Postal address: Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper (KV), Linnéuniversitetet, SE-351 95 Växjö, Sweden
Visiting address: House F, entrance 7, Universitetsplatsen
Web page: http://lnu.se/schools/school-of-cultural-sciences?l=en
  (Study of Religion: http://lnu.se/amnen/religionsvetenskap)

Contact person: Associate Professor Kristina Myrvold,  Personal web page.

South Asia related research

Associate Professor Kristina Myrvold started to work at Linnaeus University in Växjö from the spring 2013. Before that, she worked at the Department of History and Anthropology of Religion (including Judaism and Indic Religions), Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University.

She defended her doctoral dissertation titled ”Inside the Guru’s Gate: The Ritual Uses of Texts among the Sikhs in Varanasi”, at Lund University on Thursday 20 December 2007. The thesis deals with Sikh rituals in Varanasi, where she has conducted fieldwork for several years. Her study focuses on religious attitudes towards the Sikh scripture and the ritual use of texts. Faculty opponent was Assistant Professor Michael Nijhawan, Dept. of Anthropology, South Asia Institute (SAI), University of Heidelberg, Germany. More information, with an abstract.

In her post-doc research, Dr. Myrvold has focused on religious practices and worship among the Sikhs in Punjab and in different diasporic settings, focusing on Sikh katha – oral and textual expositions of Guru Granth Sahib – in local and translocal contexts. She investigates contemporary manifestation of katha and which functions traditional and new forms of religious expositions have for understanding of the teaching and identity of the Sikh scripture, especially among the second generation of Swedish Sikhs. Her theoretical interests are primarily directed towards anthropology of religion, performance and ritual studies, emic historiography, and religious language and uses of texts. More information about Kristina’s research work 2004-2012.
For four years, between 2009 and 2013, she was the principal investigator and a researcher of the Nordcorp project “Sikh Identity Formation: Generational Transfer of Traditions in the Nordic Countries”, which was carried out in cooperation with researchers in Denmark, Finland and Norway and funded by The Councils for Research in Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS). More information.

Dr. Myrvold has also been involved in organising a number of workshops/conferences on Sikh and Punjab Studies at Lund University, the first in March 2005 (more information), the second in 2008, and then a full-scale three-day conference on ”Sikhs in Europe. Migration, Identity and Translocal Practices” on 16–18 June 2010. More information on the 2008 and 2010 workshops.
As a result of these workshops, a network entitled Sikhs-in-Europe was formed for the purpose of developing closer academic cooperation between students and researchers with a common interest in the Sikhs and Sikhism in Europe. Go for the Sikhs in Europe network website.
On June 18 to 19, 2013, Kristina Myrvold organized yet another international conference at Lund University with the title ”Young Sikhs in a Global World: Negotiating Identity, Tradition and Authority”. The workshops and conferences have resulted in three anthologies on the Sikhs that have been co-edited by Knut A. Jacobsen at University of Bergen: Sikhs in Europe: Migration, Identities and Representations (Ashgate, 2011); Sikhs Across Borders: Transnational Practices of European Sikhs (Bloomsbury, 2012); and Young Sikhs in a Global World: Negotiating Traditions, Identities and Authorities(Ashgate, 2015).

Betwen 1 March 2012 and 30 September 2013, Kristina Myrvold also worked as Director for the Nordic Centre in India (NCI) university consortium on a 50% basis. More information.

In March 2013, NCI organised a workshop in Bangalore on Urbanization and Migration in Transnational India along with SASNET and the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC). Kristina Myrvold was the main planner for this workshop, entitled “Urbanization and Migration in Transnational India: Work and Family Life from a Welfare Perspective”. The purpose of the workshop was to bring together Nordic and Indian researchers in the Humanities and Social Sciences to identify new areas of research on the ways in which work and family life in India are rapidly being transformed by urbanization, national and transnational migration, and new economic policies, especially with regard to welfare distribution and social security. Read more.

PhD Candidate Andreas Johansson is working on a dissertation project entitled ”The Construction of Religio-Nationalism – The struggle for religious minority organizations” (preliminary title). He is being supervised by Prof. Olle Qvarnström at the Department of History and Anthropology of Religion, Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University, and Andreas is also affiliated to this department.
Before joining as a PhD student in 2009, Andreas completed a Masters programme in Islamology. His main research interest has been Political Islam in South Asia; how Muslim parties use Islamic rhetoric; and the influence of Sayyid Abu’-A’la Mawdudi on Muslim parties in South Asia. In November 2006 Andreas carried out a field work in Sri Lanka to study the main Muslim party in the country, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress. His Masters thesis in the Fall 2007 was entitled ”A Third Way. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress discourse struggle between Islamism and Nationalism”. More information about Andreas Johansson’s research.

Research project on Muslim and Sikh Soldiers in British Army during World War I

On 2 June 2014, the Crafoord Foundation granted Kristina Myrvold SEK 1 m for a research project entiled ”Religion in the Trenches: Miniature Scriptures for Muslim and Sikh Soldiers in the British Army during World War I” for the period 2015-2017. At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, one third of the British forces on the Western front were Indians of the British Indian Army. The purpose of the project is to investigate the importance of religion in the context of war and especially the production, distribution, and use of scriptures and religious artefacts for Muslim and Sikh soldiers from the province of Punjab. In order to maintain military discipline and nurture the soldiers’ religious contentment the Indian soldiers were given editions of the Quran and the Granth that could easily be carried into the battlefield. The project will map out the organization, interests, and motivations behind the provision of scriptures and other religious artefacts to the Indian soldiers. The project leader is Kristina Myrvold and the grant from the Crafoord Foundation is for a postdoctoral project on Muslim soldiers that will be carried out by Andreas Johanssson. From a shared theoretical and methodological framework they will conduct archival work in the UK and India.

On 30 October 2014, Kristina Myrvold was also awarded a project grant from the Swedish Research Council (total amount SEK 2.59 m in three years, 2015-17) for the same project (”Religion in the Trenches: Miniature Scriptures for Muslim and Sikh Soldiers in the British Army during World War I”).
Project abstract: The research project investigates the production, distribution, and use of religious miniature scriptures and artefacts for Sikh soldiers from the province of Punjab in India who fought for the British Army at the Western front during World War I. In order to meet the soldiers´ religious needs when they were dispatched to the trenches in Europe, the colonial power provided miniature editions of the Sikh scripture, Guru Granth, and small religious artefacts that could easily be carried into the battlefield. The miniature scriptures, measuring only a few centimeters in size, are today popular collectibles that enclose a largely unexplored history about the importance of religious books in the time of war. Based on new archival research and sources, the project examines the organization and motivations behind the provision of miniature scriptures and symbols intended for Sikh soldiers. By anchoring the research project in Military History, Book History, and Religious Studies, it explores how the religious objects and their practices manifested complex relationships across borders in a historical context when the British national security was threatened. From the theoretical perspective of material religion and how materiality of religious books and objects can be attributed diverse and multiple functions, uses and powers, the project focuses on the tiniest versions of the Sikh scripture and symbols and how they came to influence British and Indian relations during World War I. More information about Swedish Research Council grants to South Asia related projects 2014.

Postal Address: Tema Vatten i natur och samhälle (Tema V), Institutionen för Tema, Linköpings universitet, SE-581 83 Linköping
Visiting Address: House T, Linköping University, Campus Valla
Web page: http://www.tema.liu.se/tema-v/

Contact persons: – Associate Professor Julie Wilk, phone: +46 (0)13 28 44 63.
                             – Associate Professor Anna Jonsson, phone: +46 (0)11 36 32 34. 

Water and Environmental Studies (Tema V) is part of TEMA, a two-campus Department with single subjects at undergraduate level as well as centers and research environments. Among the single subjects there are both discipline oriented (Geography) and interdisciplinary oriented ones (Environmental Studies), as well as one professionally oriented subject (Social Work). At TEMA there are four research areas called Themes (in Swedish teman):
– Child Studies;
– Gender Studies;
– Technology and Social Change; and
– Water and Environmental Studies (Tema V).
   At the Department there is also PhD programmes in Communication Studies and Food Studies.

TEMA is also host to three Centres with interdisciplinary profiles:
– The Centre for Gender Studies; 
– The Centre for People, Technology and Society (CMTS = Centrum för Människa, Teknik och Samhälle); and
– The Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research (CSPR – in Norrköping). See SASNET’s special page on CSPR. 

Tema V began its activities in 1980 on a rather modest scale, but grown into becoming a melting-pot for chemists, physicists, technicians, microbiologists, molecular biologists, ecologists, geographers, oceanographers, political scientists, hydrologists, limnologists, social anthropologists, historians, sociologists, ecotoxicologists, statisticians, national economists and ethnogeographists. Research at Tema V is focused on water and environmental problems relevant to society. Tema V research has been financed by all Swedish research councils and sectoral agencies, by Sida (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency), and in recent years also by the European Union.

For many years, the department was headed by Professor Jan Lundqvist. He later worked at the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI). Between 2003 and 2011 he chaired SIWI’s Scientific Programme Committee, and was involved in planning the symposia taking place every year in August in connection with the Stockholm Water Week. More information about the World Water Week in Stockholm. 
Prof. Lundqvist is now retired, but is still actively involved in SIWI work. On World Environment Day 2013, SIWI launched WASTE – a short film on the environmental cost of food waste. The film is a cooperation between SIWI, WWF Germany, UNEP and FAO, and builds on Taste the Waste of Water, a campaign SIWI launched at the 2012 World Water Week. See the film on the web.

South Asia related Masters of Science course:

A 120 ECTS Credits International Master’s Programme in Science for Sustainable Development started in 2007. It is organised by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and leads to a Master in Science degree in Sustainable Development, with a specialization in one of the following areas: 1. Climate, Energy & Recycling; 2. Water & Food Security; or 3. GIS for Environmental Studies. Focus in the first two study areas will be directed to both how social changes shape the environment, and how environmental changes shape society. 
More information about the programme. Contact person: Susanne Eriksson

Current South Asia related research projects:

Researchers from the department has been involved in several research and policy oriented projects in South Asia, primarily in India and in Sri Lanka. The common theme of the engagements concerns water and land resources and their management, utilisation and the implications thereof.

Associate Professor Julie Wilk defended her PhD thesis on ”Do forests have an impact on water availability? Assessing the effects of heterogeneous land use on streamflow in two monsoonal river basins” in December 2000. It dealt with hydrological implications of large-scale changes in land use in South India and in Thailand. She has also analysed perceptions about forest-water interactions among community members and to what extent they concur with scientific perspectives. More information. 
Anna is now Director for the Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research, hosted by the department, at Linköping University’s Campus Norrköping. She is a hydrogeographer with long experience in hydrological modelling, GIS applications and data collection and validation of statistical and local knowledge about natural resources. Personal web page.

Dr. Anna Jonsson defended her PhD thesis at the department in 1996. The title was: ”Food and Fashion. Water Management and Collective Action among Irrigation Farmers and Textile Industrialists in South India”. She was supervised by Prof. Jan Lundqvist. 
Anna is an institutional economist with a Bachelors degree from Lund University in 1991, and has had long experience in stakeholder oriented research on socio-economic and institutional contexts affecting water resource management. 
She is now based at the Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research at Linköping University’s Campus Norrköping. Personal web page.

In October 2010, Julie Wilk and Anna Jonsson were awarded SEK 2.7 m as a three-years grant (2011-13) from Sida/SAREC’s Developing Country Research Council for a comparative project entitled ”Designing climate-smart water adaptation strategies for sustainable urban development. A study of Cochahamba, Bolivia, and Kota, India”. A third partner in the project is Dr. Birgitta Rydhagen, employed by the Division of Technoscience Studies, School of Technoculture, Humanities and Planning, Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) in Karlshamn, but working at the Tema V department in Linköping. More information about South Asia related Sida/SAREC grants 2010.
Field work is being carried out during 2012.
Project abstract: The aim of the project is to assess the vulnerability and adaptive capacity in cities and to formulate sustainable planning strategies that address the major impacts of climate changes. Planning for water (storm- potable- and wastewater) is in focus since water resource already today is complicated to manage for societies? every needs and the situation is predicated to become even more critical in the future. A toolbox for participatory integrated vulnerability assessments with local communities and authorities has been developed with reference to climate change and adaptation planning in Sweden and the Baltic countries. In this study, we want to customize and test the tool box in the urban areas Cochabamba (Bolivia), and Kota (India). These cities represent large growing regions (but not megacities) in different countries, facing sustainable development challenges together with varied and difficult water situations and anticipated harmful climate change impacts. The project outcome will contribute to improved urban water management for sustainable climate change adaptation in developing countries through an improved methodology of vulnerability assessments, contribution to capacity building and social learning, and specific empirical understanding of the three case study contexts.

Anna Jonsson is also involved as a co-partner in a research project entitled ”Climate change, water stress and adaptation: A cross-cultural study in India from gender perspective”. This project, coordinated by Dr. Ulf Johansson Dahre, Division of Social Anthropology, Lund University, and Dr. Nandita Singh, Department of Land and Water Resources Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, received SEK 3 million as a three-years grant (2012-14) from Sida’s Developing Country Research Council (U-landsforskningsrådet) in October 2011. The project is being carried out in collaboration with the Department of Policy Studies, TERI University, New Delhi. More information about the Sida grants 2011. 
Abstact: Climate-induced stress is emerging as an important development concern and India faces a major threat in this regard, for addressing which `community-based` adaptation has been recommend. At the level of local communities, cultural is known to play a vital role in climate adaptation which is also gender-based. However, knowledge on these fronts in water sector is fragmentary. This project aims to fulfil the gaps be enhancing understanding on the cultural wealth of local knowledge and adaptive responses towards climate-induced water stress from gender perspectives, proposing suitable recommendations for integrating these into policy and action in the sector. The research will be based upon a ‘cross-cultural’  ethnographic study in two different kinds of water-stress situations and cultural settings located in the states of Rajasthan and Bihar through long-term residential fieldwork.

Associate Professor Joyanto Routh works at the department since 2011. Previously he worked at the Department of Geology and Geochemistry, Earth Sciences Centre, Stockholm University, where he was involved in several South Asia related projects. (For a period he was also working at Örebro University).
His research interest focuses on the role of biogeochemical interactions in aquatic and sedimentary environments, and their impacts on the cycling of organic and inorganic components on different time scales. He has worked in aquifers, caves, forests, lakes, peat bogs, mangroves, and river margins, with a primary focus Climate Change; and Ground water remediation and microbial interactions.
One research project still running is the one entitled ”Asian monsoon variability and impacts on terrestrial ecosystems: High-resolution records in speleothem and lacustrine archives from northeast India”, funded by Sida’s Developing Country Research Council (U-landsforskningsrådet); and another project entitled ”Arsenic biogeochemical cycling in groundwater aquifers of the Bengal Delta Plains (West Bengal, India): Early detection and remediation issues”, funded by the Swedish Research Links programme. Both projects received funding in 2009 for the perod 2010-12. Besides, the first one of them was preceded by a SASNET planning grant in 2008.
More information about Dr. Routh’s South Asia research, see SASNET’s page on the Dept. of Geology and Geochemistry, Stockholm University. 
Along with Anna Jonsson, he also teaches at the MSc programme in Sustainable Development. Personal web page. 

Professor Henrik Kylin is doing research focusing on organic environmental chemistry in the wide sense, including adjacent research areas such as environmental and human toxicology, and ecotoxicology. Much of his research has been about the global distribution of persistent organic pollutants, which has brought him on expedition to both the Polar Regions and the Tropics. Lately, his interests have been drawn more and more towards work in the Third World, including Bangladesh. 

Previous research projects on South Asia:

In the Fall 2002 the department, through Prof Jan Lundqvist, secured funding from the Swedish Research Links programme, for a major project on water resources management in South India, which is carried out in collaboration with the South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies (SaciWATERs), with its headquarters in Hyderabad, India (Project leader: Dr A Rajagopal). The project ran over a period of three years.

The objectives of the project were to:

– analyse dynamics of water availability & variation in quality parameters in two selected basins (in the states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh)
– produce a water budget, showing physical and social mechanisms that influece availability and accessability
– analyse factors which contribute to differential access to water, particularly risks and challenges that the poor face
– identify opportunities for empowering the poor by enhancing their negotiation capacities through multi-stakeholder dialogue (MSD)

Professor Gunnar Jacks, Dept of Land and Water Resources Engineering, KTH, Stockholm; Professor K Palanisami, Water Technology Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore; and Professor Paul Appasmy, Madras School of Economics, Chennai, India, were also partners in the project.

In November 2004, Prof. Jan Lundqvist received SEK 2.5 million as a three-years (2005-07) research grant from the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (Formas) for a project titled ”Over-committed River Basins – A case study in Southern India with a comparative outlook”. More information about the project (only in Swedish).
In November 2005 Prof. Lundqvist received SEK 1 million as a two-years (2006-07) research grant from Sida/SAREC for a project titled ”Rights and Participation in Policy Making and Management of Scarce Water Resources (Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh)”. More information on Sida funded South Asia related research projects in 2005.

 In August 2005 Julie Wilk and Anna Jonsson received SEK 60 000 as a SASNET planning grant for a project titled ”Defining water poverty to meet local goals, through stakeholder involvement in the Bhavani River Basin, India”. The project was carried out in collaboration with Caroline Sullivan, an environmental and ecological economist at the Centre of Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), Wallingford, UK, who had worked in the field of ”development and the environment” for over 20 years and was one of the researchers who developed the Water Poverty Index. 

In November 2005 this project, now entitled ”Defining water poverty to meet local goals, through stakeholder involvement at village level in Madhya Pradesh, India” received SEK 1 650 000 as a three-years (2006-08) research grant from Sida/SAREC. The project aimed to initiate stakeholder participation in a village within a relevant river basin in south Asia in order to map current water usage and problems with a Water Poverty Index (WPI). This index has been designed and used in order to identify and evaluate poverty in relation to water resources. It is a means in which various groups can become aware of the current status and problems related to water resources (availability, sanitation, ecosystems, etc, develop common goals, monitor change and relay status and progress to authorities. The calculation of a WPI is not a means in itself but a tool to enable the definition of components in the local area that are important in relation to water and poverty. The WPI method is based on participation and group discussion, a prerequisite for local voices to be heard and results anchored and legitimised in the local and regional setting.
Read the final project report. 

Previous South Asia related PhDs

Dr. Håkan Tropp defended his doctoral dissertation thesis in 1999 on ”Patronage, Politics and Pollution. Precarious NGO-State Relationships: Urban Environmental issues in South India”. It deals with the role of NGOs in urban environmental management.
Håkan Tropp is now working as Managing Director for Stockholm International Water Institute(SIWI), and as Advisor to the UNDP Water Governance Facility (WGF) managed by and funded by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Swedish Agency for International Development Cooperation (Sida), but located at SIWI in Stockholm. This programme supports development countries to improve water governance. Adhering to the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the WGF promotes ”Prudent water management crucial for reaching national development objectives and for improving the livelihoods of poor people.
Håkan Tropp is also one of leading organisers behind World Water Weeks, the grand water research conferences that SIWI arranges in Stockholm in late August every year. More information about the World Water Week in Stockholm.

• Dr.  Jenny Grönwall defended her doctoral dissertation titled ”Access to water Rights, obligations and the Bangalore situation” on Wednesday 4 June 2008. Faculty opponent was Professor S. Janakarajan, Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), Chennai, India. More information.
Abstract: The city of Bangalore in southern India is undergoing rapid urbanisation and administrative transition. Its growth puts pressure on the available water sources – being mainly the disputed inter-State River Cauvery and the hard-rock aquifers – with ensuing problems of access. These aspects affect how rights to and over water are fulfilled and perceived. Competition for drinking water is intensifying worldwide and over a billion people are estimated to lack safe access to it. Urbanisation and other demographic trends, along with globalisation and climate change, are adding to the changing patterns of water scarcity. The role of rights in attaining and improving access to water is undoubtedly great and often referred to in the general water management debate. The notion is analysed here as having three interlinked dimensions: the right to water as a human right; water as a property right; and water rights. Law treats these rights, and thereby water, differently. For instance, groundwater has traditionally been thought of as invisible and unpredictable. Partly for this reason, it is still left largely unregulated in many parts of the world. In India, according to the proverb, ‘the landlord is a water lord’. This has effects on the claim for water as a human right. The dissertation shows that we cannot talk in terms of water and rights until we are aware of how complex rights apply simultaneously, and how they correspond to obligations.

In June 2008, Dr. Jenny Grönwall moved to the Dept. of Systems Ecology at Stockholm University where she pursued a post-doc study focusing on urban development in Bangalore city, India, for two years. From March 2011, Jenny Grönwall works as Technical Officer at the WaterWise division, Abu Dhabi Regulation and Supervision Bureau in the United Arab Emirates. This is a government agency aiming at enhancing water efficiency in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Dr. Mats Lannerstad defended his doctoral dissertation entitled ”Water Realities and Development Trajectories – Global and Local Agricultural Production Dynamics” on 20 April 2009. Faculty opponent was Professor Paul Appasamy from Karunya University in Coimbatore, India. The thesis focuses on the water and agricultural production complexity in a global, regional and local perspective during different phases of development. It addresses the river basin closing process in light of consumptive water use changes, land use alterations, past and future food production in waterscarce developing countries in general, and a south Indian case study basin in particular, the Bhavani basin in Tamil Nadu. The study focuses on early phases of global agricultural development and addresses consumptive use and river depletion in response to land use change and irrigation expansion. It shows that focus must be shifted from a water use to a consumptive water use notion that considers both green and blue water resources.
More information, including abstract.
During his research work, he was involved in a Comprehensive Assessment project run by the International Water Management Institute.

Dr. Lannerstad is now working at Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), as a Research Fellow. He is the project leader and co-author of a joint book project between the SEI and the Stockholm Resilience Centre. The book centres on water for food and ecosystems, and will build on recent advancements in socio-ecological resilience and place the entire water-food-ecosystem nexus in the global environmental change perspective. His resent work centres on global water requirements for food production to meet the needs and demands of a growing, and still partly starving, world population, and water resource management on river basin scale, in a basin closure perspective. 

South Asian guest researchers

In the Fall 2002 Dr Prakash Nelliyat, environmental economist from Madras School of Economics, Chennai, India, spent two months at the department, on a scholarship from the World Bank. Nelliyat, who had assisted Anna Jonsson (Blomqvist) previously, was himself working on a doctoral thesis on the Industrial Water Pollution in Tiruppur. On 2 October 2002, he held a SASNET lecture at Lund University, on ”Environmental cost of T-shirts. The case of Tirupur, India”.
On 22 November 2006, Prakash Nelliyat defended his doctoral dissertation entitled ”Industrial Growth and Environmental Degradation A Case Study of Industrial Pollution in Tiruppur” at the University of Madras. He is now working as a Research Associate at Madras School of Economics together with Professor Paul P Appasamy (who also was his supervisor for the thesis project).
Abstract: The thesis deals with the rapid economic growth achieved after globalization, and how it has adversely affected the quality of the environment, imposed considerable social costs and livelihood impacts and has become a major threat to sustainable development. It studies an attempt towards the operationalization of sustainable development strategies through a case study of Tiruppur, a major textile cluster in South India, where around 700 units are discharging more than 80 million litres per day of effluents without proper treatment. Even though industries incurred large expenditure for pollution abatement through the construction of 278 Individual Effluent Treatment Plants (IETPs) and 8 Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs), the treatment system is insufficient for reducing total dissolved solids (TDS) or salts particularly chloride and sulphate. The industries in Tiruppur themselves have been affected by pollution. Since their own wells were contaminated, industries had to transport a major share of the required water from peripheral villages at a cost of above Rs. 90 crore per year. Subsequently, a major public-private scheme was developed bring water from the Cauvery River from a distance of 55 Km. There is also evidence of pollution impact on human health and biodiversity. A comparison of the relevant economic indicators and environmental indicators for Tiruppur clearly reveals that the industrial growth in Tiruppur has not been environmentally sustainable, due to the failure of markets, policies and institutions. The thesis concludes with recommendations of certain policies for achieving environmentally sustainable industrial development of Tiruppur. Read the full abstract of the thesis (as a pdf-file).

Dr. Nelliyat regularly participates in the Stockholm World Water Week, held every year in August. In the 2007 World Water Week he lectured about ”Financing Water Supply through Public-Private Partnerships: Lessons from an Indian Case Study”, in a session titled ”Progress on Financing Water Services”. The session was convened by Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) together with Global Water Partnership (GWP) and EU Water Initiative – Finance Working Group (EUWI-FWG). More information.

Postal address: Institutionen för medicin och hälsa, Avdelning för omvårdnad, Hälsouniversitetet, SE-581 85 Linköping, Sweden
Visiting address: Berzelius Science Park (BSP), Entrance 62, Campus US
Web page: http://www.imh.liu.se/omvardnad?l=en 

Contact person: Lecturer Eva Molander, Academic coordinator, phone: +46 (0)10 1037747

Linnaeus Palme collaboration with Nepal

The Division of Nursing has been closely connected to a major Indo-Swedish collaboration project between Linköping University and the Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences in Loni, Ahmednagar District, Maharashtra State, India. Key persons involved have been Senior Lecturer Siw Alehagen and Anna-Karin Johansson.
The project, entitled ”Developing a Multisectoral Approach Model for Sustainable Health and Development through Institutional Collaboration between India and Sweden”, was carried out 2006–2009 in 235 underserved/tribal villages of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra, and focused on a number of key areas, including Improvement of access to mother and child health care; Women empowerment; Awareness generation; and Nutrition and Research in Biotechnology.
In July 2012, the Final Project report was submitted, and soon after, in September 2012, the open-access peer-reviewed journal Rural and Remote Health published an article (12:2140) about the Pravara project. The article is entitled ”Nurse-based antenatal and child health care in rural India, implementation and effects – an Indian-Swedish collaboration”, and presents the methods being used in the project, and shows positive results from the project implementation in reducing the level of mother and child mortality. Families’ participation increased which led to more check-ups of pregnant women and small children. Antenatal visits before 16 weeks among pregnant women increased from 32 to 62% during the period. Women having at least three check-ups during pregnancy increased from 30 to 60%. Maternal mortality decreased from 478 to 121 per 100 000 live births. The total numbers of children examined in the project increased from approximately 6000 to 18 500 children. Infant mortality decreased from 80 to 43 per 1000 live births. Women and children referred to specialist care increased considerably and institutional deliveries increased from 47 to 74%. The results suggest that it is possible in a rural and remote area to influence peoples’ awareness of the value of preventive health care. The results also indicate that this might decrease maternal and child mortality. The education led to a more patient-friendly encounter between health professionals and patients. Read the full article.
Read more about the Pravara project.

In February 2012, the International Programme Office for Education and Training (Internationella Programkontoret) awarded the department SEK 40 000 as an initial Linnaeus Palme International Exchange programme grant with Kathmandu Medical College Teaching Hospital (KMC) in Kathmandu, Nepal, to develop collaboration on teachers and students exchange during the period 2012-13. Eva Molander is the coordinator at the Swedish side.
The collaboration was initiated after requests from the Nepalese side to extend long-standing exchange activities for medical students between Linköping University and KMC (more information) also to nursing students. During the planning phase one teacher – Eva Molander – travelled from Linköping to Kathmandu in November 2012, and one teacher from Kathmandu should come the opposite direction. If successful, the collaboration will be extended to both teachers and students exchange.
The project has received continued funding for the period 2014-15 with SEK 498 800. More information about the South Asia related Linnaeus Palme projects for 2014-15. 

Web page: http://www.genderexcel.org

In 2006, the Swedish Research Council granted 20 million SEK to establish a Centre of Gender Excellence (GEXcel), at the inter-university Institute of Thematic Gender Studies, Linköping University & Örebro University for the period 2007-2011. Linköping University added 5 million SEK as matching funds, while Örebro University added 3 million SEK as matching funds. GEXcel was created as a temporary (5 year), collegium-like excellence international centre for Advanced Gender Studies. This inter-university institute has been located at the Department of Gender Studies, Linköping University, the Center for Feminist Social Studies (CFS), Örebro University, and the Division of Gender and Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University.

In 2011, the Swedish Research Council made an evaluation of the “Centres of Gender Excellence” (CGEx) at Uppsala, Umeå and Linköping-Örebro in collaboration. The evaluation panel concludes that the Centres have established both new and internationally recognized gender research and that the CGEx grants have facilitated research at a higher level of quality and greater international impact than would have been possible through individual research grants. The evaluation will form a basis for decisions on further calls using Centres of Excellence as a funding instrument. Read the evaluation. 

Postal addresses:
• Department of Gender Studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Linköping University, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden (Tema Genus, hus T)
• Center for Feminist Social Studies (CFS), Faculty of Social Sciences, Örebro University, SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden (Långhuset, Fakultetsgatan 1)
• Division of Gender and Medicine, Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine; Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden (Hälsans hus, entrance 15, 10th floor )

GEXcel Director: Prof. Nina Lykke (Linköping University)

GEXcel Co-directors: Prof. Anna G. Jónasdóttir (Örebro University); Prof. Anita Göransson (Linköping University); and Prof. Jeff Hearn (Linköping University).

GEXcel has had a mission to carry out new research, and one of the aims was to create a platform for a more permanent Sweden-based European Collegium for Excellent and Advanced Transnational and Transdisciplinary Gender Research. A core activity of GEXcel is a Visiting Fellows Programme, set up to attract excellent senior researchers as well as promising younger scholars from Sweden and abroad and with backgrounds in a variety of disciplines and interdisciplines. Together with local staff, the visiting fellows will jointly carry out thematically organized gender research under the direction of one of the six local Gender Studies professors, who are responsible for the programme. Fellowships are regularly announced as well as publications, seminars, conferences and other events.

During the period August 2007 – August 2008, GEXcel worked on the theme no. 1: ”Gender, Sexuality and Global Change”. The team leader for this theme has been Prof. Anna Jónasdóttír. The idea guiding this research program is the need for a new approach to thinking about sexuality and its relationship to gender. The objective was to contribute to feminist thought and gender theory and research by developing a specific, complex conception of sexuality. It undertakes a shift in perspective from defining sexuality as an identity category to analysing sexuality as a set of relations, activities, needs, desires, productive/reproductive powers and capacities, identities, values, institutions, and organizational and structural contexts.
Already in the Fall 2007, the proceedings from GEXcel Theme 1 on Gender, Sexuality and Global Change were published. It included a paper by the Indian PhD Candidate Rajeev Kumaramkandath(photo to the right) from the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS) in Bangalore. He spent two months during the Fall 2007 in Örebro, and it resulted in a paper titled ”The Construction and Remembrance of a “Homogenized Home”: Shifting Patterns of Hegemony and Purging out the Deviant Bodies in Keralam”.
Read the full paper, as Chapter 8 in the Progress Report Volume II.

A workshop conference on the same theme (Gender, Sexuality and Global Change) was held in Örebro 22–25 May 2008. Papers were invited from junior and senior scholars whose research directly addresses one of the following three sub-themes: 1) Sexuality, Love and Social Theory; 2) Power and Politics: A Feminist View; and 3) Common and Conflicted: Rethinking Interest, Solidarity, and Action. More information.

Dr. Suruchi Thapar-Björkert (photo to the left) holds a senior lectureship at University of Bristol at the Department of Sociology, but has also an affiliation to Linköping University. During the Fall 2004 she was a guest researcher at the Dept. of Ethnic Studies, supported by ACSIS (Advanced Cultural Studies Institute of Sweden, also based at Linköping University Campus Norrköping). During her time in Sweden she gave lectures at different universities. On Tuesday 23 November 2004 she also visited Lund University and gave an interesting SASNET lecture on ”Gendered Caste Conflicts in rural North India”. More information on the lecture.
Later Dr. Suruchi Thapar-Björkert has been connected to GEXcel, and the Division of Gender and Medicine, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine; Faculty of Health Sciences at Linköping University.
In 2006 she also completed a project with Integrationsverket, Sweden entitled ”State policy, strategies and implementation in combating patriarchal and ‘honour-related’ violence”.
Her current research focuses on – Globalisation and Caste Violence in India; – Gendered Violence in South Asian Diaspora (with specific focus on Honour violence in UK and Sweden); – Gender, Social Capital and Differential Outcomes among Pakistani Muslims in Bradford; and – Feminist Methodologies. More information on her personal web page.

Postal address: Yrkes- och miljömedicin, Institutionen för klinisk och experimentell medicin (IKE), Hälsouniversitetet, SE-581 85 Linköping
Visiting address: Sandbäcksgatan 7

Web page: http://www.hu.liu.se/ike/forskning/arbets-+och+miljömedicin/

Research and educational activities connected to South Asia:

Dr. Koustuv Dalal (photo to the left) is a M.Sc. in Health Economics originally from Kolkata, India. He is now working at the Public Health Science, School of Health & Medical Sciences, Örebro University, but was during a few years from 2009 and onwards, connected to the department at Linköping University. Even before that, he was connected to the Division of Social Medicine, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm. Read more about his Swedish academic career.

In December 2009, after coming to Linköping University, Koustuv Dalal received SEK 600 000 as a three-year International Collaborative Research Grant from the Swedish Research Links programme (funded by Sida and the Swedish Research Council) for a Bangladesh related project, entitled ”Health and Injury Problems among Child Labourers in Bangladesh: a Health Economic study”. See the full list of South Asia related projects given Swedish Research Links grants 2009. The research project was carried out in collaboration with Dr. Fazlur Rahman, Centre for Injury Prevention and Research (CIPRB) in Dhaka.
CIPRB focuses on the fact that injuries is a silent epidemic in Bangladesh that steals the lives, hopes and dreams of its victims. Every year 70,000 people die from preventable injury in the country. Of these, 30,000 are children, making injury the leading cause of death among those aged 1 to 17. These injuries include road and traffic accidents, falls, cuts, burns and drowning. Drowning alone claims the lives of 17,000 children each year. Formed in 2005, CIPRB is dedicated to reducing the incidence of injury, death and disability from preventable accidents in low income and developing countries.

Earlier South Asia projects at the department

The Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in Linköping has had a very active scientific collaboration with different institutes in Bangladesh for many years, especially regarding medical effects of high arsenic levels in the drinking water. Earlier, Dr. Martin Tondel worked at the department. By training he is a physician and has been involved in arsenic research, and for that reason he visited Bangladesh. Dr. Tondel left the department in 2007, and is now working at the Dept. of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Uppsala University.
On one of his frequent visits to the Indian subcontinent, Dr. Tondel also established contacts with the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health in New Delhi, India, and he was instrumental in the establishment of a university course in Global Medicine at Linköping University. The courses have been run in collaboration with the Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences in Loni, Maharashtra, India. Dr. Martin Tondel has supervised a large number of Swedish students going on field trips to Loni. More information about the Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences.
Furthermore, Martin Tondel has also actively been working with the organisation Svenska Läkare mot Kärnvapen, the Swedish section of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). In this capacity Dr. Tondel has visited India and Pakistan several times with International delegations arguing for nuclear disarmament in South Asia.

In 1999 a PhD candidate from Bangladesh, Mahfuzar Rahman (photo to the right), defended his thesis entitled ”Nonmalignant Health Effects of Arsenic Exposure”. He is now working at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (ICDDR,B) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine still keep close contact with dr Rahman who regularly visits Sweden.

Some of the publications on arsenic research from the Division (more can be found on the home page):

1. Rahman M, Tondel M, Ahmad SA, Axelson O. Diabetes mellitus associated with arsenic exposure in Bangladesh. Am J Epidemiol, 1998;148:198-203.
2. Rahman M, Tondel M, Chowdhury IA, Axelson O. Relations between exposure to arsenic, skin lesions, and glucosuria. Occup Environ Me, 1999;56:277-281.
3. Rahman M, Tondel M, Ahmad SA, Chowdhury IA, Faruquee MH, Axelson O. Hypertension and arsenic exposure in Bangladesh. Hypertension 1999;33:74-78.
4. Tondel M, Rahman M, Magnuson A, Chowdhury IA, Faruquee MH, Ahmad SA. The relationship of arsenic levels in drinking water and the prevalence rate of skin lesions in Bangladesh. Environ Health Perspect 1999;107:727-729

Postal address: Genus och medicin, Hälsouniversitetet, Linköpings universitet, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden
Visiting address: Hälsans hus, entrance 14, 11th floor
Web page: http://www.hu.liu.se/ike/forskning/genus_medicin?l=en

Contact person: Associate Professor Katarina Swahnberg. From 1 January 2013, Dr. Swahnberg is mainly working at the School of Health and Caring Sciences, Linnaeus University in Kalmar (but also remains affiliated to Linköping). Go for the new department’s page.

The Division of Gender and Medicine has been working on research projects focusing on Women, Health and Subordination for many years. The aim of the research is to develop theories, methods and analytical instruments to study the correlation between subordination and women’s health.
Katarina Swahnberg defended her doctoral dissertation on ”The Prevalence of Gender Violence. Studies of four kinds of Abuse in five Nordic Countries”, at the Division of Women’s Health, Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, on 4 June 2003.

On 7 March 2012, Lars Eklund and Julia Velkova from SASNET visited Gender and Medicine. Read their report.

Educational collaboration with South Asia

In the Fall 2004 Professor Emerita Barbro Wijma and Associate Professor Katarina Swahnberg visited India with the purpose of establishing students and researcher exchange as well as research cooperation between the Division of Gender and Medicine and two institutions in North India; the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) at Pilani, Rajasthan; and a medical college in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh. Eventually they however decided to launch a collaboration programme with Kathmandu Medical College and Teaching Hospital (KMC) instead.
Since 2006 a Linnaeus Palme exchange programme grant has been given every year covering an exchange of minimum two teachers and two students in each direction. In March 2012, decisions were taken for the 2012–2014 Linnaeus Palme grants to Swedish universities. The Division of Gender and Medicine now received SEK 503 420.
The collaboration partner on the Nepalese side is Associate Professor Sunil Kumar Joshi at the Department of Community Medicine, KMC, Kathmandu.
More about South Asia related Linnaeus Palme exchange programme grants 2012–14. 

Three Linköping University medicine students who went to Kathmandu in 2008, Daniel Loord, Anna-Lena Morén, and Isabelle Borssén, made a digital travel guide on Linköping University’s web site, as a service to other students. It contains practical tips as well as personal experiences from the stay in Nepal.

The collaboration still continues and has become very popular. During the spring 2013, two students from Linköping go to KMC on a Linnaeus Palme scholarship, whereas another six students go there on Minor Field Studies scholarship funding. The programme is currently evaluated by Ingrid Mignon. The evaluation will be pubished and serve as a guide how to initiate similar educational projects. 

Research collaboration with South Asia

In May 2006, Prof. Wijma and Dr. Swahnberg participated in an International Conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka on ”Effective Interventions for Domestic Violence against Women”. The conference was jointly organised by International Maternal and Child Health (IMCH), Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Uppsala University, and the Dept. of Community Medicine, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka, as part of an ongoing Sida/SAREC funded research project on ”Health and Social Care for the Socially Marginalized People”, led by Prof. Gunilla Lindmark from IMCH. During the conference, Wijma and Swahnberg presented results from their NorVold study (the Nordic Research Research Initiative on Violence against Women, now closed down). See the full conference programme (as a pdf-file). 
On Prof. Gunilla Lindmark’s initiative, a network grew out of this conference, entitled ”Violence Against Women – Global Network”. The network consists of researchers from the departments of Gender and Medicine (Linköping); IMCH (Uppsala); Epidemiology, Public Health and Community Medicine (Gothenburg); Public Health Science (Umeå); and Social Medicine and Global Health (Lund). The ambition is to create a globally oriented network as an interdisciplinary arena of gender, public health, epidemiology, and social sciences, with an overall objective is to generate knowledge for development support.The project has been financed by Sida.
Currently (2012), the network is coordinated by Professor Maria Emmelin at the Division of Social Medicine and Global Health, Lund University, whereas Humlan Svensson at Gender and Medicine, Linköping University, acts as Administrative coordinator. 

In December 2009, Katarina Swahnberg received a planning grant from the Swedish Research Links (Asian–Swedish research partnership programme) for a new collaboration project with Nepalese colleagues at the Kathmandu Medical College (KMC). See the full list of South Asia related projects given Swedish Research Links grants 2009. 
The project is supposed to be carried out in collaboration with Dr. Sunil Kumar Joshi at KMC, and the project is entitled ”Hidden Issue: Women and Girls Trafficking in Nepal”.
Abstract: Worldwide approximately four million women and girls are victims of international trafficking yearly. Though trafficking has become a global issue, results from actions so far carried out are not sustainable. Current information on trafficking is largely anecdotal. Nepal has as ”sending country” a central part in global trafficking. Surveys reveal that 70 out of 75 districts within Nepal are vulnerable to trafficking.
The main aim of our research is to contribute to the prevention of trafficking of women and girls and promote rehabilitative measures in order to attain a better society and healthier life of the victims.
The empirical study will be conducted in Nepal.
Mainly ethnographic method will be used to map the push and pull factors of trafficking which will help us understand the problem and identify the gaps in plans and policies and their enforcement.
The hidden issue of trafficking is not only relevant for Nepal; the problem exists also in Sweden. Mechanisms nurturing violence and trafficking can be expected to be universal. Therefore the trafficking field of research is very relevant also for the Swedish research partner.

SASNET‘s deputy director Lars Eklund met Katarina Swahnberg and Sunil Kumar Joshi during his visit to Nepal in November 2012. Read his report.

Planning meetings were held in Linköping in March 2010, and in April 2011 a Workshop on Women and Girls Trafficking from Nepal was held in Kathmandu for selected agencies working against trafficking at central and field level. Katarina Swahnberg and Barbro Wijma from Sweden attended the workshop. 
(Photo from the Kathmandu workshop, showing delegates from the Ministry of Home, and the Police Academy, and the National Women Commission with the Research team.)
Thanks to the planning grant it was also possible to form a research team that is well connected in the Nepali society. Applications for research funding was prepared in the fall 2011, with an ambition that the research project will take off.

Besides, Sunil Kumar Joshi and Katarina Swahnberg were granted a GEXcel research fellowship within the Theme “Sexual health, embodiment and empowerment. Bridging epistemological gaps.” by the Dept. of Gender Studies, Linköping University in 2010. During this period they wrote two book chapters about trafficking for a work in progress report. Both chapters will be transformed into scientific papers and submitted to a scientific journal.

Postal address: Institutionen för vård och natur, Högskolan i Skövde, Box 408, SE-541 28 Skövde, Sweden
Visiting address: Högskolevägen 1, Skövde
Web page, School of Life Sciences: http://www.his.se/english/university/Schools/life-sciences/
Web page, The Systems Biology Research Centre: http://www.his.se/english/research/system-biology/

Contact persons: Professor in Molecular Biology Abul Mandal, phone: +46 (0)500 44 86 08.
                              From 1 january 2011, Prof. Mandal is Chair of the university’s System Biology Research Center
                             Associate Professor in Biomedicine Dennis Larsson, phone +46 (0)500 44 8512

– Collaboration with Bangladesh
– Collaboration with India
– South Asia related research

The University of Skövde was established in 1977. Research is generally focused on developing advanced information technology systems and models, where the human being’s qualifications and needs are important. It attracts a lot of international students, not the least from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Within the School of Life Sciences, the Physiology, Pharmacology and Toxicology (P2T) Research Group is especially engaged in South Asia related collaboration projects. The main focus of the P2T group is to study factors and organs involved in coordinating and maintaining internal environment in cells, organs or entire organism in a stable and constant condition (homeostasis). To study biological processes in humans, animals and plants the ongoing projects include many advanced modern techniques directly related to physiology, pharmacology or toxicology. Research projects within pharmacology focuses mainly on characterizing the use of different substances and their medical and toxicological influence in humans in a multi-ethnic perspective. They also deal with characterization of pathological conditions at the level of cells and organ as well as the whole individual, aiming at the development of new methods for treatments. The P2T group also includes plant biotechnology projects where plants are used for production of biorisk-free pharmaceutical compounds in an environmental friendly system. Other plant projects involve generation of healthy food and feed suitable for growth in detrimental environments, or with improved tolerance to climate changes.

Dr. Kjell-Ove Holmström worked as Assistant Professor in Molecular Biology till October 2010. He was equally strong involved in the department’s South Asia related activities. He participated in the SASNET workshop on ”The role of South Asia in the internationalisation of higher education in Sweden” held in Stockholm 28-29 November 2006, where he gave a presentation about the Skövde – Linköping collaboration with India, in the session about ”The recruitment of South Asian students in hard sciences in Sweden” More information about the workshop.
Dr. Holmström has now left the university, and has worked for DM Corporation, part of the DMINFRA industrial group chaired by Dilip Mohite, based at Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India. DM Corporation was formerly known as Mohite & Mohite (Engineers and Contractors) Pvt. Ltd. He has been a member of the Board of Directors, DM Foundation. The company planned to set up an academic campus focusing on Biotechnology in collaboration with Lund University. In connection with these plans, he came to Lund in December 2010 with a delegation from India. More information.
Furthermore, Dr Holmström is one of the co-founders of, and Chief Scientific Officer in Biotechnology, at the recently formed Swedish company Nordic BioPharma AB (NBP) based in Skövde. This company is testing molecules directly in human tissue by this circumventing most studies using experimental animals. Collaboration with the Icelandic ORF Genetics is already established, and NBP was also planned to interact in the DM–Lund University collaboration.

Collaboration with Bangladesh

From 2008, the School of Life Sciences, University of Skövde was involved in a Linnaeus Palme exchange programme with Rajshahi University in Bangladesh. Prof. Abul Mandal and his colleague Dennis Larsson, Associate Professor in Biomedicine, have been jointly responsible for the exchange programme that was given initial support by the International Programme Office for Education and Training in May 2008. 

Prof. Mandal and Dr. Larsson visited Rajshahi in the Fall 2008. The main purpose of this visit was to investigate and discuss possibilities for exchange of students and teachers between Rajshahi University and University of Skövde. They also investigated possibilities for research collaboration between these two institutions. The research fields are within Biomedicine, Bioinformatics, Ecology, Molecular Biology, Physiology, and Systematic Biology. At Rajshahi University they had several meetings with students, teachers and the governing administration (Vice Chancellor, Deans, Chairmen of the departments).
A preliminary Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was also written between Rajshahi University and University of Skövde. This MoU concerns mainly the guidelines for exchange of students in the existing master’s programs of these two partner universities.
A delegation of Rajshahi University then visited University of Skövde in May 2009. During this visit the MoU was finalized and signed by the two partner universities for taking it into action on Thursday 28 May. It was signed by the Vice Chancellor of University of Skövde, Mr. Leif Larsson, and Prof. Ananda Kumar Saha, Dept. of Zoology, representing the University of Rajshahi. Prof. Md. Waheedul Islam, Director for the Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Rajshahi, also participated in the ceremony. SASNET was represented by its deputy director, Lars Eklund.
To further celebrate the occasion, a “Bengali Evening” was held with a cultural programme that included a Bharata Natyam performance by Ms. Shivapriya Bagchi from Kolkata, India (more information).

In May 2011, a delegation from Rajshahi University came to Skövde to plan for continued Linnaeus Palme exchange programme activities, involving student exchange besides teacher exchange. Prof. Ananda Kumar Saha was this time accompanied by Dr. Khalid Hossain from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at University of Rajshahi. The visit to Skövde coincided with another visit by a delegation from Pune, India. See more about the May 2011 meeting below. 

The project has received continued funding for the period 2012-13 with SEK 374 040. More information about the South Asia related Linnaeus Palme projects for 2012-13. 

Collaboration with Indian universities

Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences, Loni:
Between 2004 and 2010 University of Skövde was involved in collaboration with the Pravara Institute for Medical Sciences Deemed University in Loni, Maharashtra, India. This collaboration was being perceived through funding from Linnaeus Palme Scholarship Programme. It was initially managed by the School of Technology and Society, University of Skövde, but later changed over to the School of Life Sciences.
The Center for Biotechnology at Pravara has offered a Masters Course in Medical Biotechnology which is unique course in India. This course was started with the participation of faculty from University of Skövde. With the support from the UoS, Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences developed a Molecular Biology Lab. In order to plan and develop this new course the Academic Council of the university was represented by the faculty from Sweden.
In order to create health care facilities at par with the international standards, nursing students and faculty were also provided with an opportunity to visit India and Sweden. During a period of three years 5 nursing students and one faculty visited PIMS and participated in the health care activities at the Primary Health Care, Mobile Clinics and College of Nursing.

The collaboration has been based upon long-standing development assistance work carried out in Loni, 300 km east of Mumbai, by the Pravara Rural Education Society established in 1964 by Late Padmashri Dr. Vithalrao Vikhe Patil. His descendant, microbiologist Ashok Patil (photo to the right) has a family connection to Sweden and stays part of the year in Skara. Till 2011, Dr. Patil was Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Pravara Institute for Medical Sciences Deemed University, and he is still President of the International Association of Agricultural Medicine and Rural Health (IAAMRH) – the first Indian to hold this position. He was the key figure behind the collaboration between Skövde and Loni. More information about Dr. Patil.
In March 2005 the Swedish Government decided on a new country strategy for India for the period 2005-2009. The strategy implied a new kind of co-operation between Sweden in India mainly focusing on technical assistance and building partnerships of mutual interests between Swedish and Indian actors. The focus areas were: Respect for democracy and human rights; Environmental protection that will benefit the poor; and Scientific cooperation in selected areas that will benefit the poor.
In light of the comparative advantage that Sweden has in Sexual and Reproductive Health & Rights, Children’s Rights and HIV/AIDS, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida, therefore supported and allocated funds to a number of projects and partnerships involving Swedish universities.
One of these projects being funded by Sida was the existing collaboration between Pravara and the University of Skövde in the areas of biotechnology, biomedicine, molecular biology and genetic engineering; and with the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Linköping, and the University Hospital in Linköping/County Council of Östergötland to promote health care. The partnership encompassed joint academic and clinical activities, student-faculty-staff exchange programme and collaborative research. The project was titled ”Developing a multi-sectoral approach model to sustainable health and development through institutional collaboration between India and Sweden”, and was given SEK 5 million as a Sida contribution for the period December 2005 – June 2009. The project was formally launced on 13 March 2006, when Maria Norrfalk, Director General of the Swedish Development Co-operation Agency visited the new partnership project run by Pravara Medical Trust and its Swedish partners. More information.
The project was completed in March 2010.

The Nursing programme within the School of Life Sciences has now taken over the contacts with Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences. In 2011, they received a Linnaeus Palme exchange programme grant by the International Programme Office for Education and Training for the period 2011-12. More information about the South Asia related Linnaeus Palme projects for 2011-12.
The India project is coordinated by Sofia Maier, international coordinator for Linnaeus Palme programmes at University of Skövde.
As a start, two Pravara teachers, the Principal at the College of Nursing, Dr. Pratibha Chandekar, and Dr. Thangaraj Sivbalam came to Skövde for two weeks in the fall 2011, and in January 2012, Assistant Professor Helena Rosén and Associate Professor Mia Berglund  from Skövde spent two weeks at Pravara to continue with the planning of the project. During this time a formal collaboration agreemet was signed (see photo).
The project has received continued funding for the period 2012-13 with SEK 55 012. More information about the South Asia related Linnaeus Palme projects for 2012-13. 

Vidya Prasarak Mandal College, Thane:
On 24 April 2009, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the University of Skövde, and Vidya Prasarak Mandal College in Thane, India, on collaboration within the fields of Biomedicine, and Cell- and Molecular Biology. The MoU was signed by Leif Larsson, Rector of University of Skövde, and two representatives from VPM, including Dr. Vijay Bedekar, chairman of the university board.
The agreement was discussed a few months earlier when Leif Larsson visited the Indian university along with Dr. Kjell-Ove Holmström and other teachers from the School of Life Sciences. It is a special agreement, since it provides a possibility not only for sending Indian students to Skövde, but also allows the University of Skövde to run courses at Thane. This means that the students can study the first two years of their programmes in Biomedicine, or Cell- and Molecular Biology, in Thane and then spend the final year in Skövde. It is also an ambition at a later stage to make it possible for Swedish students to go to Thane in a similar way.
During the first year of studies the students are registered at VPM, but the University of Skövde guarantees for the quality, and overlooks the examinations. Teachers from Skövde also spend some time in India. During the second year the students are registered at Skövde. The teaching is carried out via distance learning, with the assistance of some teachers in India. The courses are fully prepared by the University of Skövde.
Those students who pass the first two years will then be able to come to Skövde, and secure a BSc degree issued by University of Skövde, with a possibility to continue with Masters programmes.
The collaboration programme was initiated by Kjell-Ove Holmström, and it was launched from the Fall semester 2009.

Universities in Pune:
In 2010, collaboration was initiated with another two universities in the state of Maharashtra – University of Pune, and the D. Y. Patil Institute of Biotechnoloy and Bioinformatics in Pune. They are now involved in a Partner Driven Cooperation project, see below.
In May 2011, a delegation from the two Pune universities came to Skövde to plan for execution of the new partnership programme activities. Pune was represented by Dr. Neelu Nawani, Assistant Professor at D. Y. Patil Institute of Biotechnoloy and Bioinformatics; and Dr. Balu Kapadnis, Professor at the Dept. of Microbiology, University of Pune.
The visit to Skövde coincided with another visit by a delegation from Rajshahi University, Bangladesh.
See more about the May 2011 meeting below. 

South Asia related research in the department

In June 2007, Prof. Abul Mandal received SEK 945 000 as a three-years grant (2007–09) for an application to the Joint Formas – Sida/SAREC programme for research on sustainable development in developing countries, for a project titled ”Genetic modification and development of a new variety of rice (Oryza sativa), the staple food in Bangladesh, for effective prevention of people and their environment from arsenic contamination”. The project is carried out in collaboration betweeen the University of Skövde and the University of Rajshahi in Bangladesh. More information on the project (only in Swedish).

In August 2008, Prof. Mandal was awarded a SASNET planning grant for a similar research project titled ”Development of new varieties of crops for avoiding loss of harvest caused by climatic instability in Bangladesh”. The research plan proposed is very straightforward. The target genes transferred to rice plants in various combinations will be examined in field trials. The results obtained from these trials will be reported to the Government of Bangladesh for approval. Once approved by the Government, the new variety of rice will be then cultivated in the most affected regions. The project will be carried out in collaboration with Dr. Dan Lundh, also from the School of Life Sciences; and two researchers at the Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Rajshahi, namely Prof. Waheedul Islam and Prof. S.M Shahinul Islam.
More information about the 2008 SASNET planning grants.
Project abstract: The Molecular Biology and Bioinformatic research team at the University of Skövde in collaboration with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala has previously identified and cloned two novel early flowering genes (EFGs) of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. By using the knockout mutants (inactive EFGs) of A. thaliana the Swedish researchers have proven that flowering time in these mutant plants is delayed for 25-35 days. Now we propose to transfer these genes into some valuable crops that do not contain EFGs or their homologues. Results of database searching indicated that rice plant will be the most appropriate candidate for this purpose. Because rice genome contains a few EFG-homologues and it has a very high economic value. In addition, rice is consumed as a staple food in many countries of the world. In Bangladesh about 160 millions of people eat rice at least twice a day. Unfortunately, the natural calamities such as the flood and drought in some regions of this country result in significant loss of harvest (up to 100%) of boro- (spring) and monsoon rice every year. This leads to starving, poverty and death of thousands of people. We believe that development of new variety of locally cultivated rice will partly solve these problems. The farmers can harvest their paddy prior to flooding (monsoon rice) or drought (boro rice) without any significant loss. Furthermore, the EFGs can be used for developing early flowering plants and an increased number of harvests per year can be obtained.

In May 2010, Dr. Abul Mandal participated as an invited speaker to the SASNET/Lund University/KTH/Swallows joint seminar on Arsenic in Drinking Water, held at Lund University. More information.
Dr. Mandal gave a presentation entitled ”Studies of genes involved in uptake and/or metabolism of arsenics in plants: A practical approach for protection of human from arsenic contamination”. He spoke about developing new varieties of rice that may be possible to reduce the amount of arsenic taken up by the plants from the irrigation water commonly used for rice cultivation in Bangladesh. See his presentation. 

Partner driven collaboration project on Urban Indian Development

In July 2010, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), through its program for Partner Driven Cooperation (Aktörssamverkan), announced a call for applications for grants to collaborative projects related to access to and use of research for the period 2010 – 2012. This program is not support to research but rather assisting partners in assessing and using research in policy formulation and innovation. Sida’s initiative for Partner Driven Cooperation is aiming to support sustainable cooperation relationships, and concerns only a few selected countries, namely China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. More information.
In December 2010, decisions were made. A total number of 32 projects were selected, out of which nine refers to Indo-Swedish collaboration projects. Information about all India related projects given grants.
Professor Abul Mandal, University of Skövde, is a recipient of one of these India related grants. He is given SEK 4.5 m for three years (2011-13) for a project entitled ”Bioremediation of toxic metals and other pollutants for protecting human health and the ecosystem”. The project deals with sanitation of poisonous metals with the help of a bacteria which Mandal and his team has succeeded to isolate.

The project will be implemented in collaboration with a team from Pune, India and the results will be published in the BIOS system (Biological Open Source) so that they are freely available to the research community.
The collaboration partners on the Indian side are Dr. Neelu Nawani, Assistant Professor at D. Y. Patil Institute of Biotechnoloy and Bioinformatics, Pune; and Dr. Balu Kapadnis, Professor at the Dept. of Microbiology, University of Pune. 

Project abstract: The fundamental goals of this project are: (i) to nurture scientific exchanges between the partner institutions in India and Sweden for building up capacity for assessment and implementation of scientific results, (ii) to develop strategies for poverty reduction by preventing lethal diseases in human caused by the toxic pollutants disposed from the industries, (iii) to improve the living quality of the women of impoverished families in India, who are the major victims of these pollutants, and (iv) to protect the Indian environment, Maharashtra state in particular, from severe toxic pollution. Here we propose a sustainable and cost effective method for the degradation of toxic chemicals discharged as effluents from industries (see project description). This could protect hundreds of millions of people from suffering from lethal diseases and contribute to a sustainable socioeconomic development of the Indian society.

Meeting with Indian and Bangladeshi partners, May 2011

On Monday 16 May 2011, a fruitful meeting was organised at University of Skövde to discuss the ongoing partnership programmes with both University of Rajshahi University, Bangladesh (a Linnaeus Palme programme), and the two Pune universities involved in the Sida funded Partnership programme.
Professor Abul Mandal, who coordinates both programmes, organised a joint meeting to discuss how to proceed with them. More information about the meeting.

The meetings were attended by the Vice Chancellor at University of Skövde, Professor Sigbritt Karlsson, Ms. Sofia Henningsson, International Coordinator at the university, and Ms. Noor Nahar, PhD candidate from Bangladesh at the School of Life Sciences. Ms. Sadia Sharmin (photo), Second Secretary at the Embassy of Bangladesh in Stockholm also participated, as well as SASNET’s deputy director, Lars Eklund. Read his report from the meeting. 

2012 Partner driven Indo-Swedish collaboration project 

In February 2012, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency Sida, announced grants for its Selective Cooperation Partner Driven Cooperation (PDC) programme, with the title ”Use of Research Results Collaboration Grants 2012-2013 in India and Indonesia”. Decisions were taken in late May. The objective of the grants was not to support research, but rather provide support for assisting partners in using research in policy formulation and innovation that can be of particular use for poverty alleviation. The use of research results is fundamental for economic development and successful application of research often results when several actors are involved. PDC aims to stimulate and strengthen the emergence of self-supporting relationships of mutual interest between Swedish partners and partners in selective cooperation countries in order to contribute to poverty reduction and equitable and sustainable global development. 13 projects were approved. Out of them six related to Indonesia collaboration projects, and eight to India. More information.

One of the approved Indo-Swedish collaboration projects was applied for by Professor Abul Mandal and Dr. Cecilia Eriksson (on photo). They received SEK 2.1 m as a grant for a project entitled ”Identifying Novel Biomarkers of Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and Design of Innovative Preventive and Therapeutic Strategies Targeted for the Benefit of the Indian Population”.
The main Indian collaboration partners are Dr. Neelu Nawani, Professor Madhukar Khetmalas and Dr. Manish Bodas, Dr. D. Y. Patil University, Pune.

Project abstract: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a non-communicable disease happens to be the major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Half a million people die every year due to COPD in India by exposure to high levels of indoor air pollution. Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR)-dependent ceramide signaling plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of cigarette smoke induced COPD development. This proposal will investigate relationship between ceramide/CFTR expression and COPD in rural Indian women exposed to smoke arising from cookstoves used for household cooking. To reduce the exposure to smoke and to make self sustainable stoves, the researchers propose to use the smoke generated from the cookstove as the carbon source for the cultivation of algae. Oil from algae can be extracted using a central facility of mechanical press which can be installed in every village.

On success of the proposed hypothesis, the sustainable cookstove model can be installed in few villages to check its efficacy. Besides, the biomarkers chosen for monitoring lung function in COPD can be used for development of simple kits for diagnosis. Further to this, national and international agencies can be targeted for funding to take the project to mass scale. Young researchers will be trained for earning a Ph.D. degree. The results will be jointly published by the partners and will be accessible to the entire scientific fraternity.