Ashoka Reflections_FEBRUARY 2024

Welcome to interactive presentation, created with Publuu. Enjoy the reading!

It has been a proud month for Ashoka

University with two of our Professors being

awarded prestigious Fellowships

Ashoka Reflections | Page 04

Ashwini Deshpande, Head of the Department, Economics and Professor of Economics, Ashoka University is

among 10 to have been named annual fellows by the International Economic Association. The annual

fellowship is awarded to “economists worldwide who have made an important contribution through the

creation or dissemination of new ideas and high-quality policy work.” She is also the founding Director of the

Centre for Economic Data and Analysis (CEDA) at Ashoka University.

The IEA was founded in 1950 as a non-governmental organisation, as part of a UNESCO-driven initiative. The

IEA is governed by a council, composed of representatives of its member associations and some co-opted

members. Two of its past presidents are Amartya Sen (1986–1989) and Kaushik Basu (2017-2021). The fellow

award recipients are selected by a Nominating Committee which, according to the Association, takes it upon

itself to “ensure regional diversity and gender balance.”

On being awarded this honour, she shared, “I am truly honoured to be chosen for the International

Economic Association (IEA) Fellowship Award and am grateful for the recognition of my work. I would

like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all my friends, colleagues, and students for their messages of

support and encouragement, which have been invaluable to me. This award serves as a reminder to

continue striving for excellence.”

Dr Anurag Agrawal, Dean, BioSciences and Health Research, Trivedi School of Biosciences, Ashoka University

has been selected for the JC Bose National Fellowship instituted by the Government of India.

The JC Bose Fellowship is awarded to active scientists in recognition of their outstanding performance. The

fellowship is scientist-specific and very selective. It is named after Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose. He was a

polymath interested in biology, physics, botany and writing science fiction. He was a pioneer in the

investigation of radio microwave optics, made significant contributions to botany, and was a major force

behind the expansion of experimental science on the Indian subcontinent. Bose is considered the father of

Bengali science fiction. He invented the crescograph, a device for measuring the growth of plants. A crater on

the Moon was named in his honour. He founded the Bose Institute, a premier research institute in India and

also one of its oldest. Established in 1917, the institute was the first interdisciplinary research centre in Asia,

where he also served as the Director.

Expressing his joy over receiving this Fellowship, he shared, “It is an honour to receive a fellowship named

after a polymath like JC Bose. It is fitting to receive it at Ashoka University, allowing me to learn and

hopefully contribute across natural and social sciences.”

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84