PDF: 2962 pages, 5.2 MB - Bay Area Council Economic Institute

Global Reach
• The Gobhind Behari Lal Scholarship in Science Journalism was launched in 1982 with
$5,000 from the estate of John Herron in honor of his friend, 1937 Pulitzer Prize-winning
science writer Gobhind Behari Lal. Indian community members added to the fund,
which is administered by the graduate journalism school.
• A two-week Indo-American Community Lectureship, initially started to bring prominent
scholars from India to Berkeley to lecture and interact with the campus community
every other year, was upgraded to an annual event in 2007. The Indian Council for
Cultural Relations contributes visitors’ airfare.
• The Qayum Family Foundation Grants for Travel and Conferences program results
from a funding pledge for a series of lectures and graduate fellowships through CSAS
and represents the first U.S. initiative by the Foundation, which funds scholarships for
worthy students, particularly women, at the Aligarh Muslim University and Shibli
National College in Azamgarh.
Also underway and involving Berkeley faculty are a variety of other India-related projects which deal
with technology, the Indian economy, poverty eradication and inequality, and democratic reforms.
Berkeley’s CITRIS (Center for Information Technology in the Interest of Society), through the
Intel Research Berkeley Lab and its director, computer science professor Eric Brewer, launched a
wireless communications network in 2005 linking Aravind Eye Hospital in Tamil Nadu with five
rural health clinics so that eye specialists could interview and diagnose patients by video
conference. The project has since been expanded to five hospitals and some 50 clinics.
CITRIS director and Dean of Engineering Shankar Sastry leads the Team for Research in
Ubiquitous Secure Technology (TRUST) project with IIT-Bombay, IIS, Tata Institute of
Fundamental Research and Amrita University of Science and Technology, to improve the privacy
and security of India’s computer infrastructure (an important issue given the leading role of
India’s IT service sector). A second project with Amrita establishes a distance learning program,
with top U.S. engineering faculty teaching courses by satellite at Indian colleges and universities.
And a group led by mechanical engineering professor Arun Majumdar is working with IIT-
Mumbai on improving efficiency and performance of devices that convert heat to energy using
nanotechnology.
All of the above activities fall under a broader 2005 memorandum of understanding CITRIS
signed with the Indian Space Research Organization, India’s Department of Science and
Technology, Amrita University and others. The MoU also includes participation from CITRIS
corporate sponsors Microsoft, Qualcomm and Cadence Design Systems.
Berkeley-India Joint Leadership on Energy and the Environment (BIJLEE) formalizes and expands
ongoing R&D relevant to India, with U.S. support from the Department of Energy, the
Department of State, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Agency for International
Development, as well as support from the California Energy Commission and the California
Public Utilities Commission, and the support of numerous other private and governmental
organizations in both the U.S. and India.
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