SASNET: Planning grants given

A total number of 12 applications for SASNET planning grants were received. Total amount applied for was 1.25 Million SEK.

• Jan Lundqvist and Julie Wilks, Department of Water and Environmental Studies, Linköping University: “Triple Integration. Targeting poverty with water and social programmes.” 110 000 SEK
Follow-up: In the Fall 2002 the department, through Prof Jan Lundqvist, secured funding from the Swedish Research Links programme, for a major project on water resources management in South India, which is carried out in collaboration with the South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies (SaciWATERs), with its headquarters in Hyderabad, India (Project leader: Dr A Rajagopal). The project will run over a period of three years.
PhD candidate Jenny Grönwall is involved in a PhD research project financed by Sida/SAREC analysing how an active participation in water policy formulation and management by the users and other relevant interest groups (here: untouchables, women, indigenous people) is made possible through existing legal and other institutional arrangements in India. She is trying to find out what kind of barriers that exist, and for whom, for such participation. Participation and water rights' issues are of significant interest in the current discussions about improved water management and poverty alleviation programmes in India. In most parts of India, two systems of water rights exist: the traditional (customary – mamool nama) rights, e.g. in the tank irrigated systems in South India, and the formal (codified) water rights imposed by the State. Both of these are translated into institutional arrangements and practices. The degree to which the various water rights are adhered to, obviously varies. Two river basins are selected as comparable study areas, the Bhavani and Godavari basins in the states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh respectively. The study is carried out in cooperation with Dr. A. Rajagopal at SaciWATERS, Hyderabad, India. During the Spring 2004 Jenny is doing fieldwork in Bangalore, India.
More information is available on http://www.sasnet.lu.se/watlink.html

• Bo Mattiasson, Biotechnology, Lund University: “Environmental Remediation and Sustainable Development.” 125 000 SEK.
Follow-up: Professors Bo Mattiasson and Rajni Hatti Kaul have over the years worked on several projects connected to South Asia. MISTRA (Stiftelsen för Miljöstrategisk Forskning) in 2003 granted 34 Million Swedish kronor as funding for 3.5 years for the research program ”GREENCHEM”, involving a unique constellation of researchers from the department (led by Rajni Hatti-Kaul, who is the Program Director), in collaboration with the Division for Environmental and Energy Systems Studies, and the Research Policy Institute, both institutions at Lund University. GREENCHEM is a program with a goal to develop sustainable technology primarily based on utilization of tools provided by modern biotechnology for production of ”green” products from renewable feedstocks.
The technical aspects will be supported by evaluation of the environmental impact of the processes and products, and identification of the key factors for successful implementation of the green technologies in the chemical industry. The program will be realized in close collaboration with various Swedish companies including ACO Hud AB, Akzo Nobel Industrial Coatings AB, Akzo Nobel Surface Chemistry AB, Astra Zeneca R & D, IKEA of Sweden AB, Karlshamns, Perstorp Speciality Chemicals AB and Protista International AB.
PhD candidate Mattias Svensson is engaged in the research group Agrigas (financed by the Energy Supply Committee of Southern Sweden, DESS, and led by Bo Mattiasson), which involves some studies on India.
Other researchers engaged in South Asian related studies: Benoit Guieysse and Ashok Kumar, see below.

• K Hanumantha Rao, Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, Mineral Processing, Luleå University of Technology: “International Master of Science Program in Natural Resources Engineering.” 125 000 SEK.
Follow-up: Professor Hanumantha Rao has been working at the department since 1985, and he was appointed professor in 2003. He has been involved in a number of research projects in collaboration with Indian institutions över the years. From September 2001 till August 2004 he worked as Project Officer at the Research Directorate-General of the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, but he is now back in Luleå.
Because of his EC assignment it was not possible to realize the proposed programme immediately. The grant is however now being used for its purpose, as part of the planning for three new International Masters programmes that will be launched by the department from August 2005. More information about the programmes, see http://www.kg.ltu.se/master/. The courses are on • Exploration and Environmental Geosciences; • Chemical and Biochemical Engineering; and • Minerals and Metallurgical Engineering. Plans are also to later initiate a programme focussing natural resources of water, coal and minerals, incorporating environment and sustainable development. This will be initiated successively based on the number of applications to be received for the above three programs beginning September 2005. Accordingly, the SASNET grant has been used to promote the above three programs in India while visiting various educational institutes. This was discussed and agreed during the visit of Mr. Lars Eklund to Luleå University on 5 November 2004.
Prof. Hanumantha Rao is personally involved in a research project on ”Electrostatic Beneficiation of Indian Thermal Coals”, a project funded by Sida/SAREC. Two Indian Research institutes are cooperating in the project: • The Regional Research Laboratory, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa (key person: Deputy Director P S R Reddy); and the National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd., Research and Development Centre, Noida, Uttar Pradesh (key person: Additional General Manager M Hirani).

• Gunilla Gren-Eklund, Asian and African Languages, Uppsala University: “Planning of meetings and courses for students at the Nordic Centre in New Delhi.” 60 000 SEK.
Follow-up: A report on Studying Indian Languages has been prepared by Gunilla Gren-Eklund and Stig Toft Madsen, Lecturer, International Development Studies at Roskilde University, Denmark. The comprehensive report is based on experiences from two journeys, one of them a tour visiting educational institutions in Mussorie, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mysore, and Baroda in India, in November 2001 (financed by this planning grant); and the second a tour to institutions in the U.S. in June 2001. The report is available on http://www.sasnet.lu.se/reportindia.pdf.
This work has been instrumental in setting up the Nordic Centre in India, and arranging summer courses in Hyderabad in 2003 and 2004.

• Bo S Lindblad, Dept of Public Health, Division of International Health, Karolinska Institutet Medical University, Stockholm: ”Pregnancy and Infancy in South Asia.” 125 000 SEK.
Follow-up: See below, under the August 2002 grants

Travel grant for bridging the gap between the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and technology

• Eva Myrdal-Runebjer, Museion, Göteborg University; and Jan af Geijerstam, Division of History of Science and Technology, Royal Institute of Technology: “Exploring the state of the art of the South Asian societal/nature interface through time. 40 000 SEK.
Follow-up: The suggested project involved networking in order to arrange a symposium with the view of bridging the gap between the humanities, the social sciences, the natural sciences and technology. The presentations would be supposed to include studies of ”high tech” history as well as of regional traditional rural or tribal techniques of everyday life and modern studies of technology transfer and appropriate technology. The papers presented should then be edited and published in a suitable publication series.
The planned symposium never materialised. Instead the efforts were put into creating a network with educational and research institutions in Sweden, India and Sri Lanka, representing the humanities, social sciences, the applied natural sciences and public institutions responsible for dissemination to the general public (museums).
Networking activities were carried out in 2002, including organising a networking meeting in Göteborg on 19 April 2002. Myrdal was also responsible for Swedish and Sri Lankan contacts, whereas af Geijerstam was responsible for the contacts with Indian researchers.

2001/02, decisions made on 24 January, 2002

A total number of 5 applications for SASNET planning grants were received. Total amount applied for was 500 120 SEK.

• Alia Ahmad, Department of Economics; Neelambar Hatti, Dept. of Economic History; and Pernille Gooch, Division of Human Ecology, Lund University: “State, Community and Resources”. 125 000 SEK.
Follow-up: The aim of the programme was to develop methodologies for research on institutional problems related to common-pool resources in Asia. The main activity consisted of organising a workshop on common-pool resources (CPR) in South Asia, inviting renowned scholars from India, Bangladesh and Nepal. A Workshop on CPR and institutions in South Asia was successfully held in Mysore, India, 27–29 August 2002.
Under the programme Alia Ahmad has developed a separate project on Community Management of Fisheries in India and Bangladesh, that got a SASNET planning grant in 2003, see below.

• Eva Hellman, History of Religions, Uppsala University; and Sidsel Hansson, History of Religion, Lund University: “Gender and religious activism in South Asia: A study of Christian, Hindu and Muslim women’s organisations”. Complementary application to Spring 2001 Grant. 57 000 SEK.
Follow-up: Eva Hellman has not been actively involved in the project during 2002-2003. The remaining two participants in the project, Sidsel Hansson and Pernille Gooch, have initiated projects focusing on rural women’s activism in India. With a shared theoretical framework these ethnographic micro-studies raise questions about the impact of politicised religion and globalisation on marginalised women’s agency in environmental risk areas. Gooch is looking at women‘s self-help groups, biodiversity and processes of hinduisation and islamisation in the Himalayas, while Hansson is looking at hinduisation and women’s groups within the environmental movement in Rajasthan.
Sidsel Hansson is now involved in a research project on Women’s Activism and Self-education in an Environmental Risk Area in Northwestern India. In January 2004 she was given a three-years grant from Sida/SAREC to carry out a major research project on this: ”Gender, Education, Religion, and Environment. Women's activism and self-education in an environmental risk district in northwest India”.
The project is carried out in collaboration with Pernille Gooch, Division of Human Ecology, Dept. of Ethnology, Lund University, and the MA student Behnoush Payvar, Centre for East and South East Asian Studies (South Asia track).

• Lars Berge, Department of History, Högskolan Dalarna; and Gunnel Cederlöf, Dept. of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology, Uppsala University: “Högskolan Dalarna 2001/2002 South India field study project”. 46 000 SEK.
Follow-up: ”Political Visions and Social Realities in Contemporary South India” is the title of a book edited by Lars Berge and Gunnel Cederlöf, published by Högskolan Dalarna in September 2003. It consists of papers by seven students at the C- and D-level in History and Religious studies at Högskolan Dalarna, Campus Falun, who made a field study tour to South India in the Spring 2002. The project, called South India Field Study Project, was partly funded by the SASNET planning grant. More information on the project, see http://www.sasnet.lu.se/dalabok03.html

2002/01, decisions made on 27 August, 2002

A total number of 26 applications for SASNET planning grants were received. Total amount applied for was 2.34 Million SEK.

• Ranjula Bali Swain, Dept of Economics, Uppsala University: “Feminization of Debt: Women Empowerment and Social Impact of Microfinance in South Asia.” 75 000 SEK.
Follow-up: The project has developed into a major research project titled “Microfinance, Poverty and Vulnerability – Beyond the Myth”, financed by a three-years grant Sida/SAREC from 2002. The empirical research and survey work for this research is being conducted in five different states of India in collaborative support from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development in India and the University of Delhi.
More information on http://www.anst.uu.se/ranjbali/index.htm

• Anju Saxena, Dept of Linguistics, Uppsala University: “Digital documentation of Indian minority languages.” 110 000 SEK.
Follow-up: Anju Saxena’s project is carried out in collaboration with the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, India (represented by Udaya Narayana Singh).
In November 2002 the project was given a Swedish Research Links (Asian–Swedish research partnership programme) SEK 540 000 as a grant for three years (2003-05) by Sida and the Swedish Research Council.
A major part of the research project consists of creating extensive web based documentation on Indian languages. A web site has been constructed.
Anju Saxena was also organizing a panel on ”Globalization, technological advances and minority languages in South Asia” at the 18th European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies, organised by SASNET 6–9 July 2004 in Lund.

• Catarina Kinnvall, Dept of Political Science, Lund University: “Globalization and the State in India.” 25 000 SEK
Follow-up: The project should be carried out in collaboration with Associate Professor Bishnu Mohapatra, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. They have previously worked together on a project on globalization and democratization in Asia.
The SASNET planning grant opened up for making a major application for funding from Sida/SAREC in 2003 and 2004. But so far no grant has been given.

• Gunilla Lindmark, International Maternal and Child Health (IMCH), Dept of Women’s and Children’s Health, Uppsala University: “Promoting adolescent reproductive health: Networking in Asia.” 65 000 SEK
Follow-up: The network intends to give an opportunity to promote and utilise knowledge and contacts between participants from four South Asian countries (Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) and Sweden. The idea of creating such a network originated from former Asian participants and facilitators in Sida-sponsored courses on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), organised by the department in Uppsala since 1992.
The grant was used to organise a planning workshop in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 10–11 February 2003 (hosted by Professor Kumudu Wijewardena from the Faculty of Medical Science at the University of Jayewardenapura) and resulted in the setting-up of SANAH (South Asian Network on Adolescent Health).
The focal point of SANAH was decided to be Sri Lanka, where a secretariat will be formed under the UNICEF Adolescent Health Program Officer in Colombo, Dr Harischandra Yakandawala, and with IMCH being the focal point for the Swedish contribution to the network. The goal for SANAH’s activities will be to achieve optimum health and development among adolescent in South Asian sountries with emphasis on sexual and reproductive health. Further contacts have later been taken between MAMTA Health Institute for Mother and Child in New Delhi, India; the WHO Regional office; and IMCH, to develop the SANAH network. Besides IMCH has entered into a formal four-years research and training collaboration with the University of Jayewardenapura, and one of the topics is adolescent health.

• Lennart Strömquist, Programme on Applied Environmental Impact Assessment, Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University: “Environmental management and monitoring from multidisciplinary perspectives as illustrated by the Negombo lagoon in Sri Lanka.” 65 000 SEK
Follow-up: The research project involves several researchers at the department – including the two PhD candidates Fredrik Haag and Stefan Haglund. The project is carried out in collaboration with the Dept. of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University; the Dept. of Geography at Sri Jayewardenapura University, Colombo, Sri Lanka (represented by the professors M M Karunanayake, M D C Abhayratne, and D Wanasinghe); and the National Aquatic Resources, Research & Development Agency, NARA, Colombo, Sri Lanka (represented by Dr Champa Amarasiri). Three PhD candidates from Sri Lanka are also involved in the project; Ajith Gunaratne, G.M. Bandaranayake, and H.M. Jayani Rupi Herath.
The planning of the project was made in 2003, and included visits by the Swedish participants to Sri Lanka and joint studies with representatives from NARA and Sri Jayewardenapura University. In November 2003 a workshop was arranged in Colombo at the Dept. of Geography, Sri Jayewardenapura University.

• Benoit Guieysse, Dept of Biotechnology, Lund University: “Combined biophysical remediation processes for the cost-efficient removal of Persistent Organic Pollutants.” 55 000 SEK
Follow-up: Benoit Guieysse is Project Coordinator of the Bioremediation research group, Biorem, a sub-group of the Dept. of Biotechnology that gathers researchers involved in bioremediation studies. Biorem aims to develop cost efficient biological methods to eliminate persistent organic pollutants (POPs) from the environment. As project coordinator she takes care of the PhD and Masters students in the group.
Guiyesse is engaged in projects on bioreactors for detoxification, an area of utmost importance for South Asia. The SASNET planning grant was aimed at developing a project on ”Combined biophysical remediation processes for the cost-efficient removal of Persistant Organic Pollutants”, and building a network of researchers from Sweden, Sri Lanka and India, for the development of combined physical-biological processes for the removal of POP’s. These pollutants, related to pesticides, cause a serious threat to the environment and have toxic effects to humans and wildlife. The problem is especially worrying in South Asia where land and water are often polluted due to a lack of regulation and resources for implementation of clean technologies and remediation processes.
Guiyesse has established contact with Professor Vasanthy Arasaratnam, Faculty of Medicine, Dept of Biochemistry, Jaffna University, Sri Lanka, who is involved in the project. Researchers at Jaffna University are well experienced in many of the areas of the project as well as seriously concerned about environmental issues (due to pesticides and explosives), but communication has been difficult because of the conflict in Sri Lanka.
Besides Jaffna University the other partners in the proposed network include Birla Institute of Science and Technology, BITS, in Pilani, the Bhabha Nuclear Research Institute in Mumbai, and Jamia Hamard University in New Delhi, all institutions Guiyesse visited in the Spring 2003.
Now she is preparing to organise a symposium on ”North South exchange in environmental biotechnology” in August 2005 to which Arasaratnam and other participants in the network will be invited.
Benoit Guiyesse has received generous funding from the Swedish Research Council and Sida/SAREC for similar collaboration projects with Egypt as well as the Philippines, Vietnam and Bolivia, but so far not for this Sri Lanka/India project.

• Bo S Lindblad, Dept of Public Health, Division of International Health, Karolinska Institutet Medical University: “Pregnancy and Infancy in South Asia.” 110 000 SEK
Follow-up: In November 2002 this programme, now titled ”Evaluation of the relationship of folate and B12 deficiency during pregnancy on pregnancy outcomes, intrauterine growth retardation and newborn vascular reactivity in Pakistan” was granted 600 000 SEK from the Swedish Research Links (Asian–Swedish research partnership programme) for three years (2003-05) by Sida and the Swedish Research Council. The researcher Helena Martin is involved on the project along with Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta, Dept. of Paediatrics, Agha Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.

• Baboo M Nair, Applied Nutrition and Food Chemistry, Center for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lund University: “The development of an interdisciplinary Swedish South Asian Studies Network for research on fermentation of foods in relation to public health and social welfare”. 110 000 SEK
Follow-up: The SASNET planning grants received for this project were used to organise an International seminar and workshop in Anand, Gujarat, India, 13–14 November 2003. The workshop, co-hosted by the Dept of Applied Nutrition, Lund University, was called ”Fermented Foods, Health Status and Social Well being” and was organised by the Dept of Dairy Microbiology, SMC College of Dairy Science, Gujarat Agricultural University. The meeting was attended by about 165 participants, most of them from India, but also from Sweden, Denmark, Australia, USA, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Dr V Kurien, the father of White Revolution in India, inaugurated the seminar on 13 November. A comprehensive conference report is found on http://www.sasnet.lu.se/anandconference.pdf
In November 2004 the Delegation of the European Commission to India, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka decided to grant a sum of 63 280 Euros for the networking activities of the recently formed SASNET–Fermented Foods project, a joint project by the Dept. of Applied Nutrition and Food Chemistry, (through Baboo Nair), SMC College of Dairy Science, Anand, India (through Dr. J.B. Prajapati), and the Institute of Rural management, also in Anand (through Dr. Pratap Reddy).
The grant will be used for organising a series of three strategic meetings/workshops during the year 2005. The first seminar will be for informing R&D directors of food research institutions, and the second will be addressed towards food industries and the third one for important media people, including social workers, politicians and journalists.

• Martha J Garreth, International Maternal and Child Health (IMCH), Dept of Women’s and Children’s Health, Uppsala University: “Guidance of Swedish Master’s Students Doing Interdisciplinary Research in International Health in Sri Lanka.” 60 000 SEK
Follow-up: The grant was used to establish cooperation with the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, through which master’s students at IMCH could carry out their data collection for their master’s studies in Sri Lanka under the local supervision of that university’s medical faculty. The primary contact in Sri Lanka was Professor Kumudu Wijewardene, chairman of the Department of Community Health and formerly a visiting professor at IMCH. Discussions with Professor Wijewardene as well as other leaders at the University (including the Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the Medical Faculty) led to an arrangement by which master’s students from IMCH may use University of Sri Jayewardenepura as ‘home base’ for research projects, receiving practical support and research advice from the local staff.
The first data collection to be done under the arrangement was carried out during the spring term 2004 by Ms. Alemnesh Mirkuzie, an Ethiopian nurse in the Master’s Programme in International Health at IMCH. The research led to a master’s report entitled ‘Health Care Providers’ Perceptions of Adolescent Reproductive Health Problems in Colombo, Sir Lanka’. A scientific article based on the research and co-authored by Ms Mirkuzie, Professor Wijewardene, and Dr Pia Olsson (the IMCH advisor) is now being prepared for publication.
The second master’s student to do research in Sri Lanka will be Malin Jordal, a Norwegian nurse. Her study, which is planned for 2005, will focus on the reproductive health of a particularly vulnerable group, namely, young women working in the Free Trade Zones of Sri Lanka. The research on this topic is being done at the specific request of Professor Wijewardene and will also be carried out under the guidance of Pia Olsson plus a member of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura staff.
The grant from SASNET not only allowed for the planned arrangements for master’s students, but also helped catalyze other long-term collaboration in teaching and research between IMCH and University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

• Ashok Swain, Dept of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University; and Pamela Price, Dept. of History, University of Oslo, Norway: “Nordic Centre in India.” 25 000 SEK
Follow-up: The Nordic Association of South Asian Studies (NASA) first discussed the possibilities of establishing a centre already in 1995, and it was eventually established in 2001, run by a consortium of Nordic universities. A well-equipped flat in South Delhi was rented, providing accommodation for Nordic students, researchers, teachers and administrators engaged with Indian/South Asian topics. Besides providing accommodation the ambition has also beet to create a meeting-place for Nordic and South Asian researchers in India. These efforts were however hampered by the unwillingness of the previous BJP-dominated government to grant permission for the centre. In spite of frequent urgings from Nordic academicians and embassies, in which SASNET was also involved no approval was given by the then HRD Minister MM Joshi. Only after the elections in May 2004 an official clearance was secured from the new government.
The planning grant from SASNET was used to purchase computers and furniture for the centre.

2002/02, decisions made on 28 January, 2003

A total number of 19 applications for SASNET planning grants were received. Total amount applied for was 1.58 Million SEK.

• Alia Ahmad, Dept of Economics, Lund University: “Community Management of Openwater Inland Fisheries – A comparative study of cases from Bangladesh and India.” 75 000 SEK
Follow-up: This project was initiated as part of the research programme on State, Community and Resources (on common-pool resource management in South Asian countries), given a SASNET planning grant in 2002.
In December 2003 the project was given a three-years (2004-06) Swedish Research Links grant (SEK 330 000) from Sida and the Swedish Research Council.
The study is based on primary data from Tawa Matsya Sangha (TMS) project in Madhya Pradesh, India, and Community-based Management of Fisheries supported by local NGOs and International organizations (the WorldFish Center, DFID) in Bangladesh. The study will contribute to knowledge on the interaction of traditional and new institutions supported by external forces, and community´s ability to manage local resources through collective action and gender equity. The project on fisheries is carried out in cooperation with ISEC, Institute for Economic and Social Change, Bangalore, India, and the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, Dhaka.

• Pia Karlsson, Institute of International Education, Stockholm University. ”Education in Afghanistan.” 23 000 SEK
Follow-up: Amir Mansory and Pia Karlsson are working on a collaborative project and they intend to present a joint PhD dissertation with the tentative title ”Islamic and 'Modern' Education in Afghanistan – Also for Girls?” to be finalized in late 2006. They study the socialisation process of rural village girl students in Islamic education and 'Modern' education from a holistic and ecological development perspective. Islamic education (mosque schools and madrasas of various types) and 'modern' education (primary level) with regards to goals, aims and functions, particularly in relation to female education will be described. Of particular interest are views on knowledge and learning in the two educational systems especially in relation to female education. The teaching-learning processes in the two educational systems as observed in classroom practices, especially girls' education will be studied.
The research project is financed by grants from Sida/SAREC. In November 2004 Pia Karlsson and Prof. Holger Daun received SEK 1.2 Million for a two years continuation of the project, now called ”Girls' participation in Islamic and Western style education in Afghanistan”.

• Magnus Holm, Dept of Molecular Biology, Göteborg University. ”Analysis of light regulated gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana.” 75 000 SEK
Follow-up: The research project will be carried out in collaboration with the National Centre for Plant Genome Research, at Jawaharlal Nehru University Campus, New Delhi, India. Holm’s collaboration partner in India is PhD Sudip Chattopadhyay, who has been working on light signalling pathways in Arabidopsis for the last several years. Through the contacts with Dr Chattopadhyay three other South Asian researchers have been linked to the project: Dr Mintu Desai, Dr Chamari Hettiarachchi and PhD candidate Sourav Dutta.
In October 2004 the project, now renamed ”Improved crop plants by expression of central regulators of light signalling pathways” was given SEK 600 000 as a three-years grant (2005-07), from Swedish Research Links (Asian–Swedish research partnership programme financed by Sida and the Swedish Research Council).

• Göran Djurfeldt and Staffan Lindberg, Dept of Sociology, Lund University. ”Agricultural development and social mobility in two agrarian ecotypes in Tamil Nadu.” 75 000 SEK
Follow-up: The project received funding with SEK 1.5 million for three years (2004-06) by a Sida/SAREC grant in December 2003, and in November 2004 the project, now renamed ”Social Mobility and Agrarian Transformation – An Indian case” was granted additionally SEK 1 580 000 SEK by the Swedish Research Council for the three-years period 2005-07.
The project will be carried out in collaboration with Professor Venkatesh Athreya, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappali, Tamil Nadu, India, from January 2005. The project will be an assessment in a twenty-five year perspective of the social and economic consequences of the Green Revolution, and of theories of social differentiation and mobility in rural India.

• Christer Norström, Dept of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University: “Livelihood strategies among forest-related tribal groups of South India.” 108 000 SEK
Follow-up: The major aim of the programme is to establish a multidisciplinary research network between Nordic and South Asian scholars. The planning grant was used to arrange a conference on ”Livelihood strategies among forest-related tribal groups of South India” at the Centre for Indian Studies, Mysore, India, 17–19 October 2003. The conference was organized by the Dept. of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University, in collaboration with the Centre for Research on Environment, Development, Innovations, Technology & Trade, CREDITTe, Bangalore. Go to the conference page, where all the papers presented at the conference are available for download. http://www.sasnet.lu.se/tribalconf03.html
21 papers were presented with a total of 32 participants from several of the major universities of South India, the Anthropological Survey of Calcutta and Mysore, and other institutions. The academic disciplines represented were mainly Social Anthropology, Sociology, Linguistics and Botany. A number of papers from the conference will be selected for a forthcoming publication, for which another SASNET planning grant has been applied for in the Fall 2004.

• Wil Burghoorn, Centre for Asian Studies, Göteborg University; and Kazuki Iwanaga, School of Social and Health Sciences, Halmstad University. ”International Conference on Women and Politics in Asia.” 20 000 SEK
Follow-up: The planning grant was used to enable researchers from South Asia to participate in the conference on Women and Politics in Asia held at Halmstad University 6–7 June, 2003. The conference was jointly organized by the Centre for Asian Studies, Göteborg; the School of Social and Health Sciences, Halmstad University; the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS), Copenhagen; and the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University. 100 researchers from all over the World, with a majority coming from Asia, took part.
Scientifically the conference resulted in three books published in 2004, and the formation of an international network of researchers within the field of women and politics in Asia.
In November 2004 follow-up conference was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, a conference organised by the Institute of Human Development & Training, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka, and focusing on various issues related to women and politics in Asia. More information on the follow-up conference. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/data/indiv/southasia/cuvl/conf/SLWomen1104.html

• Nandita Singh, Dept of Land and Water Resources Management, Kungl Tekniska Högskolan, Stockholm. ”Problems and Prospects of Sustainable Water Resources Management in India: An Insight from Gender Perspective.” 30 000 SEK
Follow-up: Nandita Singh, guest scientist at the department, has initiated this project focusing on the issue of water in the now severely water-stressed Indian state of Gujarat, where the seriousness of the problem warrants its exploration not only from the gender perspective but essentially also as a human rights concern. The problems encountered by the local communities in the northern part of the state are unique in combining deficiency of water with high fluoride rates in drinking water, resulting in concomitant gender and socio-economically disaggregated impacts on their lives. Partners in the project are (in Sweden) Associate Professors Prosun Bhattacharya and Jan-Erik Gustafsson, and (in India) Professor Jayanto Bandopadhyay, Centre for Development and Environment Policy, India Institute of Management, Kolkata, and Research Associate Vishar Narain, Resource and Development Economics, Policy Analysis Division, Tata Energy Research Institute, New Delhi. Nandita Singh received a SASNET planning grant from SASNET in January 2003 for this project. Preliminary findings emerging from the planning visit to the field in 2003 enabled Singh to formulate two research papers presented at the 18th European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies held in Lund 6–9 July 2004.
So far she has however not been able to secure further funding for this project.

• Neelambar Hatti, Dept of Economic History, Lund University. ”Networking for a Masters Program in South Asian Studies.” 39 500 SEK
Follow-up: The planning grant was used to network for a new Masters Programme in Asian Studies offered by the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies (CESEAS), Lund University, and especially to network around a course in applied fieldwork for masters students studying on the programme’s South Asian studies track at the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) in Bangalore, India. The course was intended as a start for the thesis work in South Asia during the third semester. The interaction was successful and productive, and during a visit to ISEC in April, 2003 Magnusson could work out an action plan for the course together with Dr R S Deshpande, Research Director at ISEC. Dr Deshpande visited Lund in May the same year, and some further discussions about the course took place.

2003/01, decisions made on 26 August, 2003

A total number of 27 applications for SASNET planning grants were received. Total amount applied for was 2.36 Million SEK.

• Olof Olsson, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Göteborg University. ”Development of Stress tolerant Rice Cultivars for Nepal.” 70 000 SEK
Follow-up: Professor Olof Olsson in his research focuses on the identification, characterisation and exploitation of genes which regulate xylem architecture, or which are active in the cambial region of plants. This project is carried out in collaboration with the Biotechnology Unit/Ag-Botany Division, Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC).
The immediate goal is to build up the necessary systems in the Göteborg lab to be able to transfer molecular technologies to Nepal. Crucial to this is the employment of a researcher working at Göteorg University (Gokarna Gharti Chhetri, a post-doc researcher at the department, hailing from Nepal). Education of Nepalese collaborators in molecular biology, bioinformatics and handling of the biocontrol microorganisms to be used in Nepal will also be an important part of the initial work. The long-term scientific goal is to increase rice yield in midhill and highhill areas (500-3000m asl) in Nepal. By molecular markers and genetic engineering the researchers aim to develop more cold hardy varieties of the local Himalayan rice Jumli Marsh (so-called Golden Rice).
In October 2004 the project was given both SEK 600 000 as a three-years grant (2005-07) from the Swedish Research Links (Asian–Swedish research partnership programme financed by Sida and the Swedish Research Council), and SEK 1 800 000 from Sida's Developing Country Research Council (U-landsforskningsrådet).

• Ravinder Pal Singh, Centre for Pacific Asia Studies (CPAS), Stockholm University. ”Security Sector Governance in Southern Asia: a case study of Indian Parliamentary Oversight of Security Sector.” 40 000 SEK
Follow-up: The aims of this feasibility study were twofold: one to identify collaborating institutions and experts who would participate in the project and make useful contributions, and two, identify primary data reports of parliamentary committees related to the security sector, and specific parliamentarians who would contribute information at a workshop through individual interviews. The study was conducted in Delhi from 1 October 2003 to 15 January 2004.
Among the potential collaborators who expressed a positive interest in the project were the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, ORF Institute for Security Studies and ORF Institute for Politics and Governance.
The plans to meet parliamentarians and organise a workshop was however hampered due to a heightened security cover and complicated screening procedures being given to Indian parliamentarians after the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in December 1991.

• Bo Lindblad, Department of Public Health, Division of International Health, Karolinska Institutet Medical University. ”Pregnancy and Infancy in South Asia (PISA).” 90 000 SEK
Follow-up: Continuation of a programme given SASNET planning grants. This particular grant was used to further consolidate the network in Pakistan and India. The coordinator Professor Lindblad visited the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, the Aga Khan University in Karachi and King Edward Medical College, Lahore, Pakistan, where he discussed and planned a project application to EU for further research into the vitamin deficiency among South Asian pregnant women.
The grant was also used towards the finalisation of a project with Fatima Jinnah Medical College for women in Lahore, Pakistan, showing severe folic acid deficiency of poor women and their newborn infants with growth retardation before birth. A manuscript was in December 2004 sent for publication to Acta Obstetrica and Gynecologica Scandinavica entitled ”Folate, vitamin B12 and homocysteine levels in South Asian women with hypertensive illness of pregancy delivering growth retarded and/or premature infants”. The results strongly supports the need for a well controlled supplementation of folic acid and vitamin B12 during the whole of pregnancy in order to prevent intrauterine growth retardation and vascular illness in women and their newborn infants. The researchers are now planning for such a study in the Indian and Pakistani network created by the SASNET grants.

• Jan Magnusson, Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University. ”The Baltistan Movement in the Northern Areas, Pakistan.” 70 000 SEK
Follow-up: A planning trip to Baltistan was carried out in August 2004. Magnusson and his project partners Ole Jensen, International Development Studies, Roskilde University, Denmark, and Mohammad Hassan, Skardu College, Pakistan, met with political and cultural activists as well as radical journalists. The project focuses on the national and political identity in a region consisting of not only Baltistan, but also Kargil and Ladakh in India.
The planning for the research project will continue during the Summer 2005. The deadline for reporting the SASNET planning grant has been extended to December 2005.

• Ashok Kumar, Department of Biotechnology, Lund University. ”Low-cost Protein Bioseparation Technology – A Realistic Option for the Bioindustry of Developing Countries.” 40 000 SEK
Follow-up: This is a biotech research project by two Indian experienced collaborators: Kumar, stationed in Sweden since 1997, and Associate Professor Pradip K Roychoudhury, Dept. of Biochemical Engineering & Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. The project might lead to an industrial use of low-cost technique and local material for important products.
In November 2003 Ashok Kumar received SEK 228 000 as a Sida/SAREC grant for the same collaboration project, now renamed ” Development of Integrated Product Recovery Process for Urokinase Production and Purification” with IIT in New Delhi.

• Alia Ahmad, Department of Economics, Lund University: “Institutional Reforms in the Health Sector of Bangladesh and India.” 45 000 SEK
Follow-up: In November 2004 she received 1 300 000 as a major two-years (2005-06) grant from Sida/SAREC for the same project, now renamed: ”Institutional problems in the primary healthcare sector in Bangladesh”. The project is carried out in cooperation with Associate Professor Neelambar Hatti, Dept. of Economic History, Lund University, and researchers at ISEC, Institute for Economic and Social Change, Bangalore, India (led by Dr. T V Sekher), as well as at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, Dhaka.

• Lars Åke Persson, International Maternal and Child Health (IMCH), Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Uppsala University. ”Network for Interventions against Maternal-Child Malnutrition in South Asia.” 25 000 SEK
Follow-up: During a 4-year period of work as director for the Public Health Sciences Division at ICDDR,B, Dhaka, Lars-Åke Persson took the initiative to initiate this network of scientists, and to develop specific intervention studies. An international workshop on Low Birth Weight at ICDDR,B in 1999 formed the background, and from 2001 a large inter-disciplinary intervention project is running, the MINIMat study (Maternal and Infant Nutrition Interventions in Matlab). A first joint meeting of the network was performed in October 2002, where the follow-up of functional consequences of the interventions for mother and child were discussed, as well as research training options for junior scientists from the region. The research projects has mainly been funded by UNICEF and DfID, while the networking and the research training lack organised funding and so far has been jointly achieved by support from the different participating departments and scientists. In May 2003 Persson returned to Sweden to take up the position as professor and chair in International Child Health at Uppsala University. He is keeping the role as the coordinator of the joint effort. More information on the network – http://www.sasnet.lu.se/malnutritionnetwork.pdf
The planning grant was used for travelling to a network meeting in October 2003 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where progress of the collaborative studies was reviewed and plans for 2004 were developed. All different partners in the network were participating. They include paediatricians, nutrition epidemiologists, biochemists, health economists, toxicologists, public health specialists, gender specialists and bacteriologists in Sweden, in South Asia and Internationally.
During 2003 recruitment to the joint study was still ongoing, but during 2004 a phase of analysis and reporting is initiated. A renewed SASNET planning grant was given in August 2004.

• Neelambar Hatti, Dept of Economic History, Lund University. ”The Masters Program in Asian Studies in Lund: Networking for alternative options to ISEC.” 25 000 SEK
Follow-up: This continued networking grant for the Masters programme at Lund University (compare follow-up report above) relates to the fact that a large number of admitted students were Pakistani nationals. Due to the political conflict between Pakistan and India this could create problems to send Pakistani students to Bangalore. Therefore alternative options had to be considered, and the most interesting option was Peradeniya University in Sri Lanka.
The networking achieved its purpose. MOUs about receiving students from the Masters Programme in Asian Studies as well as operational working relationships have been established with partner institutions in both India and in Sri Lanka, and also an institutionally based resource person in Pakistan.

• Kjell Nilsson, Department of Sociology, Lund University. ”Globalisation and Transformation in a Comparative Perspective – a Masters Course on the Internet.” 50 000 SEK
Follow-up: The aim of the project was to develop institutional cooperation with Indian universities (teachers/researchers and students) in relation to an International Internet-based education programme that the Dept. of Sociology, Lund University, coordinates. The intention was that teachers and students from India would participate in the course from September 2004.
The planning grant was used for journeys to meet contact persons at the University of Mumbai (Dr S M Michael and Dr Rajesh Kharat) and Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (Professor Dipak Malik).

2004/01, decisions made on 24 August, 2004

A total number of 24 applications for SASNET planning grants were received. Total amount applied for was 2.11 Million SEK.

• Baboo Nair, Department of Applied Nutrition and Food Chemistry, Lund Institute of Technology, Lund University: ”Networking grant for further development and strengthening of the SASNETWORK on fermented foods, public health and social well-being formed in Nov-2003 to increase its sustainability.” 70 000 SEK
Follow-up: Continuation of a programme given SASNET planning grants. See follow-up report above, under the August 2002 grants.

• Lars Åke Persson, International Maternal and Child Health (IMCH), Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Uppsala University. ”Network for Interventions against Maternal-Child Malnutrition in South Asia.” 30 000 SEK
Follow-up: Continuation of a networking programme given SASNET planning grants. See above.

• Joyanto Routh, Department of Geology and Geochemistry, Stockholm University: “Environmental and long-term pitfalls of human induced changes in lake ecosystems: A case study of the Kumaun Lakes in NE India.” 65 000 SEK
Follow-up: The project is carried out in collaboration with Dr. G J Chakrapani, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, and focuses on the environmental deterioration of lakes in the Kumaun valley in northeast India. They intend to set up an interdisciplinary study investigating the changes in the watershed over the last 200 years, and the remedial measures that can be considered to ameliorate the situation.
In October 2004 Joyantho Routh received SEK 600 000 as a Swedish Research Links three-years grant (Asian–Swedish research partnership programme) by Sida and the Swedish Research Council for the project now renamed ”Sedimentary record of human-induced environmental changes and affects in the Kumaun Lakes, India”, for the period 2005-07.

• Aida Aragão-Lagergren, Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University: “Children ‘left behind’. A study on children of migrant women in Sri Lanka.” 75 000 SEK
Follow-up: The project will be carried out in collaboration with Dr. Kumudu Wijewardene, Professor in Community Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, Sri Jayewardenapura University, Sri Lanka.
In October/November 2004 the project was awarded two major research grants:
1: SEK 1 500 000 as a three years grant (2005-07) from Sida's Developing Country Research Council (U-landsforskningsrådet).
2: SEK 1 824 000 SEK as a three years grant (2005-07) from the Swedish Research Council.

• Mirja Juntunen, Department of Oriental Languages, Stockholm University: “The Buddhist-Modernist Thinker Rahul Sankrtyayan and his Influence on Contemporary Indian Writing.” 65 000 SEK
Follow-up: Mirja Juntunen defended her doctoral dissertation called ”The Town Plan of Jaipur: Its Sources and Narrations” successfully on Friday 10 September 2004. This post-doc project is therefore still in its planning process. The project was however initiated already in September 2003, and incorporated in a major research programme ”Asian Roots to Modernity and Beyond”, to be carried out by the Stockholm Research Environment for Asian Studies, when funding is secured (the programme is led by Professor Staffan Rosén, Dept. of Korean Studies, and Associate Professor Birgit Schlyter, Dept. of Central Asian Studies, both at Stockholm University).

• Amir Mansory, Institute of International Education, Stockholm University: ”Opportunities and Obstacles for Girls’ Education in Rural Afghanistan a project including capacity development of Afghan Educators.” 63 000 SEK
Follow-up: Amir Mansory is a PhD candidate involved in a similar project with Pia Karlsson (see above under January 2003), a project that has been given funding by Sida/SAREC.
The purpose of this new project is to explore possibilities of future cooperation between the Institute of International Education, Stockholm University, and an education institution in Afghanistan, to be defined. Once such collaboration has been established the project aims at training and upgrading Afghan educators in research methodologies while simultaneously studying the hindrances that affect girl’s participation in education.
The networking will be carried out by Mansory, Karlsson and Professor Holger Daun, and involves contact journeys to the universities of Jalalabad and Mazar-e-Sharif in early 2005.

• Gunnel Cederlöf, Department of History and Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology, Uppsala University: ”Environmental History as an Emerging Field of Education and Research. Planning for a collaboration between
Uppsala University and Calcutta University” 75 000 SEK
Follow-up: The aim of the Calcutta-Uppsala programme is to build research capacity and strengthen existing research and education environments within the field of environmental history. The programme will have as a main goal to increase the interest in and knowledge of environmental history in South Asia through research-based education.
As an off-spin of the programme in Uppsala, a general interest in South Asia is expected to expand both in the departments where the programme is to be located, i.e. the departments of history and of cultural anthropology and ethnology, and in the departments with which the Uppsala core group cooperates. If the programme receives a planning grant and thereby can build an institutional base, it is invited to participate in an Erasmus project of the Department of History, which links five European universities together under the theme Gender and Economic Culture. This project will then develop into an Erasmus Mundus programme.
The SASNET planning grant is used for meetings in Uppsala and Kolkata during the Winter 2004/05. On the Indian side the efforts are led by Professor Arun Bandopadhyay, Dept. of History, Calcutta University. He visited Uppsala in November 2004. In February 2005 Gunnel Cederlöf and Beppe Karlsson will go to Kolkata.

• Stellan Vinthagen, Department of Peace and Development Research (Padrigu), Göteborg University: “Padrigu – Madras University collaborative education project to develop ‘Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies’ in India.” 75 000 SEK
Follow-up: In May 2002 PADRIGU signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Madras, Chennai, India, with the purpose to promote peace studies in India. At the heart of this long-term research collaboration and scholarly exchange are two components: Teaching and research. The teaching component will undertake the responsibility of offering an introductory course on 'Peace and Conflict Resolution' to masters level students at the School of Social Sciences, University of Madras. Stellan Vinthagen has been in charge of the curriculum work. At the Indian side Dr. Senthil Ram is the coordinator in the collaboration project.
A preparatory Education and Research Workshop on introducing the joint Swedish-Indian Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies programme (PCTS) was held at the University of Madras, 22–26 November 2004.

• Nils-Axel Mörner, Paleogeophysics & Geodynamics, Stockholm University: “Research and Education in the Maldives regarding sea level changes, island evolution and reef ecology.” 25 000 SEK
Follow-up: Prof Nils-Axel Mörner is president for the INQUA (The International Association of Quaternary Research) Commission on Sea Level Changes and Coastal Evolution, with a sub-commission (nr 3) devoted to the Indian Ocean. In the Spring 2000 edition of Integrated Coastal Zone Management he published an article on the Indian Ocean and its special sea level problems. That became the starting point for a research programme in the Maldives, which gave some spectacular finds.
The planning grant is aimed at widening research and start an educational project together with the Ecocare group and NCLHR (National Centre of Linguistics and Historical Research), both in Male, the Maldives. The project is still in a preparatory phase.

• Peter Schalk, Department of History of Religions, Uppsala University: “Introduction of Modern Research Methods and Theories within the field of humanities in the University of Yalppanam.” 50 000 SEK
Follow-up: Peter Schalk has been closely connected to the University of Jaffna (Yalppanam) since 1970, and involved in students and teachers exchange. Due to the civil war in Sri Lanka Jaffna has however been cut off from the outside World for many years, and this is especially the case regarding studies in humanities.
The planning grant will be used by Schalk to spend time at Jaffna University during the Winter 2004/05, to give courses and lead seminars on all levels that initiate a change of the prevalent weaknesses. He will also prepare the ground for Swedish students to go to Jaffna for language courses in Tamil and for studies in Shivaism.

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Phone: +46 46 222 73 40
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Last updated 2011-08-11

SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

Follow-up of SASNET Planning grants 2001–04, what happened to the projects?

2001/01, decisions made on 27 April, 2001

2001/02, decisions made on 24 January, 2002

2002/01, decisions made on 27 August, 2002

2002/02, decisions made on 28 January, 2003

2003/01, decisions made on 26 August, 2003

2004/01, decisions made on 24 August, 2004