SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

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Visit to the University of Mysore (UMY),
Thursday, November 29, 2007

Web page: http://www.uni-mysore.ac.in

The Mysore University main campus is located in an area of town called Manasagangotri, at the western end of the Kukkarahalli Lake. The University headquarters, the Crawford Hall, is located right across the lake on the eastern end.
The university has 45 departments, besides offering undergraduate programs in 127 affiliated colleges in a lrage region. In total, approximately 45,000 students are enrolled at UMY, among whom 1500 are foreign students – many from China.

Among the departments we visited, we were particularly drawn to the Educational Multimedia Research Centre, whose aim is to develop distance education through the Internet and via satellites. The centre and its extremely competent staff, also produces educational films of professional quality. We were given a presentation by two of the producers, namely Mr. Sreekantachar, and Mr. Ganta Ravikumar.

In the afternoon, a meeting had been prepared for us to meet academicians and researchers at University of Mysore, under the leadership of the Vice-Chancellor (VC) Prof. P Ishwar Bhat (also Dean of the Faculty of Law), photo to the left. The meeting was held in the Syndicate Chamber of Crawford Hall, the university administration building. The purpose was to enable us to present SASNET, and discuss the possibilities to create joint venture and exchange programmes between University of Mysore and SASNET/Swedish universities. Those present consisted mainly of chairs of departments in diverse fields ranging from Botany to Social work. The meeting was very well-organised, and after our presentation we had a lively discussion about networking and various types of international collaboration.

Other participants (besides the VC):

B.K. Tulasimala and Lawrence Surendra.

• Prof. Nanjegowda, Dean, Faculty of Commerce
• Prof. Siddhashrama, Dean, Faculty of Arts
• Prof. Chandrakumar, Dean, Faculty of Education
• Prof. T B B S V Ramanaiah, Chairman, DOS in Social Work
• Prof. Y S Siddegowda, DOS in Social Work
• Prof. Bharathi P Salimath, Chairperson, DOS in Applied Botany & Biotechnology
• Prof. V. Ravishankar Rai, Coordinator, Microbiology Course, DOS in Botany
• Dr. D. Revannasiddaiah, Chairman, DOS in Physics
• Prof. B.N. Achar, Chairman, DOS in Chemistry
• Dr. B K Tulasimala, Chairperson, DOS in Economics & Co-operation
• Prof. Muzaffar Assadi, DOS in Political Science
• Prof. Lawrence Surendra, Planning Commission Unit, DOS in Economics
• Prof. Indumati, Member Academic Council, Dept. of Economics
• Dr. Nanjunda, Fellow, Dept. of Anthropology; Editor, Asian Journal of Development

We also visited the Dept. of Economics, and had a meeting with its Chairman Dr. B.K. Tulasimala. This meeting and a nice round tour of the university – including a visit to the interesting university museum, located in the Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion (photo to the left), was kindly organised by Lawrence Surendra, holder of the Planning Commission Professorial Chair at the Dept. of Economics.

Lawrence was previously connected to the National Law School of India University in Bangalore. He has several Swedish connections, since he has been a Senior Advisor to the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), and has worked in the area of Science and Technology Policy at the Research Policy Institute, Lund University. More information.

Lawrence Surendra and his wife Pushpa live outside Mysore on an organic horticultural farm, incorporating ecological principles and design in the maintenance of the farm and natural resource use. In the evening, we were invited to visit the farmhouse, and later in the evening for a wonderful dinner in the outdoor restaurant belonging to Grand Maurya Hotel on Hunsur Road in Mysore.