Towards understanding grassroots India
Ravi Kuchimanchi has been involved in efforts from the US and Indian cities to connect with grassroots movements and NGOs in villages of India that work towards sustainable development and social justice. He works on a range of issues including education, health, agriculture, alternate technology, environment and human rights. In his talk, he will give us a glimpse of how we all can be more aware and get more involved.
Ravi Kuchimanchi has a B.Tech in Civil Engineering from IIT Bombay and a PhD in Physics from University of Maryland. He has published several papers in international physics journals. His continuing interest and work in physics include the Strong CP Problem, hierarchy problem, leptonic CP violation and left-right symmetric theories. In addition to be a physicist, Ravi founded the Association for India’s Development (AID) in 1991 with the vision “problems are interconnected, so must be the solution”. AID has matured into a volunteer movement for sustainable, holistic development with 30 chapters all over the world.
Passionately interested in pursuing appropriate technology to benefit the under-privileged, Ravi with his colleagues developed a pedal power generator to light remote village schools where students take turns to pedal. Along with AID and grassroots groups, he has also led a movement to electrify 12 hamlets of the tribal village Bilgaon by tapping the energy of a waterfall. His story inspired the Bollywood film Swades (2005) that has become a symbol for Non-Resident Indians interested in India’s development. Ravi received various awards and honors over the years, including Andrei Sakharov Prize from by the American Physical Society this year “for his continued research in physics while simultaneously advocating for global policies that reflect science...”