Concept

International Academia and Research Committee (IARC) was established in September 2020 under the aegis of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences by the BITS Pilani administration. The main purpose of this committee is to enable and facilitate productive long-term as well as short-term academic research collaborations with various international universities, research institutes and think tanks. As part of this mission, IARC is organizing monthly Webinars through inviting academic researchers and scholars of international repute to share their work with our faculty and the student body. IAR committee thus far has conducted international webinars with academic researchers coming from various countries, with a view to proactively engage with the state-of-art international research trends and processes.

Webinar Series

International Academia and Research Committee (IARC) Webinars (2020-2021) Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, BITS Pilani (Pilani Campus)
Webinar Month/Date	Proposed by	Name of the Speaker	University/Institutional Affiliation	Country of Work	MOU with BITS	Research area/Title of the Webinar
26-11-22	Prof. Sangeeta Sharma	Arpan Bumb	London Business School	Holland & Barrett	NA	Digital Anlaytics and Applications : An Industry Perspective
21-3-22	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama	Prof. Dr. Bas Arts	Wageningen University	Netherlands	NA	Forest Governance : Hydra or Chloris
7/2/2022	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama	Prof. James Mulholland	North Carolina State University	USA	NA	From Archive to Page : Academic Writing and Research in the 21st Century
10/12/2021	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama	Prof. Walter A. Rosenbaum	Department of Political Science, University of Florida	Florida, USA	No	Grow Where You're Planted: Bringing Sustainability to the Campus
3/12/2021	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama	Dr. Naciba Chassagnon	ESSCA School of Management, Lyon	France	No	Environmental Studies for the 21st Century
30-11-21	Dr. Veena Ramachandran	Dr. James D. Frankel		Hong Kong	No	Origins and Trajectories of Islam in China.
25-11-21	Dr. Chintalapalli Vijayakumar	Dr. Maggie Charles	Oxford University	UK	tbc	Academic Writing for Higher Degree Students
28-09-21	Dr. Mohammed Afzal P	Dr. Chih-ming Wang	Academia Sinica, Taiwan	Currently a Visiting Professor at Harvard Yenching Institute, USA	No	Unpacking the Nation in/as the State of Crisis: A Transnational Reflection on the Impact of the Pandemic in Taiwan
14-08-21	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama	Prof. James D. Proctor	Professor of Environmental Studies and Director of Environmental Studies, Lewis & Clark	Lewis & Clark, Oregon, USA	No	The New Ecotypes
28-04-21	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama	Prof.Niraj Prakash Joshi	Hiroshima University, Japan	Hiroshima, Japan	Yes	Agriculture and Climate Change in Nepal: GHG Emissions, Mitigation, Indications of Climate Change, Impact on Agriculture, Adaptation, and Co-benefits
6/5/2021	Prof. Sangeeta Sharma	Prof. Janice Yoder	Kent State University USA	Kent, USA	NA	Asking “So What?” about our Scholarship: Why Values Matter when Planning, Doing, and Disseminating Research
15-03-21	Dr. Anupam Yadav	Prof. Aleksandra Derra	Institute of Philosophy, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland	Torun, Poland	NA	Feminist Studies as an Attempt to Build Complementary Knowledge: The Case of Disease
23-02-21	Prof. Hari Nair	Prof. Harsh Pant	King's College, London and Observer Research Foundation	England (currently on sabbatical at ORF, Delhi)	No	International Relations
28-01-21	Dr. Madhurima Das	Dr. Payoshni Mitra	Birkbeck College, University of London	United Kingdom	NA	Gender, Sexuality, Race, Intersectionality and Sports Activism in Global South
20-11-20	Dr. Veena Ramachandran	Dr Selbi Hanova	UNICEF, Turkmenistan	Turkmenistan	NA	Multilateralism, Regionalism and Sovereignty
22-10-20	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama	Prof. Severine van Bommel	University of Queensland	Australia	Yes	Governance of Complex Agri-environmental Systems and Development Interventions: An Interpretive Approach

HoD : Prof. Devika Members - IARC : Prof. Kumar Sankar Bhattacharya, Prof. Hari Nair, Dr. Sunita Raina, Dr. Madhurima Das
Coordinator - IARC : Prof. Sailaja Nandigama

The Academia-Industry Interfacing Committee (AIIC) at Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at BITS-Pilani, Pilani Campus, endeavors to contribute to industry engagement through interaction with experts from industry. The broader agenda of the activities of the includes but not limited to connect the HSS Department, students and faculty, with industry experts, policy makers, practitioners and administrators to foster collaborative learning, curriculum development, skill development, entrepreneurial encouragement. The main activities that the AIIC plans to undertake include webinar series, invited talks and panel discussions.

Academia-Industry Interfacing Committee (AIIC) – Webinar Series
Webinar date	Proposed by	Invited by	Speaker	Affiliation	Topic
26-3-22	Academia-Industry Interfacing Committee (AIIC)	Dr. Sushila Shekhawat	Sandeep Sharma	Morgan Stanley	Building and effective career roadmap and importance of soft skills in career growth
23-12-21	Academia-Industry Interfacing Committee (AIIC)	Dr. Virendra Singh Nirban	Mr. Prannay Kumar	Head Media & Communications, Telangana State Innovation Cell	2021 Century Skills Requirements of Industry
27 March 2021	Academia-Industry Interfacing Committee (AIIC)	Dr. Tanu Shukla	Dr. L N Venkataraman	Department of Policy Studies, TERI-SAS	Academia-Industry Interfacing for a 21st Century Employment Readiness-Humanities Perspectives
		Dr. Madhurima Das	Mr. Masoom Sachdeo	Rebel Foods
		Dr. V S Nirban	Mrs. Rekha Gade	HR Advisor
		Dr. Tanu Shukla	Mr. Salman Mahmood	Food Corporation of India

International Exchange Student Details

Student's Name	ID.No.	PhD Supervisor	Professor/s in-charge	Year & Duration of International Collaboration	Programme, University & Country	Ongoing/ Completed	MoU with BITS
Aayushi Malhotra	2017PHXP0042P	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama (BITS Pilani) & Prof. Niraj Prakash Joshi (Hiroshima University)	2022 (August)	Taoyaka Program Onsite Training 2022	Completed	Yes
Mayuresh Vijay Bhise	2017PHXF0418P	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama (BITS Pilani) & Prof. Niraj Prakash Joshi (Hiroshima University)	2022 (August)	Taoyaka Program Onsite Training 2022	Completed	Yes
Ruchika Sharma	2019PHXP0426P	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama (BITS Pilani) & Prof. Niraj Prakash Joshi (Hiroshima University)	2022 (August)	ILDP programme - Hiroshima University, Japan	Completed	Yes
Shruti Majumdar	2020PHXF0462P	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama (BITS Pilani) & Prof. Niraj Prakash Joshi (Hiroshima University)	2022 (August)	ILDP programme - Hiroshima University, Japan	Completed	Yes
Aayushi Malhotra	2017PHXP0042P	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama (BITS Pilani) & Prof. Niraj Prakash Joshi (Hiroshima University)	2021 (January- September)	ILDP programme - Hiroshima University, Japan	Completed	Yes
Mayuresh Vijay Bhise	2017PHXF0418P	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama (BITS Pilani) & Prof. Niraj Prakash Joshi (Hiroshima University)	2021 (January- September)	ILDP programme - Hiroshima University, Japan	Completed	Yes
Ruchika Sharma	2019PHXP0426P	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama (BITS Pilani) & Prof. Niraj Prakash Joshi (Hiroshima University)	2021 (January- September)	ILDP programme - Hiroshima University, Japan	Completed	Yes
Neetika Mahajan	2020PHXP0111P	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama (BITS Pilani) & Prof. Niraj Prakash Joshi (Hiroshima University)	2021 (January- September)	ILDP programme - Hiroshima University, Japan	Completed	Yes
Anjali Punia	2020PHXP0037P	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama (BITS Pilani) & Prof. Niraj Prakash Joshi (Hiroshima University)	2021 (January- September)	ILDP programme - Hiroshima University, Japan	Completed	Yes
Merylin Das	2020PHXP0033P	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama	Prof. Sailaja Nandigama (BITS Pilani) & Prof. Niraj Prakash Joshi (Hiroshima University)	2021 (January- September)	ILDP programme - Hiroshima University, Japan	Completed	Yes
Punita Raj	2020PHXF0428P	Prof. Devika	Prof. K.S.Sangwan and Prof. Christoph Herrmann (TU Braunschweig)	2021-2022 (Nov-Jan, visited in person 11-19 nov, 2021)	IGCSM- TU Braunschweign	Completed	Yes
Shivangi Priya	2014PHXF007P	Prof. Pushp Lata	Prof. Pushp Lata	from August 2016 to May 2017	Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) in the University of Utah	Completed	No
Vidhi Agarrwal	2013PHXF0431P	Prof. Hari Nair	Prof. GS Chauhan	18-29 August 2018	ILDP programme - Hiroshima University, Japan	Completed	Yes
Shrija Srinivasan	2016PHXF0411P	Prof. Sushila Shekhawat	Prof S.K.Choudhary	18 -25 August 2019	ILDP International On-site Training Advanced	Completed	Yes