New Delhi: With the aim to become a global hub for pure and applied mathematics, the Lodha Foundation officially launched the first-ever privately funded mathematics research institute in India.
The Lodha Mathematical Sciences Institute (LMSI) in Mumbai is envisaged as a pure mathematics research institute, bringing together a core group of mathematicians across the world.
Dr. Manjul Bhargava of Princeton University, a Fields medalist, will serve on the LMSI advisory board. Often referred as the Nobel Prize for mathematics, the Fields Medal is presented every four years to researchers under the age of 40.
Eminent Indian mathematicians such as Dr. Mahan Mj of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Dr. Saurav Chatterjee of Stanford University, Dr. Kavita Ramanan of Brown University are among the other advisors for LMSI.
Maharashtra skill development minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha, and LMSI founding director Dr. Vijay Kumar Murthy attended the inauguration ceremony in Mumbai on Sunday.
“This is a small but significant step to move India towards being a developed nation,” said Abhishek Lodha, CEO of Lodha Group and one of the founders of LMSI. “We wanted to build an institute that will impact not just the field of mathematics but also Indian talent in general.”
“Everyone asks, what is the importance of math? Math is what helped people navigate the world,” said Dr. Murty, addressing the gathering during the launch. “The linear algebra that makes search engines work to the computational geometry that is behind e-commerce platforms, the number theory that led to Amazons and Googles of the world—everything is math.”
Dr. Murty announced that LMSI will hold an inaugural symposium from 17 to 19 August featuring talks from eminent faculty.
The LMSI will also begin its first six-month semantic programme focused on arithmetic statistics to bring faculty and math researchers from across the world to collaborate and work together in Mumbai. The institute plans two other such programmes for the next year, led by Dr. Parimala Raman of Emory University and Dr. Mahan Mj of TIFR.
“In December next year, we will host the first Indian Congress of Mathematicians,” announced Dr. Murthy at the event. “It will bring together the brightest minds in Indian mathematics and we hope to make it an annual event.”
Last year, the Lodha Group of Companies invested Rs 20,000 crore in the Lodha Foundation to support education and research initiatives. The LMSI, a product of that investment, is the first ever institute managed by the Lodha Foundation.
According to Mangal Prabhat Lodha, who is also founder of Lodha Group, the idea to start a math institute came from his son Abhishek Lodha and former IAS officer Ashish Singh who is associated with the foundation.
In his address, Abhishek spoke about how with this institute, they were “sowing the seeds” for the future of math and innovation in India.
Ashish Singh, too, spoke about the significance of math in India’s development.
“At LMSI, we are aiming to get the brightest researchers to come together and pursue cutting-edge research in mathematics,” he asserted.
The LMSI also plans to collaborate closely with other mathematics focused institutes such as the Chennai Mathematical Institute, the Indian Statistical Institute, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, and Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore.
“We realised that for any nation to get strong, we ought to have original thinking and promote innovation. That is what LMSI is focused on—to make this one of the leading institutions in the world,” Abhishek said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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Wonderful. Usually IAS officers drown themselves in corruption, politics, third -rate socialist schemes, or personal luxury. This is the greatest of the greatest initiative in science and nation development in recent times. Thank you, Mr Lodha et al, for this making this happen.