Prof. Rahul Mukherji, Head of the Department for Political Science at SAI, is part of the Independent Panel for Monitoring Indian Elections (IPMIE) that has launched its activities on March 15 2024. Consisting of six independent scholars and practitioners, the panel has produced a report titled "Free and Fair Elections in India: Baseline Report Ahead of the 2024"  which serves as an assessment of whether Indian citizens are able to exercise their right to universal suffrage, are offered free choice and can make it in an informed manner. The report is based on experience from GE 2019 onward.

Find concluding remarks of Prof. Mukherji on the establishment of the Independent Panel for Monitoring Indian Elections (IPMIE) here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_EWdPncvdw

More information here: https://thewire.in/politics/panel-of-five-scholars-will-be-monitoring-indias-2024-elections

On March 14th, Prof. Ute Hüsken visited the National Mission for Manuscripts to have a MoU signed by its Director, Dr. Anirban Dash. The National Mission for Manuscripts seeks to unearth and preserve the vast manuscript wealth of India, and maintains a continuously gowing online catalogue of Manuscripts on their website (https://namami.gov.in/). The MoU will facilitate common teaching activities in the field of manuscriptology, researcher exchange, collaboration  in the education of future manuscriptologist, and common work with the manuscripts.

The Department of Modern South Asian Languages and Literatures, South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg in collaboration with Institute of Asian Studies, Charles University, Prague and Chair of South Asian Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw is offering a two-week Bengali intensive course for beginners and advanced learners.
 
Beside Instructive and engaging classes, accompanying programs with fun activities will provide an additional platform for intellectual exchange with Bengali and Bangladeshi scholars and our doctoral students. The course will take place from 01.08 to 17.08 here at the South Asia Institute in Heidelberg.

For registration and inquiry, please contact Alice DeFlorian via email until the 31.05. For more information please also click here.