Ship management, maritime gallery, maritime exhibition, maritime education

Eleventh Vasant J Sheth Memorial Lecture, 2008
The 11th memorial lecture, scheduled for December 2008 was cancelled owing to the Mumbai terror attack. Titled, "India's Rise & the Global Politics of Energy supply: Challenges for the Next Decade," by Dr. Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, Department of Politics and International Relations, St Peter's College, Oxford University, the talk has been published and circulated widely. Copies can be referenced in the Foundation office

Soares de Oliveira has worked in the field of governance and the energy sector for the World Bank, the European Commission, Catholic Relief Services, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), and the French Ministry of Defence. His research interests include the geopolitics of oil; African politics (particularly West and Central Africa); comparative politics and international political economy, especially in the fields of natural resource extraction, organised crime, state decay and post-conflict reconstruction.

Jeevan Shala, 2007-2010
Supported the Society for Women's Action and Training Initiative (SWATI) to educate daughters of saltpan workers till high school in Surendranagar district, Gujarat. Fifteen girls studying in the 8th grade have been selected for tuition and computer classes with travel expenses.

The programme began in 2007 and will continue till 2010. This year the number of girls benefiting from the programme has risen to twenty-one.

Tenth Vasant J Sheth Memorial Lecture, 2007
The 2007 speaker, Dr. Susan Bean, an eminent anthropologist, spoke on "Bombay Boston: Commercial and Cultural Encounters in the Age of Sail". Dr. Bean is the Curator of South Asian and Korean Art and Culture at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, USA. The Peabody Essex Museum is the first American museum to dedicate a gallery, to India's contemporary art and is recognised for its historic collection on maritime art.

Dr Bean specialises in visual arts and cultural history of the 19th and 20th centuries in South Asia. She received her doctorate from Columbia University and has taught at Yale, Columbia and Brown Universities, and Wellesley College. Her recent exhibitions include Gateway Bombay (Peabody Essex Museum, 2007) and Epic India: M.F.Hussain's Mahabharata Project (Peabody Essex Museum, 2006)

In a talk illustrated with images of trading vessels, portraits of American and Indian merchants, commodities and mementos, Susan Bean explored this era of Indo-U.S. history. Mariners shaped the American imagination as they recounted visits to the Elephanta caves and experiences of Holi celebrations, conveyed accounts of Zoroastrian practices, entertainments at Lowjee Castle and provided descriptions of people they met, especially local agents for American trade like members of the Wadia family. Focusing on the nexus connecting Bombay and Boston, she revealed the trade's lively role in evolving American ideas about India.

Ninth Vasant J Sheth Memorial Lecture, 2006
The 2006 speaker, Dr Helene Basu, an eminent German anthropologist spoke on the "Cultural practices of Indian Sidis through the prism of Indian Ocean Maritime Connections".

A former Associate Professor at the Free University in Berlin and currently the Chair in Muenster University, Professor Helene Basu is an authority on the Sidis, the descendants of migrant workers from East Africa who played an important role in the history of the Indian Ocean. She has lived with them in Gujarat in the late 1980s and has produced the most important scholarship to date.

Dr Basu traced the route of the Sidi community to Africa and the similarities between the Sidis of Gujarat and the people of Zanzibar. The talk included video clips from documentary films of Beheroze Shroff and also rare footage on the Sidi damaal/ngoma dance in the shrine of Bava Gor, the revered Sufi saint of the community. The saints are known to have powers that can cure illness, and people from all communities are attracted to the shrines. The event also featured photographs of contemporary Sidis by Ketaki Sheth in 2006.

Non-formal Education Programme (REAP), 2004-2006
Supported Reach Education Action Programme (REAP), an organisation active in the field of non-formal education programmes for street children from the coastal slum areas of Mumbai from 2004-2006. The project included non-formal education classes for balwadis and students studying below the fourth standard.

Annual Vasant J Sheth Scholarships,2002
Scholarships to eligible cadets in Marine Engineering and Navigation courses in 3 institutions: Tolani Maritime Institute (Pune), Sri Venkateswara Institute of Engineering (Chennai) and Great Eastern Institute of Maritime Studies (Lonavala). The best academic student of the year in each institution is awarded a gold medal.

Sea India - Maritime Exhibition, 2001
To celebrate the Indian Navy's first International Fleet Review in February 2001, the Foundation collaborated with the Indian Navy and the Maritime Heritage Foundation to organise Sea India, a maritime exhibition in Mumbai. The exhibition depicted Indian maritime history, trade, commerce, culture and traditions. More than 5000 people visited this exhibition in ten days. The exhibition can now be seen on the naval ship, Vikrant.

Mumbai Maritime Gallery, 1999
The Mumbai Maritime Gallery offers a view of Mumbai's Maritime history through a permanent exhibition of photographs, models and films.

The gallery has been relocated in 2008 to The Great Eastern Institute of Maritime studies, Lonavala.

Ship Management Course, 1997
The Foundation jointly developed, initiated and funded a comprehensive Ship Management course in India in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in 1994. The 12-year old programme provides a strategic management perspective to senior and middle-level managers of maritime-related institutions and helps improve their decision-making in areas related to the industry.

It is now conducted at the India Maritime Training Centre, Mumbai, under the management of Barber Ship Management (India) Private Limited, an international shipping company with a training focus and continues to receive strategic inputs from the Indian Institute of Management.