From the very beginning, Ashoka’s response to the pandemic has been swift. The University took a series of actions to ensure a safe and hygienic campus. Advisories highlighting symptoms and precautions were shared with the students, staff, and faculty. Thermal temperature monitoring was implemented at the entrance gate, along with the addition of washbasins. Also, alcohol-based hand sanitisers were placed across campus along with instructions on their usage. Staff were briefed in detail about the actions to be taken to prevent the spread of the condition. Read more... |
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Overcoming the COVID-19 Challenge and Beyond | 5th & 6th June Ashoka University invites you to an online conference to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the Indian K-12 Education system as we reimagine the role of educators and find innovative solutions to the challenges we now face. Join us for a conversation with leading educationists and global experts as they talk about managing the crisis, the role of technology, up-skilling teachers, adaptive leadership, engaging with parents, and other relevant issues. Click here to register. |
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An important strategic decision about the Young India Fellowship For 2020-21, we will maintain the cohort size at around 200 Fellows. This follows a review of the rapid growth of the YIF—which involved an expansion of its cohort size from ~50 to ~300 in 6 years—and our aspirations to take the YIF to greater heights. This strategic decision allows us to act in the best interests of the YIF and its stakeholders, most importantly the Fellows. Read more... |
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Undergraduate student Daksh Walia wins first prize in Stiglitz Essay Prize Daksh Walia, an undergraduate student at Ashoka University won the first prize in the Stiglitz Essay Prize in the undergraduate category for his work “The Meritocratic Myth: Merit in a World Characterized by Inequality of Opportunity”. Stiglitz Essay Prize is instituted by the International Economic Association (IEA). Ashwini Deshpande, Professor of Economics at Ashoka mentored and guided him on the choice of theme as well as with references and comments on earlier drafts. |
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CSIP | How Philanthropy Works in Times of Crisis Ashoka's Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy (CSIP) released a Hindi version of its video on India's Giving Jar: How Philanthropy Works in Times of Crisis on May 10, 2020. You can watch the video below. If you want to watch the Hindi version of the video with English subtitles, click here. |
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CWC | Book Review Ashoka's Centre for Writing and Communication (CWC) Writing Tutor Uday Kanungo reviewed Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek's new book "Pandemic!: Covid-19 Shakes the World" which was published by Eleventh Column on May 11, 2020. You can read the review here. |
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CSIP at #charcha 2020 CSIP hosted two tracks at the May 14-16 #charcha2020 convening, an opportunity for India's development sector to come together and engage in our most pressing human development challenges during this time of COVID-19. Speakers included CSIP Director Ingrid Srinath, Senior Visiting Fellow Priyadarshini Singh, and Deputy Director Bindi Dharia. CSIP's focus areas were "Philanthropy and Fundraising" and "Regulatory Landscape for Nonprofits". Kicking off the first discussion, CSIP shared video testimonials from eight Indian philanthropy leaders on "How COVID-19 Is Shaping India's Philanthropic Responses and Strategies". Watch the video below! For full conference recording, click here. |
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CWC Senior Writing Fellow Jyotirmoy Talukdar's article on "Assam Scholar's Harvard University Claim Turns out to be a Hoax, Raises Several Questions" was published by The Cross Current on May 15, 2020. You can read it here. |
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Online graduation meetup for Entrepreneurship students |
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Ashoka's Centre for Entrepreneurship (CFE) organised an online graduation meetup for the entrepreneurship students graduating in 2020 on May 16. The nostalgic zoom session included online games and students reminiscing their time in Ashoka. It was also attended by two professors and some alumni. |
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Spring Term 2020 |Entrepreneurship students work on thought-provoking projects Over the course of the Spring Term 2020, entrepreneurship students completed thought-provoking projects like interviewing entrepreneurs Ankur Warikoo and Rajiv Batla, mapping their journeys to class discussions, drawing similarities and differences in their decision-making. In an insightful project on prison entrepreneurship, students analysed the role played by programmes imparting entrepreneurship education to convicts in integrating them into society once they are released from prison. Another project called Swasth Seva enabled volunteer doctors and medical students to provide virtual telemedicine to people in need of medical attention. |
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CSBC | Behaviourally Speaking Webinar The Centre for Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC) in collaboration with Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and Project Sanchar hosted the webinar “Behaviour Change Post Lockdown: Staying ahead of the COVID-19 curve” on May 21, 2020, to an extremely positive response by the community. Behaviourally Speaking is CSBC's webinar series to analyse the behavioural impact of the pandemic. The discussion highlighted the role of behavioural strategies to support adherence to necessary protective behaviours against COVID-19 – especially at a time when lockdowns are ending across the world and the responsibility for disease prevention shifts from the state to individuals. Our panelists applied the lenses of their own experience and research to discuss strategies from perspectives of public health, psychology, and behavioural science. Dr. K. Viswanath, Lee Kum Kee Professor of Health Communication at the Harvard T H CHAN School of Public Health was the keynote speaker. The other panelists were: Dr. Pavan Mamidi, Director, CSBC, Dr. Sanna Balsari-Palsule, a behavioural scientist, Ms. Elizabeth Serlemitsos, Project Director, Breakthrough ACTION, The Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs. The session was moderated by Ms. Pooja Haldea, Senior Advisor, CSBC. The webinar summary and recording are available here. |
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CSBC | Published Articles Aditya Laumas and Saksham Singh, researchers at CSBC had 2 of their articles published in notable online publications. The first article titled 'As restrictions ease, behaviour science can help shopkeepers fight COVID-19' is a behavioural guide to help small shopkeepers from becoming COVID-19 hotspots. It is published in Etv Bharat and can be accessed here. The second article 'A behavioral cheatsheet to India’s COVID-19 response' is published in CNBC TV 18 and can be accessed here. In this article, Saksham and Aditya have applied the behavioural lens to various government initiatives and public behaviour at large to analyse India's response to the pandemic. The CSBC team has been producing thought-provoking articles for the press regularly. |
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CWC | Article Published CWC Senior Writing Fellow Jyotirmoy Talukdar's article on "Crisis and Compassion: How Six Music Stars of Assam are Spending Their Lockdown Days" was published by Eleventh Column on May 25, 2020. You can read it here. |
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CSBC COVID Response - Cross Department Message Dashboard for NITI Aayog CSBC, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), has developed a cross-department message dashboard on COVID-19 for the NITI Aayog. The dashboard is designed with the objective of providing a long list of COVID-19 messaging, informed by medical and behavioural sciences. These messages are around the thematic areas of signs & symptoms of coronavirus, social distancing, prevention (general, hand and respiratory hygiene; self-isolation and mask-wearing), combating stigma, social benefits, and lockdown. It would also ensure consistency in messaging and reinforcement of messages to the population. Sharing specific messaging with service providers under these Ministries also helps to ensure their safety and well-being. The CSBC team is working to develop similar products for the NITI Aayog for the post-lockdown period. The dashboard can be accessed here. The message dashboard has been widely shared and utilised by various district administrations in the days since its release. It is also a part of a larger repository of communication materials on COVID-19 developed by BMGF called www.indiafightscovid.com. This platform is available to administrations and CSOs for their COVID-19 response work. |
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CSBC Research CSBC is committed to finding new and creative solutions for COVID-19’s pressing problem of ensuring the practice of protective behaviours. In order to ensure evidence-based decision making, we continue empirical research and experimentation even during the pandemic. A New Empirics Platform: CSBC has made an innovative leap to create a research platform at the grassroots level. We have infused research capabilities among individuals belonging to populations of interest, for the objective of remote data collection in their own communities. For CSBC, the engagement of a cadre of community enumerators would help to bring to light nuanced learnings from the grassroots, with the investigators readily being accepted in their communities. Furthermore, these enumerators are not required to undertake any travel outside their immediate communities, thus lowering the risks to health compared to conventional data collection methods in these times of social distancing. Our new platform leverages our partner networks who already have a wealth of human resources on ground. CSBC is engaging in virtual capacity building by training this workforce in our qualitative research methods. Testing: Centre for Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC) in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), McCann Worldgroup, Project Concern International (PCI), and other development partners in Bihar, is designing public safety messages on COVID-19. To understand what types of messages can motivate people to make desirable changes to their day-to-day behaviours, we conducted two rounds of testing using the JEEViKA network in Bihar. Pilot 1: How effective are fear-based vs. prosocial messages in reducing non-essential visits from the household? Pilot 2: Which pathway between devaluing myths and increasing knowledge on symptoms works better in increasing risk perception and influencing protective behaviours? Whether the behavioral principle of speed-bumping is effective in influencing protective behaviours? The findings can be accessed here. |
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Final Draft: A Journal of the YIF Critical Writing Programme The Critical Writing Programme of the Young India Fellowship (YIF) is delighted to announce the launch of the second edition of Final Draft, the first multi-disciplinary journal of student writing in Ashoka University. As part of the launch, we have brought together a wonderful panel comprising Jonathan Gil Harris, Sumana Roy, and Urvashi Butalia who will be in conversation with Aniha Brar about the 'Processes of Writing' this Sunday, June 07, 7-8 pm. We hope you can join us as we celebrate this milestone of the CW Programme at the YIF. To register, please click here. Date: June 07 Time: 7 - 8 PM |
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By the Office of Communications and Media Relations |
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