Events

The public talk painted the landscape for the future of global mental health care, highlighting systemic gaps and proposing community-based solutions. In conversation with Prof. Prabha Chandra, Prof. Vikram Patel offered his opinions on charting India's roadmap towards a sustainable mental healthcare, that relies on smaller groups of healthcare delivery, thus relieving bigger institutions from the ever-growing burden of mental health incidences.

Neuroscience Research Symposium, NCBS, Mannotsava-2024

Venue: NCBS
The discussion focused on the existing challenges faced by the student community at the higher education institutes. The community was represented by two students, one each from NCBS and IISc. The discussion brought to the fore the ways and suggestions to tackle some of these challenges and the short and long-term steps needed to be taken to make the academic experience enriching.

November 15 - 19 saw the largest gathering of neuroscientists from around the world in San Diego, California for the annual Neuroscience meeting organized by the Society for Neuroscience (SfN). Around 20,000 researchers in various stages of their academic careers and industry professionals with an interest in neuroscience research attended the conference.
The Rohini Nilekani Centre for Brain and Mind was represented at the conference by Dr. Shriya Palchaudhuri and Prof. Biju Viswanath, who presented posters and exhibited a stall at the graduate school fair. The posters and the stall showcased the biorepository of cell lines derived from patients of severe mental illnesses (SMI), as well as the digital database CALM-Brain, that incorporates clinical and neuroimaging data from patients. These rich datasets included in the cellular and digital repositories are accessible to researchers collaborating with CBM, in order to investigate the multi-scale biological changes that occur with the progression of SMIs.
The duo also presented some specific findings from this large-scale cohort study emphasizing the need for the addition of an Indian SMI population to global efforts. The CBM booth was well-visited by neuroscientists keen on furthering the understanding of psychiatric disorders.

The second NRS was held on November 10 & 11, 2025. The theme for this year's symposium was 'Emerging biology of neuropsychiatric disorders'. In all, there were 122 participants including 11 invited speakers. The 19 talks organised across the two days were enriching to the academic community. A total of 50 posters were presented during the poster presentation session.

In observance of the World Mental Health Day (October 10), the Centre for Brain and Mind (CBM) organised a series of mental health awareness sessions in Kannada— in a first-ever initiative at NCBS dedicated entirely to the institute's support and administrative staff. Organised as part of Baatein – CBM's flagship banner promoting conversations around mental well-being – the sessions were held in partnership with Parivathan: Counselling, Training and Research Centre, Bangalore. Over 300 staffers benefitted from these sessions.

CBM participated in the NCBS Open day - 2025. The stall succinctly demonstrated CBM's ongoing research and were given an overview of the various initiatives taken for studying brain disorders. Volunteers at the stall had displayed stem cells and organoids under microscope. The star attraction of the stall remained the Make your own Brain Hat. The visitors were handed over brain hat-making kits and with the help of CBM volunteers, they were able to make colourful brian hats out of paper. The CBM stall saw a steady number of visitors and through the day, the stall would have attracted over 1,000 visitors across age groups.

The Centre for Brain and Mind launched Baatein on August 29, 2025. Baatein is CBM's flagship series envisioned as a space for open conversations, discussions and a continuing effort towards easing the acceptance of mental well-being. The first event under Baatein was the theatre showcase titled The Trial of Abdus Salam, performed by Nilanjan P Choundhury and team. This English play depicts a slice of the life of Abdus Salam, a theoretical physicist from Pakistan. The play was an enthralling, captivating and deeply thought provoking visual demonstration on the final days of the scientist. It brought to the fore how mental health gets affected by one's successes, life's highs/lows and personal beliefs.

Neuroscience Research Symposium, NCBS, Mannotsava-2024