Mondays are immensely hectic for Jhansi Lakshmi. She wakes up as early as 3 am in the morning and at 6 am, boards the Ispat Express at Howrah, in Kolkata, for Kharagpur. She must reach the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) on time.
It takes extraordinary commitment but Lakshmi, 41, is working on a postdoctoral project on herbal wound dressing. “I am working on this product which will not only be patient-friendly but also cost-effective,” she said.
Lakshmi, originally from Hyderabad, always dreamt of becoming a scientist. But her plans were derailed after she married and her family responsibilities took priority. A newspaper advertisement by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) that she spotted quite by accident gave her hope. “I had a career-break of seven years after I got married and wanted to make a comeback,” she explained.
A way back in is exactly what the DST’s Project KIRAN – Knowledge Involvement in Research Advancement through Nurturing – is for women scientists who’ve had a career break. Involving a bridge course and training, the Women Scientist Scheme under Project KIRAN has helped over 1,300 women scholars get back on track.
Lakshmi was looking for a technology platform between pharmacy and healthcare and she found it at IIT Kharagpur with the help of the project.
Women in science
Project KIRAN was started in 2014 by the DST to bring together all its programmes targeting women on one platform. One part of it provides opportunities to women postgraduates in science or technology whose careers were interrupted by family or financial reasons. While some prefer to work in Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) only and leave to work in that domain a year later, others stay on for further research in science.
Continue reading your story on the app
Continue reading your story in the magazine
THE COST OF CLOSING DOWN
Shutting engineering colleges has cost cash-strapped state universities large chunks of revenue.
NEW IDEAS, OLD PROBLEMS
What happened to the projects that won prizes in the Smart India Hackathon?
TOWARDS A BIO-DEGRADABLE PLASTIC
A team of three students at NIT Raipur created a material out of starches that could potentially be a substitute for plastic.
STAYING RELEVANT BY UPSKILLING ONLINE
Why upskilling is not a matter of choice anymore but of survival.
HOW THEY SHOT UP
Despite initial struggle, the eight second-generation IITs set up in 2008 have matured in under a decade. Careers360 looks at how they did it.
BEING AN EXCEPTIONAL TEACHER
Most engineering programmes hope to achieve what Jayashri Ravishankar does. Ravishankar, who teaches at Australia’s University of New South Wales, has found a way to keep a very large and diverse student body engaged by developing “research-led and professionally relevant” strategies that have now been adopted elsewhere. An electrical engineer with a special interest in renewable energy and micro-grids, Ravishankar earlier taught at Anna University, Tamil Nadu for a decade. In 2019, she received a citation from the Australian Awards for University Teaching for ‘Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning’. It acknowledges her as one of “Australia’s most exceptional university teachers”. She spoke to Careers360 about how engineering must be taught so that students are engaged and come out job-ready.
EXPLAINER: THE FIGHT OVER OBC RESERVATION
A court battle is on over OBC reservation in the AIQ seats in state medical colleges. What is the controversy about?
BACK INTO THE FOLD
How a government programme is helping women in science and tech who have faced a career break get back on track.
AIR, WATER, SOIL: ENGINEERING COLLEGES AND THE ENVIRONMENT
State engineering colleges are working to address environmental challenges in their backyards.
Tech Rescue For Engineering Courses In Covid-19
Public engineering colleges, including the IITs, had to organise fundraisers, use online labs and reorganise teaching to hold a semester online due to COVID-19.
Chase Your Dream
It’s time to find the gift or message deep within you and share it with the world.
Contemporary Queen
Best-selling Ayurvedic author Sahara Rose Ketabi has made a life out of modernizing ancient wisdom.
FIXING THE BANKING MESS
Public trust in India’s banks has been shaken by all the bad news about bank failures, misgovernance and a gargantuan Rs 9.4 lakh crore pile of bad debts. How to avert the impending catastrophe
यूनिको बुक ऑफ वर्ल्ड रिकार्ड में दर्ज कराना अपना नाम
लक्ष्मी ने 58 मिनट में 46 व्यंजन बनाकर
IIT-Kgp develops economical device for COVID-19 testing
Covirap, the diagnostic machine developed by the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-Kgp) researchers, has been successfully validated for its efficacy in COVID-19 detection by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
लक्ष्मी पूजन फिर भी जेब खाली की खाली
कोरोना के नाम पर पूरे देश में केंद्र सरकार द्वारा असफल तालाबंदी लागू की गई. परिणाम इतना भयावह है कि तालाबंदी थोपे जाने के 8 माह बाद भी देश किसी भी स्तर पर संभल नहीं पाया है. मजबूरीवश देशवासियों ने इस साल तमाम त्योहारों पर हाथ भींच लिए और अब दीवाली, शादियों की धूमधाम भी तालाबंदी की भेंट चढ़ रही है.
भेदिया कारोबार उल्लंघन को लेकर लक्ष्मी विलास बैंक पर सख्ती
2018 और 2019 के बीच हुए शेयर कारोबार की जांच कर रहा है सेबी
Stitched to perfection
Kolkata-based designer Naina Jain is known for her ensembles that honour traditional crafts and textiles while infusing versatility and modern styling.
रोशनी का दिव्यबोध फैलाती दीपावली
लक्ष्मी की आराधना होनी चाहिए क्योंकि लक्ष्मी का संबंध धन से नहीं वरन उसकी पवित्रता से है। लक्ष्मी अशुद्ध, अपवित्र और अप्राकृतिक से कभी नहीं जुड़ती। इस नाते जिसका आस्वादनभोजन अशुद्ध है, जिसकी भाषा-वाणी अपवित्र है, जिसका संस्कार-विहार अप्राकृतिक है, वह लक्ष्मी का आशीर्वाद कैसे प्राप्त कर सकता है। सच्ची और स्थाई लक्ष्मी वही है जो शील और मर्यादा से पायी जाए।
Adapt to be adept
How hospitals in India took on the many challenges that came their way during the pandemic