RoundTable on tribal health in IIT, Mumbai on 11.08.2025. Caught up with some old NGO friends Mittali (now collector Nandurbar) , Meenal - now CEO Jalgaon and 4 other young CEOs of Zila Parishad. C-TARA Fellows and students were there of course."On Saturday the 28th September, 2024, proudly presented an elegant gift to Shri Naveen Pattnaik. The image of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra have been printed on Jeevodaya silk. It is a technique where the worm feeding on mulberry leaves is not killed but lays yarn on a flat surface and becomes a moth, without forming a cocoon. Sashwat Ghai our M Tech student of C-TARA IIT Bombay has worked on this technique. I and Prof. Amit Arora happened to guide him in this compassionate initiative."On 28 September, 2024, 'Amritdhara' a professional NGO in palliative care and counselling Centre for women cancer patients started the functioning of its second unit from my house in Kalinga Nagar in Bhubaneshwar. Hoping it serves the nearby areas and helps the cause of early detection (does not usually happen for women because of social factors).Enjoyed making some candid, yet humourous, remarks at the National Conference on Monitoring, Evaluation & learning 2024, 2-3 May 2024Bringing Telangana and Nagaland councils together, 2024Chairing the review meeting of State Councils of Science and Technology at IIT Delhi , 2024Chairing the review meeting of State Councils of Science and Technology at IIT Delhi , 2024I had a small role in the propagation of menstrual cups with help of Dr Anitha Thampi former CTARA student, from an initial CSR support for 5000 cups during Kerala floods of 2018, to now 500,000 cups. These cups significantly reduce carbon footprints, compared to the option of pad+incineration and are of help to waste handlers. Incidentally these are very useful for women in their menstrual hygiene.With Prof Abhay Karandikar, Secretary DST and other Expert Committee members for release of a compendium of technologies successfully developed by young scientists. (8 Nov 2023) Prof Karandikar was earlier the Dean Faculty Affairs at IIT Bombay (he used to approve my tours and leave) and then became Director IIT Kanpur. It was good to meet him again.With Posaramma who still prefers to have wages under MGNREGA and not a 'dole' - and tells it to the Chairman of the MGNREGA Award committeeAt Monterey Bay in CaliforniaSrishti getting her LLM at University of Notre DameAnustubh and Lauren finally saying Kubul Hai ☺In Moti Bag (Saurabh Garg and Jugal Mohapatra are recognisable!)
