Research Report (2020-21)

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The Mother’s Service Society is an educational and social science research institute established in Pondicherry in 1970 and registered under the Society’s Registration Act. It is recognized and approved by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and exempted by the CBDT u/s 10(23c) and 35(1)(iii) of the Income Tax Act. MSS conducts research on a broad range of subjects related to economics, education, management, governance, history, political science and social development. It collaborates with partner organizations international and is recognized as an International Center of Excellence of the World Academy of Art & Science (USA) and as a Charter Member of the World University Consortium (USA).

  1. International Center of Excellence of the World Academy of Art & Science
    1. In June 2020, MSS was recognized as an “International Center of Excellence of the World Academy of Art & Science”, only one of two organizations in the world which have received this distinction.
  2. Global Leadership in the 21st Century (GL-21)
    1. This project was jointly launched by the World Academy of Art & Science (WAAS) and the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) in June 2019 to accelerate progress on pressing challenges and emerging opportunities, and accelerate implementation of the SDGs. MSS is a key collaborating partner in the project. In November 2019 MSS participated in two executive briefings at UNOG for UN agencies, UN member states and leading international NGOs. In December MSS collaborated in conducting an online survey of these agencies and other collaborating partners in order to identify fundamental principles and effective strategies that can be applied to consciously accelerate the process of global social transformation. MSS staff have been providing administrative and research support for the project. Garry Jacobs heads this project.
    2. On March 5-7, 2020, MSS participated in the 2nd World Sustainable Development Forum (WSDF) at Durango, Mexico. A meeting with 35 representatives of international youth groups, including Fridays for the Future, enabled WAAS to enlist the active participation of youth groups in GL-21.
    3. Part I of an online roundtable on “Catalyzing Rapid Social Transformation” was held electronically on March 11, 2020 over a webinar to discuss topics included in the Dubrovnik Roundtable originally scheduled on March 8 evening to March 11 afternoon and subsequently postponed due to the Corona Virus threat. MSS staff presented at the conference.
    4. The Workshop on Global Leadership held on May 11, 2020 examined what transformative changes would be required to meet the aspirations of future generations. The workshop was designed to provide a strategic planning opportunity for youth leaders to discuss and decide what their contribution should be to the program of the forthcoming summit on Global Leadership at the UN organized by the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS). MSS staff participated in the econference.
    5. “Globalistics 2020: Global Issues and Future of Humankind” commemorated the 75th anniversary of the UN, the 60th anniversary of WAAS and the 50th anniversary of The Club of Rome with a special online session “Global Social Transformation.” The e-conference inaugurated Globalistics 2020, the 6th International Scientific Congress, originally scheduled to take place in Moscow. The online sessions organized by Moscow State University initiated a rich discussion among the participants on global leadership and social transformation, which are the focus of the UNOG-WAAS’ project ‘Global Leadership for the 21st Century.’ Garry Jacobs gave introductory remarks.
    6. This multistakeholder, multi-sectoral project resulted in an econference on “Strategies for Transformative Global Leadership” on June 15-19, 2020. The conference involved over 200 speakers and 35 panel discussions. MSS is a core partner in this project. The project involved consultations with IGOs, nation states, business, scientific research and educational institutions, civil society and youth organizations. MSS presenters included M. Chandrasekaran, Janani Ramanathan, and S.S. Sreejith.  Garry Jacobs delivered keynote addresses at the opening and closing sessions.
    7. MSS staff prepared the Phase I Interim Report of the Global Leadership Project in collaboration with WAAS which was submitted and accepted by the UN in September 2020. This interim report was based on the research findings of 14 working groups and conferences involving a cross-section of more than 250 experts from multilateral institutions, governments, business, academia, civil society and the arts. The report concludes that in spite of the unprecedented global challenges, there is a growing recognition among a wide range of international stakeholders that the current crisis situation also offers a unique opportunity to launch humanity into a more dynamic, equitable, resilient, and sustainable phase of global social evolution.
    8. The Permanent Secretariat of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates and the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS) organised an online Youth Leadership Day on December 11, 2020. The workshop topics covered human rights, peace education, science, engineering and technology, the arts, the economy, disarmament, climate change, and more. During the workshop, youth leaders from five continents shared their unique experiences, as well as presented highlights of practical projects and initiatives they have started. MSS organized the conference. Garry Jacobs gave the introductory remarks.
    9. The Youth Leadership Network strategic discussion held on December 13, 2020 aimed to gather movements for an inter-generational discussion aimed at preparing youth contribution in the Global Leadership Summit organized by the UN Office in Geneva and the World Academy of Art and Science. This webinar included a strategic conversation with guest speakers from multiple organizations followed by an in-depth discussion on how to mobilize youth social movements. MSS organized the event. Garry Jacobs introduced the conference and gave the closing remarks.
    10. “Global Leadership for the 21st Century,” a joint conference of the United Nations Office at Geneva and the World Academy of Art & Science to develop catalytic strategies for addressing the complex nexus of global leadership challenges, was held in Geneva and online on December 15-16, 2020. The conference was the culmination of a one-year joint project to develop cross-sectoral catalytic strategies to address current global leadership challenges. It was held from the Palais des Nations, with over 800 participants from around 100 countries joining online. MSS was represented as a keynote speaker by Garry Jacobs.
    11. The World Academy of Art and Science, in collaboration with more than 30 collaborating partners, organized an international econference titled “WAAS@60: A Planetary Moment” commemorating the 60th anniversary of WAAS on February 15-19, 2021. MSS was a core partner and provided administrative and research support. The time has come to join together to create the essential global leadership needed for the 21st century. The main theme of the conference was, the time has come for global leadership to generate Planetary Momentum. Janani Ramanathan, SS. Sreejith and Garry Jacobs made presentations representing the research findings of MSS.
    12. Publications: The following articles were published by MSS Staff in Cadmus Journal during this period:
    13.  “Leadership for a New Paradigm: Planetary Moment and Momentum” by Garry Jacobs, Donato Kiniger-Passigli, Ivo Slaus, Alberto Zucconi and Stefan Brunnhuber in the May 2020 issue. [1]
    14. “Catalytic Strategies for Socially Transformative Leadership: Leadership Principles, Strategies and Examples” by Garry Jacobs, Donato Kiniger Passigli, Hazel Henderson and Janani Ramanathan in the May 2020 issue. [2]
    15. “Global Transformative Leadership in the 21st Century: A Science, Engineering, Technology Integrated and Strategic Perspective“ by Rodolfo Fiorini, Carlos Alvarez Pereira, Garry Jacobs et al. in the May 2020 issue [3]
    16. Research Staff:

M. Chandrasekaran – Coordinator for employment

Vasugi Balaji – Coordination with the UN and other stakeholders

Shashini Kumar – Administrative Support, Website maintenance and video editing

Hariny Narayan – Administrative Support

Janani Ramanathan — Identification of Catalytic strategies

Ranjani Ravi – Identification of Catalytic strategies

Vani Senthil – Coordination with Youth Networks and other stakeholders

Avanthikaa Subramanian – Transcript work 

  • Future Capital Initiative
    • The Future Capital initiative is focused on restoring the right relationship between consciousness and capital, as creative force and constructive resource. The project was initiated in collaboration with the World Academy of Art and Science, United Nations Office for Partnerships and UNCTAD.
    • A principal objective of FCI is to support and accelerate existing transformation initiatives while also identifying and promoting new and emergent initiatives aimed at improving the quality and speed of implementation of the UN SDGs. Garry Jacobs represents MSS on the organising committee. The inaugural gathering of 50 founding members of the Future Capital Initiative was held at the United Nations in New York, September 12–13, 2019, in collaboration with WAAS, the UN Office for Partnerships, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
    • A Roundtable organised by WAAS on “Future Capital: Financing Global Development” was held at The World Bank, Washington D.C. on September 16-17, 2019, in which MSS staff participated.
    • MSS staff participated in a roundtable discussion at the Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia on November 18-20, 2019 to explore the psychological and social foundations of money, the financial linkage between economic and political equality, and the utilization of money as an instrument for either concentration of power or the wellbeing of all.
    • The Nizami Ganjavi International Center organized a webinar series on vital global issues in partnership with Yunus Centre and the World Academy of Art and Science. In search of global scale solutions, catalytic initiatives and transformative strategies, NGIC and WAAS conducted a special virtual session on Employment on Aug 24, 2020. Participants recognised that Full Employment should be considered a fundamental human right. MSS Staff participated and presented at the event.
    • Publication: “Innovative Financial Engineering to Fund the SDGs–A WAAS Initiative“
      was published by Stefan Brunnhuber and Garry Jacobs was published in the May 2020 issue of Cadmus Journal [4]
  • Future of Education in the 21st Century
    • MSS is a charter member and collaborator with World University Consortium on a research project to evolve a new model for higher education that more effectively prepares youth for participation in the highly competitive work environment and increasingly complex social environment of the 21st century. The research involves development of methods to shift the emphasis from rote memorization to understanding and independent thinking, from abstract theory to contextualized knowledge, from passive to active pedagogy, from fragmented disciplinary to transdisciplinary perspectives, from competitive to cooperative learning environment, from repetitive to creative educational activities.
    • The 4th International Conference on Future Education was organized in Belgrade, Serbia from November 11-13, 2019. It examined effective strategies and policies required to accelerate a paradigm change in education. Garry Jacobs, Janani Ramanathan and Vani Senthil presented at the conference.
    • The Society’s Primrose School has been widely recognized as one of the most advanced institutions for childhood education in Pondicherry and one of the pioneers in early childhood education in India. MSS staff have been conducting extensive research on the education system needed for the 21st century to meet the challenges the world today, with especial focus on evolving new methods of pedagogy. The current paradigm is more lecture-centric and teacher-oriented. MSS staff, through new pedagogical methods, have been exploring how the 21st century needs new ways of teaching in which the teacher is merely the facilitator and how education should become more student-centered.
    • Research Staff:

Vasugi Balaji – Early Childhood Education Research

Shashini Kumar – Administrative Support and Website maintenance

Janani Ramanathan – New pedagogical methods in Higher Education Research

Vani Senthil – Early Childhood Education Research

  • 60th Anniversary of WAAS and Waas-Einstein Manifesto
    • The Russell-Einstein Manifesto (1955) warned of the existential threat posed by nuclear weapons to the citizens of the world. It did not lead to the eradication of nuclear weapons, but it succeeded in generating widespread awareness of the catastrophic dangers of nuclear war, paving the way for the founding of Pugwash Conferences and World Academy of Art & Science, the birth and growth of the nuclear abolition movement, the first treaties banning atmospheric testing, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Agreement, numerous arms control agreements, and eventually to the elimination of tens of thousands of nuclear warheads and measures to reduce the danger of accidental usage. 
    • WAAS and the Nizami Ganjavi International Center coorganised a webinar on 13th July 2020 inviting all like-minded organizations to reflect on the relevance of the Manifesto to the world today and seize the opportunity to convert the looming global threats confronting humanity into a compelling force for collective action. MSS Staff participated in the session.
    • The World Academy of Art and Science, in collaboration with more than 30 collaborating partners, organized an international econference titled “WAAS@60: A Planetary Moment” commemorating the 60th anniversary of WAAS on February 15-19, 2021. MSS was a core partner and provided administrative and research support.
    • Research Staff:

Chitra Krishnamoorthy — Research on founding of WAAS, charter members and the history of WAAS

Janani Ramanathan – Research on International Institutions and Scientific academies

Ranjani Ravi – Research on the WAAS-Einstein Manifesto and its relevance on founding of WAAS and the history of WAAS.

  • Democracy, Peace and Global Governance
    • MSS continued its research project on the future of democracy and global governance in 2019-2020. A preliminary report on the Society’s research on political economy, neoliberalism and democracy was presented at an international conference at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, Korea on September 21, 2017 in which Irina Bokova, former Director General of Unesco was also a speaker.
    • Commemorating the 30th anniversary of the end of the Cold War, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization (ISACCL), in partnership with the Romanian Foundation for Democracy and with the support of the Romanian Government and the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, organized the International Conference on “30 years since the Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe: The Role of Cultural Diplomacy in Approaching Protracted Conflicts”, in Bucharest in April 2019. MSS Staff participated in the event.
    • On June 4-6, 2019 the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education and Lomonosov Moscow State University in collaboration with UNESCO conducted an international conference on “Topical Issues of global studies: Russia in the Globalizing World.” MSS Staff participated in the event.
    • Publications: “Redefining Multilateralism” by Garry Jacobs, Donato Kiniger Passigli and Alexander Likhotal was published in the November 2020 issue of Cadmus Journal. [5] “Quest for Peace & Social Mechanisms for Safeguarding it” by Ashok Natarajan was published in the July 2020 issue of Cadmus Journal [6].
    • Research Staff:

Ranjani Ravi – Analysis of the book “No enchanted palace: Ideological origins of the United Nations”

  • Human Security
    • WAAS is collaborating with the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security UNTFHS, to conduct a survey of UN member states, UN agencies, parliamentarians, national academies, research organizations, NGOs and youth groups around the world to assess views on the UN concept of Human Security as the basis for promoting more effective policies and implementation programs to foster peace and achieve the Strategic Development Goals.
    • The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the World Academy of Art & Science (WAAS) and Human Security Unit have started collaborating to develop a targeted advocacy campaign based on real-time data gathering to significantly increase public support for human security towards promoting its adoption and application by governments and a wide range of other institutions.
    • MSS Staff have been researching the need for regional buffer stocks to address the issue of Food Insecurity. The findings were discussed and presented at the NGIC-WAAS-Yunus Centre organised web conference on Strategies for Food Security on 26 August 2020 and later the GL21 Conference in December 2020.
    • In December 2020, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization organised a webinar on the topic “What will the world look like after the pandemic?” in which MSS staff presented.
    • Research Staff:

Vasugi Balaji—Coordination with UN and other stakeholders

Chitra Krishnamoorthy – Local and National buffer stock programmes

Shashini Kumar – Website maintenance and administrative support.

Ranjani Ravi – Regional buffer stock programmes; financing SDGs

  • Global Referendum
    • Ten years ago MSS recognized the need for establishing a global virtual platform to foster emergence of a shared global social consciousness to serve as a practical means for giving voice to the views of “we the people” and to eventually serve as an instrument for conducting formal or informal global referendums and other forms of liquid democracy. This project has been exploring strategies, potential partnerships, organizational structure, financing and other essential requirements for giving concrete shape to this idea. Garry Jacobs has been heading the project.
  • Regulatory Standards for Media
    • The universal human right to reliable information can only be achieved through responsible journalism free from political agenda, commercial incentives and cultural biases. A global monitoring and ranking system prepared by impartial experts to evaluate the objectivity, neutrality and reliability of information from major news services could provide recognition to institutions with the highest standards and provide readers with valuable assistance in their selection of news sources – similar to the ranking of universities. MSS in collaboration with WAAS has been working on a project to explore possible models and means for promoting global standards and measures for news journalism and social media as essential for protecting human rights and promoting effective decision-making, mature democracies and social cohesion.
    • Research Staff:

Ranjani Ravi – Research on existing regulatory standards for Media

  1. Psychological History of the World
    1. This major research project will trace the underlying movement of ideas, values, aspirations and social forces that propelled various movements and events in history based on the social evolutionary perspective developed by Sri Aurobindo.  Events will be looked into with a telescopic view of the advance of human civilization and culture from its origins in the distant past to the emergence of city-states, regional kingdoms, empires, nations and the global community. The project is expected to provide insights into the progressive evolution of human consciousness expressing through different stages of transition from physicality to mentality.
    2. Weekly web meetings are being held regularly to trace the evolution of the Indian Independence Movement to its social, cultural and psychological origins. Garry Jacobs has been heading the project. Hariny Narayan, Vidya Rangan, Ranjani Ravi and Vani Senthil are also part of the project.
  2. Accelerating India’s Economic Development 
  1. MSS has been collaborating with the Global Institute of Integral Management Studies (GIIMS), Kerala, and Ramesh Kumar, an entrepreneur, to develop a comprehensive plan to accelerate India’s economic development. The project, termed “Double It,” will first do a comprehensive research study of Indian companies that have exponentially increased their income and explore the ways and methods through which they have accomplished, which may later be published as a book.
  2. The Double It! Executive Program is designed to support the Prime Minister’s objective of accelerating India’s economic growth and double India’s GDP as a complement and supplement to policy changes designed to stimulate investment, improve the business climate and encourage establishment of new enterprises.
  3. The Foundation Program of the project was held at Taj Vivanta in New Delhi on 18-19, February 2019. Garry Jacobs is Project Leader and Chief Consultant of the Project. Four other MSS Staff participated in the event.
  4. Business Management
    1. MSS staff have been researching on the process of entrepreneurship and business success to identify the social, psychological, technological and organization factors responsible for their success. MSS will continue collaborating with the Global Institute for Integral Management Studies, Kochi, Kerala to develop a new curriculum for teaching principles of business management. MSS staff will continue to conduct training programs for GIIMS faculty and for Sainath Technologies, an environmental protection firm.
    2. MSS staff was invited to deliver a two week MBA level credit course on Organizational Theory at Caucasus University, Georgia in November-December 2018. This course examined the fundamental principles, vital processes and effective power of organization applicable to all fields of activity with emphasis on business and economy and all levels of life from the individual enterprise to the economy, society and global community. It drew on cases studies from business, history, biography and literature to explore the sources of the energy, efficiency, power, innovation and creativity that enable organizations to multiply results and self-multiply themselves. It was designed to help students from different backgrounds, disciplines and levels of experience understand the principles and process of growth, innovation and creativity that govern all human activities.
    3. The World Academy of Art and Science, in collaboration with the Club of Rome, organised a two day roundtable on March 21-22, 2019 at the Inter University Center, Dubrovnik, Italy, on “Emerging New Civilization Initiative,” a meeting of concerned and committed individuals and organizations to share insights and explore pathways to a new civilization initiative that recognizes the systemic interconnectedness of people, nations, sectors, activities, challenges, forces and consequences presiding over global development and seeks solutions and processes that transcend the limitations of the current paradigm and giving shape to pathways toward a better future for humanity. MSS staff participated in the event.
  5. Mind, Thinking & Creativity
    1. MSS is collaborating with WAAS and WUC to create a comprehensive outline on Mind. The research involves identifying different systems of thinking, the nature of the human Mind and its evolution, the limits to thinking and rationality etc. MSS staff will continue research on the nature and evolution of mind and their role in human and social evolution. A research team is working on designing a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on the theme based on the comprehensive outline.
    2. Research Staff:

Janani Ramanathan – Content creation for the MOOC Course

Vani Senthil – Research on the comprehensive outline

  1. Social Evolution in Pride & Prejudice
    1. The Society continued its research on social evolution and human character in Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. Janani Ramanathan heads this project.