Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham has emerged as one of the top 100 universities in the world in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings for 2021. The ratings are the only global performance tables that assess universities according to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Amrita holds position 81, the only university from India to appear in the prestigious list.

Swami Nijamritananda Puri is directing efforts in the Delhi National Capital Region (Delhi NCR) to help bring relief to people suffering due to COVID-19 and its ramifications for patients, their families and the community at large

As the world continues to reel in the grip of COVID-19, our volunteers are taking the necessary medical precautions so they can provide food and basic supplies to people suffering in the pandemic’s economic fallout.

In Spain, the M.A. Center located in Piera (Barcelona) provided food worth $240,000 US to 4,800 families for the year 2020. In appreciation for this effort, the Creu Roja Catalunya (Red Cross Catalonia) has awarded a certificate of merit to Fundacion Amma (Amma Spain) for their help.

Signatories include Mr Josep Quitet, President of the Red Cross, Catalonia, and Elena Fontanet, Secretary of the Red Cross, Catalonia.

Rural India

At the basis of all we do is the goal to ensure everyone has access to adequate nutrition, safe drinking water and secure places in which to dwell. Already a challenge around the world since Embracing the World began in 1989, COVID-19 brought a state of emergency like never before.

In addressing the pandemic, India saw an immediate and crucial need for underprivileged people in remote tribal areas to be informed and given awareness regarding the disease. These populations usually lag behind in latest developments due to their remoteness and traditional ways of life. The panic and confusion over Covid only multiplied that factor.

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India’s top private university, has announced a grant of ₹100 crores ($13,400,000 US) to set up 50 state-of-the-art New Discovery and Innovation Labs at its campuses across India.

These research powerhouses will be in operation within the coming year and drive cutting-edge discoveries in fields such as engineering, medical sciences, computer sciences, material sciences, nanobiosciences, biotechnology, biomedical engineering, and sustainable development.

Amritapuri, Kerala, India

In rural India, men play an especially important and often overlooked role in the process of women’s empowerment—either as supporters or obstacles—an imp­act study from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham has found. Amrita University’s research team concludes that engaging with men, which has never been done on a large scale, needs to be considered as a key programming element in future projects.

Srividya Sheshadri and Christopher Coley are Amrita PhD students with the Center for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality (CWEGE) at Amrita University. Along with professors Dr Sriram Devanathan and Dr Bhavani Rao, they published an article called “Contextualizing women’s empowerment frameworks with an emphasis on social support: a study in rural South India” in the journal Community, Work & Family.

During India’s lockdowns across the country, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham’s faculty are using the time to innovate new ways to help in the fight against COVID-19. More than 60 researchers from various fields at the university—including medicine, nanoscience, AI, big data, sensor-manufacturing and material sciences—are participating in a cross-disciplinary effort to design solutions for use around the world.

One of the inventions is Prabha, a remote-controlled sanitization robot that can systematically disinfect rooms with ultraviolet rays. Because exposure to UV light can damage eyes and skin, the user controls Prabha via bluetooth from a separate location. The first model contains three UV lamps and after its success, a larger model with six lamps was developed. Depending on the size of the room, the sanitization process can be done within 15 minutes to one hour.

India

As the world begins its transition into a post-Covid era, the upheaval caused by the pandemic becomes more visible in India’s vulnerable sections, with gender equality a key issue. Still, our Center for Women’s Empowerment & Gender Equality (CWEGE) remains focused on the year 2030—a year the United Nations declares as the target for Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“Let us hope for a future where a day will not be needed to celebrate women, as they will be celebrated every day with a vision of gender equality already achieved,” said Dr Bhavani Rao, our UNESCO Chair on Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment. “The Covid disaster has pushed back a lot of gains, but with a heart and hope to make a difference, let’s renew our pledges and promises for a better world.”

COVID-19 brought forward a challenge to India’s education system as never seen before. When the nationwide lockdown came into effect on March 22nd, all schools and other educational sectors were closed. AmritaCREATE is our Center for Research in Analytics, Technologies & Education. Its key area of work is in low-income areas in rural India where literacy is lower and school dropout rates are higher than in urban centers.

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Just as in the rest of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause millions of people to remain without work across the United States. More than 10 million people remain jobless with an unemployment rate of 6.3% according to the latest statistics from the federal government. This is a vast improvement over April 2020’s rate of 14.7%, however it is nearly double January 2020’s number of 3.5%.

AYUDH is the youth wing of Embracing the World. Members of the Chicago chapter were reflecting upon the impact in their community, which is one of the hardest hit in the country. They quickly decided that instead of just talking, they were going to do something.