SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

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SASNET visit to Göteborg, Friday 18 April 2008

India seminar at the School of Business, Economics and Law

On Friday 18 April 2008, Lars Eklund and Sidsel Hansson from SASNET visited Göteborg University and Chalmers University of Technology.
In the morning they participated in a seminar titled ”Indien – ett framtidsland?” (India – land of the future?), organised by the Board of Regional Research in West Sweden (Reväst), at the Dept. of Human and Economic Geography, School of Business, Economics and Law at Göteborg University. Reväst is an information platform unit and network for regional research both in West Sweden and its surroundings, connected to Göteborg University/Dept. of Human and Economic Geography. It functions as a link between researchers and those who use the research results. Its perspective is regional, but Reväst is also involved in national enquires. Prof. Lars Nordström is the President of Reväst, and he was also chairing the half-day seminar.
Every year, Reväst organises study tours for delegations to different destinations. In November 2007, a fruitful study tour by a delegation of people representing universities, business and culture was made to Bangalore in India. The ambition was to increase interaction in a variety of fields between the region of West Sweden and the Indian state of Karnataka. More information (in Swedish only).
As a result of the Bangalore journey, Reväst has published a book, titled ”Indien – ett framtidsland?” (India – land of the future?), with contributions by the participants.
The seminar on 18th April was another outcome of the tour, and the experiences from the participants were now presented, but the seminar also included other presentations connected to India. Read the full programme for the seminar (as a pdf-file).
Dr. Roger Schweizer from the Dept. of Business Administration, Göteborg University, talked about the merger between Sandoz India Limited and Hindustan Ciba-Geigy Limited in the 1990s. Dr. Marc Katz from the Dept. of of Religious Studies and Theology, Karlstad University, presented his university’s long-standing Indian study programme in Varanasi.
Annika Axelsson (photo to the right) from Dem Collective AB inspired the audience with the true story of how she and a colleague have started a textile factory in Sri Lanka to produce designer cotton t-shirts using only environmentally sustainable and fair-trade-produced material, and with equal respect to human rights and workers’ rights in each step of the process. Ms. Axelsson, a former anthropologist and research assistant to late Dr. Anders Närman, now lives in Sri Lanka. Dem Collective has however also plans to expand and establish factories in Gujarat (India), and other places.
Lars Eklund, deputy director for SASNET, also gave a 45 minutes presention about SASNET’s activities and especially its web site. The response from the audience was overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

Meeting with researchers at Chalmers University of Technology

In the afternoon, an informal meeting with researchers interested in South Asia related projects was organised at Chalmers main Johanneberg Campus, for SASNET’s Lars Eklund and Sidsel Hansson. They reached the university after a delightful walk along Aschebergsgatan from the School of Business, Economics and Law.

The meeting was convened by Dr. Catharina Hiort at Chalmers Biocenter, that co-ordinates bioengineering activities at Chalmers with an aim to strengthen research related to biology, biotechnology, and medicine.

The Chalmers researchers briefly informed about their South Asia related research. Lars and Sidsel then presented SASNET and its activities, and a fruitful discussion was held regarding possibilities to apply for SASNET grants and similar issues. Dr. Prasad was the only researcher present who had been in touch with SASNET earlier, since he participated and gave a presentation in the SASNET workshop on ”The role of South Asia in the internationalisation of higher education in Sweden”, held at Karolinska Institutet in November 2006 (more information).

From left to right: K V S Prasad, Göran Wendin, Tomas Gustavsson and Shantanu Padhi.

Other participants to the meeting were:
• Associate Professor K. V. S. Prasad, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE).
• Prof. Göran Wendin, Dept. of Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2).
• Prof. Tomas Gustavsson, Dept. of Signals & Systems
• Dr. Artur Chodorowski, Dept. of Signals & Systems
• Dr. Shantanu Padhi, Dept. of Signals & Systems
• Dr. Magnus Karlsteen, Fysikcentrum Göteborg (concisting of the departments of Applied Physics, and Fundamental Physics at Chalmers; and the Department of Physics at Göteborg University).