieve Humboltian goal. Finally, the paper has a concluding section which concerns with the current and future challenges facing Indian universities and NIS.

DOI: dx.doi.org/10.7545/ajip.2012.1.1.001

Just Published "India Science and Technology 2010-11" Report by NISTADS, New Delhi, India

Just Published

India Science and Technology 2010-11
by
NISTADS, New Delhi, India

In today's global economy, the ability of a country to develop, adapt and harness its innovative potential is becoming critical for its long term economic performance. This fact acknowledged by the endogenous growth literature has generated proactive policy initiatives as reflected in the focus on innovation as a top government policy agenda in most developing and emerging economies of the world. India is no exception to this trend. Recently, the President of India has declared the present decade as the decade of innovation and the Prime Minister has called upon the country's scientists to unleash the best innovative potential in the innovation decade. Even though India is yet to formally adopt a national innovation policy, the different ministries and departments associated with various sectors have articulated and budgeted for three main innovation policy challenges: enhancing innovation potential in new technologies, building technological capabilities and competitiveness in the manufacturing and service sector and reconfiguring the formal and informal sectors. In this context, India's S&T Report 2010-11, the sequel to India S&T 2008 has been designed with innovation as its core concept. Thus the central focus of this year report is to identify the nature and extent of innovative activities in the country, to identify the lacunae in the innovation support mechanism and to suggest S&T interventions in the policy matrix so that India could be in the forefront on innovation activities.
India S&T Report 2010-11 is organised under following five themes: (i) S&T and Human Resources, (ii) S&T and Innovation Support System, (iii) S&T and Industry, (iv) S&T Outputs and Patents, and (v) S&T and Rural Development Strategies. While the content and approach of these five themes differ from each other, innovation occupies the central stage in each of these themes.
The theme S&T Human Resource presents different facets of S&T education in India. The coverage includes primary level of education, secondary level education as well as tertiary level of education. Moreover, this theme has also looked at the development in the sphere of professional educational namely technical as well as medical levels. Last but not least, this theme also gives detailed status of vocational education taking into account the skill development mission.
The theme S&T and Innovation Support System analyses the existing organisational arrangement for promotion of technological innovation in India. It encompasses not only organisations that are created specifically to promote innovation but also those that address issues that are considered as important components of innovations. The organisations are identified at different administrative levels extending from national, state, and district to field/village level. In the present edition of the Report, the focus is on the secondary sector of the economy.
The theme S&T and Industry analyses the various facets of innovation activities in the realm of manufacturing and service sector of modern India. Policy space, enabling environment for innovation, support mechanism, and performance of selected sectors in the realms of innovation – all occupies a place in this theme. The focus has also been on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) of India in this theme to identify the tardiness in growth in this sector. In any economy, MSMEs play a significant role in respect of employment generation. In view of jobless growth of recent years, invigorating India's MSME sector through innovation is need of the hour. Further, we have attempted to address emerging green issues in this theme in view of India's commitment to green economy agenda.
The theme S&T Output and Patents assess to what extent a country is generating new knowledge and whether any 'tangible' component can be derived from it that can be appropriated by firms and/or other institutions in the country. Research papers (primarily in peer reviewed journals) and patents are the most commonly used 'proxy' to assess the intensity of knowledge creation and utilisation. So in this theme, the performance indicators – scientific publication and patents in particular – are analysed to understand India's performance in recent years.
The theme S&T and Rural Development:  Strategies and Capacities presents an overview of S&T strategies for rural development in India. The focus is on understanding the S&T capacities that exist, and how the knowledge and technologies are accessed and used for rural development.   Given the development agenda of Indian economy, this theme is centred around three sub-themes namely (a) Rural development: S&T strategy for poverty alleviation, (b) S&T strategies for agri/farm based livelihoods and (c) S&T strategies for non-farm/rural industrial development.
The report is targeted at a wide readership ranging from policy makers and advisors to academic readers as well as the common person. The contents of the report are:

• S&T Human Resource
  
• S&T and Innovation Support System
  
• S&T and Industry
  
• S&T Output and Patents
  
• S&T and Rural Development: Strategies and Capacities
  

Further Information: http://www.nistads.res.in/indiasnt2010-11/index_India_S&T_2010-11.php

• Previous Report (India Science and Technology 2008)

Call for Presentations for the UN-CECAR Renewable Energy International Conference

Background
The current and likely future impacts of climate change due to carbon emissions from burning enormous amounts of fossil fuels are considered among the most important challenges faced by human beings. The nuclear crisis caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake on 11 March 2011 had a significant effect on energy policies of Japan and the world, highlighting the importance of renewables as clean energy sources. Now is the time to diversify the energy portfolio with renewables such as geothermal energy, solar energy, wind energy, bioenergy and hydropower. Renewable energy has almost unlimited potential and will provide energy security when fossil fuel is depleted.

Asia Pacific region is abundant in natural resources and has a great potential to utilize renewable energy from a variety of sources. South East Asia is rapidly adopting and developing renewable energy for power generation. There is also an increasing demand for new technical skills as businesses and industries are taking more interest in renewable energy making renewable energy academic programmes highly sought after.

University Network for Climate and Ecosystems Change Adaptation Research (UN-CECAR) is a network of universities and organizations in the Asia-Pacific established in 2009, to develop research and education programmes on climate change adaptation, ecosystems change adaptation, and sustainability science. The network aims to bring together the best resources and expertise in joint research for the design of appropriate policy and development strategies, and development of postgraduate education courses and training across disciplinary lines.

This conference will share the knowledge, experience and technologies of renewable energy in the Asia Pacific region to develop a new UN-CECAR curriculum on renewable energy. This pioneering programme will help prepare students in the Asia Pacific Region to take the lead in providing renewable energy solutions to development needs with sound environmental management practices.

Objectives

1. Discover the energy sources and policies in Asia Pacific today
2. Discover successful large-scale and small-scale renewable energy case studies in Asia
3. Discover the leading universities in Asia researching on renewable energy
4. Discover how renewable energy is being implemented into university curriculums in Asia

Location
Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

Submission Deadline
4th May 2012 (Friday)

Submission Evaluation Process
Sales presentations will not be accepted and presentations must be educational. We will contact you ONLY if your presentation has been selected.

Speaker Expenses
Speakers will be exempted from UN-CECAR conference fees. Conference package and meals will be provided. However, travel and hotel expenses will need to be covered by each speaker.


Submission Requirements:
We are accepting presentations for solar energy, hydropower, geothermal energy, wind energy and bioenergy. Topics under the above categories include introduction of renewables in the region, large scale and small scale solutions, renewable energy policy, strategy and finance, and case studies of successful renewable energy solutions from the Asia Pacific region.

Please submit the following to UN-CECAR Secretariat Ms. Soo Huey Teh at teh [at] cecar.unu.edu

1. Title of Presentation
2. Name, Title, Organization, Address, Telephone, Fax number, and e-mail address
3. Description in one sentence or 40 words
4. Abstract in 250 words
5. Please list 3 learning objectives