Speech Technology for Sanskrit: Developing a Speech Synthesis System



Abstract:

 
Speech is the basic form of language and thus speech technology (a branch of language technology) lies in the intersection of linguistics and computer science. The language technology or Natural Language Processing (NLP) has its own place in artificial intelligence to enable machines interact with human intelligently. Speech technology involves three primary tasks namely, speech synthesis, speech recognition, and speaker recognition. Speech synthesis has its scope of use wherever there is a digital text and a need to read this. For Indian languages other than Sanskrit, there have many TTS developed and are being developed. The author is developing a speech synthesis system (also known as Text-to-Speech or TTS) for Sanskrit as a part of his PhD thesis. In this presentation, he will also give demo of ready components of the TTS system.


Speaker: Diwakar Mishra, PhD scholar, SCSS, JNU

Venue:  Committee Room, JNU Central Library

Date and Time: 12th January 2013 (Saturday), 3:00 pm

For PowerPoint Presentation click here 

Fantastic Gay Men and the Women who Write Them: An Examination of the Boys’ Love Genre of Manga


Abstract

The Japanese word ‘manga’ literally means ‘whimsical pictures’ and is the term used to describe the body of comic books and graphic novels produced in Japan and following a distinctively Japanese style. They are also classified into categories corresponding to age and gender groups. Shounen manga are for boys and shoujo manga for girls, seinen for adult men and so on. Owing to the varying themes and target audiences, manga is different from Western comics in its depiction of violence and sexuality, given freer rein than the child-oriented comic books of the West.
My research examines one sub-genre of shoujo manga, a hugely popular genre currently referred to as Boys’ Love: comic books depicting male homosexual relationships, drawn primarily by women and targeted almost exclusively at a female readership. There are two sub-genres under the Boys’ Love phenomenon, shounen-ai (from the words for young boy and love) which are soft romances with little or no explicit content and yaoi, which is, in fan lingo, ‘porn without plot’. Boys’ Love (commonly referred to by the abbreviated form BL) distinguishes itself from slash fiction not only in the fact that it uses images, not words on a page, to tell stories, but also in that it lacks the ‘underground’ nature of slash. BL manga are sold alongside other manga titles in convenience stores, there is no element of secrecy involved in their production. . It is easy enough to note that there is a great potential for subversion in the Boys’ Love genre, where women not only take over male narrative voices and through that control over male spaces, but also in that they take the idea of romantic relationships outside the heterosexual paradigm. The object of desire in Boys’ Love manga is not a woman but a man, the gaze that looks upon him that of the desiring female.
I will examine Boys’ Love manga, how they shape, subvert and question norms related to gender and sexuality in envisioning and idealising male homosexuality. In this paper I will primarily answer the question of how, in depicting male homosexual relationships in which the female body, and indeed any female presence at all is negated,  how do BL manga allow women a space to examine their own sexuality?

Speaker: Laxmi Menon, PhD Scholar, CES, SLL & CS
 Venue: Committee Room, JNU Central Library
Date and Time: 10th November 2012 (Saturday), 4:00 pm

Workshop on Right to Information Act 2005


Abstract:

We are living in the days when we are hearing voices on citizen’s right, participation in governance. One of the tools we got is Right to Information as RTI Act in 2005. We have already seen that current version of RTI is doing well and further effective additions to it will surely improve the governance. In this workshop we will talk about how to file it, follow it and will discuss RTI’s we all filed and any questions. Also, we will discuss - "How to file effective RTI?". We invite you all for learning/ sharing our collective experiences on RTI. 

for presentation and other files included in presentation download from here

Speaker: Kapil, PhD, SCSS, JNU
Venue:  Committee Room, JNU Central Library
Date and Time: 3rd November 2012 (Saturday), 4:00 pm

FDI Issues in India and Abroad with Special Reference to Retail Sector


Speaker:  Deepika Srivastava, Research Scholar, CITD, SIS, JNU.

Venue:  Committee Room, JNU Central Library

Date and Time: October 13th, 2012 (Saturday), 4:00 pm


Abstract: 


In the decade of the 1990s, worldwide sales of multinational firms expanded at rates that outpaced the rapid growth of trade in manufactured goods. According to the World Investment Report 2011, outward investors from Developing Economies contributed 29 per cent to global FDI outflows in 2010.This presentation will focus on the relationship between trade and FDI that is whether FDI displaces trade or it reinforces it? There are various sectors to which the government of India has also opened FDI. I will take up the issue of 51 % FDI in Multi brand retail in India which has rocked our parliament. This issue is important because Indian retail industry is one of the sunrise sectors with huge growth potential and is expected to grow almost three times its current levels to $660 billion by 2015. This discussion is thus an attempt to discuss this heated issue on a common platform. 

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Globalization of R&D: Trends of Foreign ICT and Biotechnology Firms in India and China


Speaker:  Swapan Kumar Patra, PhD Candidate, CSSP, SSS

Venue:  Committee Room, JNU Central Library

Date and Time: 22nd September 2012 (Saturday), 4:00 pm


Abstract: 

It is generally observed that Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) usually confined their Research and Development (R&D) at their home base. R&D in offshore location is the least prefer activity by MNEs. However, since early 1980’s, MNEs of Europe and USA were accessing R&D capabilities of other developed countries to augment the R&D infrastructure as well as R&D manpower. A new dimension is emerging with the present wave of globalization is MNEs from developed countries establishing their R&D units in developing countries, particularly in India and China. The phenomenon offers interesting research problem for innovation system studies to examine the process of transformation from much discussed ‘National Innovation System’ to a ‘Globalized Innovation System’. This presentation explores argues, that internationalization of R&D in these two countries have transformed into ‘globalization of R&D’ and innovation.

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Gene to Behaviour


Speaker: Akhil Varshney, PhD submitted, School of Life Sciences

Venue:  Committee Room, Central Library, JNU                   Date: 27/08/2012

Abstract:

Gene is the unit of genetic material which is transferred from an organism to its offspring. Behaviour is the range of actions and mannerisms made by organisms in conjunction with their environment, which includes organisms around as well as the physical environment. It is the response of the organism to various internal and external stimuli or inputs. Although it is well known that behaviour is dependent on genetic backup of an organism but the relationship between genes and behaviour is very complex. It is well stated that ‘all of our behaviours (and those of animals) are gene-dependent, but no behaviour is gene-determined’. So in the talk it will be discussed what is gene, how it works and how it influence the behaviour of an organism.

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Dynamics of Political Economy


Abstract:

This is an attempt to review the “Political Business Cycle” story of more than 35 years of last quarter of 20th century, where we look through various theoretical as well as empirical analysis of it. The whole idea of the paper is concentrated on manipulations of Monetary and Fiscal Policies by politicians in different ways for their benefit. Lastly, I will talk about my ideas and possible progress of my research with opportunistic government in the presence of rational citizen-voters.

Speaker: Ganesh Manjhi, P.hD, CITD/SIS
Venue: Committee Room, School of Life Sciences
Date and Time: 19th May 2012, 3:00 pm

2-Mathematical Puzzles


Abstract: This is more of a mathematical workshop rather than a lecture; here we will uncover simplicity of modern, most widely used numbers for which Laplace said-


The ingenious method of expressing every possible number … emerged in India. The idea seems so simple nowadays that its significance and profound importance is no longer appreciated. Its simplicity lies in the way it facilitated calculation and placed arithmetic foremost amongst useful inventions. The importance of this invention is more readily appreciated when one considers that it was beyond the two greatest men of Antiquity, Archimedes and Apollonius.

It would be an attempt to understand what simplicity was that and how this understanding can help us solving these puzzles.

Speaker: Kapil
Venue: Committee Room, School of Languages, JNU, New Delhi .
Date and Time: 21st April 2012, 3:00 pm

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A Non-traditional Understanding of God -Issues and Problems

Speaker:  Varun Sharma, MPhill, Center of Philosophy, SSS
Venue:  Committee Room, SLS, JNU
Date and Time: 7 April, 2012, 3:00 pm 



Abstract:



God has been traditionally conceived as an omniscient, omnipotent and omnificent being. Belief in a divine Creator, Protector and Lawgiver has been prevalent across cultures and continents since times immemorial. Traditional approaches to religion tend to trivialize the issue of the origin of 'God' as a concept, and instead proceed to expound and argue about the concept i.e. God itself. The problem of God however cannot be dealt with by ignoring its roots. This necessitates an acquaintance with alternative approaches to God and religion which focus on wherefrom these concepts have arisen rather than to where they lead.

The paper presents the views of some thinkers who tried to look at 'GOD' not as something that is 'given', but something that has duly evolved. God for them is not something that has always been there and will be and therefore beyond human comprehension. On the contrary, they view God as a very human phenomenon and therefore something that has an explanation.

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