HIGHLIGHTS

Nabinananda Sen and Ashish Chatterjee attended and made contributions to a Workshop for Civil Society Organizations on Avenues for Accountability around IFC and MIGA Projects organised by the Compliance Advisor/ Ombudsman (CAO) of the World Bank Group in association with Meta-Culture (April '09)

Project on Sustainable Tourism and Livelihoods (Ecotourism) is being implemented beginning with a baseline survey on awarenesss

Nabinananda Sen, Rajat Chaudhuri and Ashis Chatterjee attended the Museums of the Future synmposium which discussed the proposed setting up of the Kolkata Museum of Modern Art (KMOMA) (March 2009)

Anupam Pachauri attended a number of Right to Education seminars organised by IDS, University of Rajasthan and other NGOs (Jan-March, 09)

Rajat Chaudhuri attended the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) Energy Conclave, 2009 (February 2009)

Sustainable Development Web resource, Documentation and Translation Initiative Launched

Prof Nabinananda Sen was interviewed by Arte-TV (France-Germany) in March 2008 about major sustainable development issues facing the state of West Bengal with special reference to Tata's small car project

Rajat Chaudhuri, Jayanta Sarkar and Krishnendu Maji supported by a team have initiated a survey to test the status quo vis-a-vis right to elementary education and right to water, in two underprivileged areas of the city.

Prof Nabinandanda Sen, Rajat Chaudhuri and Jayanta Sarkar were invited and participated at the Climate Change Conference organised by West Bengal State Electricity Board Engineers Association. Prof Sen presented a paper on Emissions Trading.

Prof Nabinannanda Sen made a presentation at panel discussion on trade liberalisation and women in agriculture on 4th Oct, 2007 at Calcutta. The discussion was organised by CUTS.

Anupam Pachauri was sponsored by The Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity (CREATE) to participate at the UKFIET Conference (International Conference on Education and Development) held at the University of Oxford, UK, from 11-13 September 2007

Parul Sharma catalysed the launch of a blog for the Girl Child which will discuss issues affecting this group. The blog is one of the initiatives undertaken by the Rajdulari Foundation for the Girl Child. It is hosted here >

Rajat Chaudhuri's first novel Amber Dusk, a work of literary fiction, that deals with issuess of intolerance, violence and the human condition was published in July, 2007. The novel is now available in bookstores and background information with links to online bookshops and the publisher's website is available here >

Prof Nabinananda Sen participated at a meeting organised by UNCTAD to discuss the post-Doha trade-negotiations in New Delhi on 9-10th August, 2007

Anupam Pachauri won a Commonwealth Fellowship to pursue Ph.D. work on the subject - Multilateral Participation of non-state Providers in the provision of Basic Education in India. The work on the thesis will be pursued at the University of Sussex, UK from September 2007.

Adreesh Chakraborty co-authored and presented a paper tiltled ‘Transformation of Commercial Areas in New Delhi: Organic Growth and Planned Development’ for the IX Coloquio Internacional de Geocrítica tilted Los Problemas del Mundo Actual. Soluciones y Alternativas Desde la Geografía y las Ciencias Sociales. The Colloquy was held at Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal Do Rio Grande de Sul, Brazil, from the 28th of May to the 1st of June 2007.

Parul Sharma's second book Right to Life - The Pluralism of Human Existence was recently released to much critical acclaim. Published by India Research Press, this book adresses the constant contradiction between, the guarantee of Right to Life and the understanding of what a functional life really is within legislations, judgements, and overall policy-making. In order to understand human rights the law maker has to understand human life, whether this is the human life of a group of individuals such as ‘beggars’, or sole individuals such as child victims. The book is available at various bookstalls and also here >

Rajat Chaudhuri presented the findings of a study to analyse the impact of India's Competition regime on welfare of Consumers at a National Reference Group meeting in New Delhi on 14th June, 2007