West Asia Conflict, Energy Market & India’s Pathway to Energy Resilience

The ongoing conflict in West Asia has exposed India’s vulnerability to global energy disruptions, given its heavy dependence on imported crude oil and natural gas. This conference will examine pathways towards long-term energy resilience through renewable energy, green hydrogen, electrification, nuclear power, and stronger domestic supply chains, while addressing challenges of infrastructure, market reforms, and strategic dependencies.

Opening Remarks: Dr. Srinivas Chokkakula, President and Chief Executive, Centre for Policy Research

Welcome Address: Mr. Amitabh Kant, Chairperson, Fairfax Centre for Free Enterprise

Special Address: Amb. Shyam Saran, President, India International Centre

Keynote Address: Hon’ble Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas (tbc)

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(Collaboration:  Centre for Policy Research, Fairfax Centre for Free Enterprise)

 

Remembering Raghu Rai

Raghu Rai (1942–2026), legendary Indian photographer and photojournalist, widely regarded as a pioneer who documented India’s modern history over five decades, a protégé of Henri Cartier-Bresson and a member of Magnum Photos, he was renowned for capturing iconic, intimate images of political figures and the everyday lives of ordinary people.

Talk on Raghu Rai's art and vision  by Roobina Karode, Kishore Singh, Ananya Vajpeyi and Jatin Das.

Followed by screening of the film “Raghu Rai: An Unframed Portrait”( 54 mins)  

(Collaboration: The Raza Foundation)
 

Delhi–Nalanda Dialogue 2026

Under the aegis of the Nalanda Literature Festival 2026–27 (www.littfest.in)

Chief Guest: Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Hon’ble Minister of Culture, GoI

Special Invitees: Kapil Mishra, Hon’ble Minister, Art, Culture & Language Department, Govt. of NCT of Delhi; Padma Vibhushan Dr. Sonal Mansingh; Purushottam Agrawal, Amitabh Kant; Chanchal Kumar; K. N. Shrivastava; Dr. Sachchidanand Joshi; William Darymple; Mugdha Sinha; Mahesh K.

The discussion will draw from the vision of the Nalanda Literature Festival 2026–27, highlighting the linguistic richness of undivided Bihar and the north-eastern states. It will examine how platforms such as the festival can revive languages like Angika, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Bodo, Mizo, and Assamese, encourage literary engagement among younger generations, and bring regional cultural narratives into national and global conversations

(Collaboration: Deptt.of Art, Culture & Language, Govt of NCT of Delhi; Dhanu Bihar)
 

Delhi–Nalanda Dialogue 2026

Under the aegis of the Nalanda Literature Festival 2026–27 (www.littfest.in)

Chief Guest: Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Hon’ble Minister of Culture, GoI

Special Invitees: Kapil Mishra, Hon’ble Minister, Art, Culture & Language Department, Govt. of NCT of Delhi; Padma Vibhushan Dr. Sonal Mansingh; Purushottam Agrawal, Amitabh Kant; Chanchal Kumar; K. N. Shrivastava; Dr. Sachchidanand Joshi; William Darymple; Mugdha Sinha; Mahesh K.
 

The discussion will draw from the vision of the Nalanda Literature Festival 2026–27, highlighting the linguistic richness of undivided Bihar and the north-eastern states. It will examine how platforms such as the festival can revive languages like Angika, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Bodo, Mizo, and Assamese, encourage literary engagement among younger generations, and bring regional cultural narratives into national and global conversations

(Collaboration: Deptt.of Art, Culture & Language, Govt of NCT of Delhi; Dhanu Bihar)

 

Manipuri Workshop: Yangshak Movement; In continuation
Facilitator: Surjit Nongmeikapam, choreographer and contemporary performing artist

Open to dancers of all classical styles

C.D. Deshmukh Auditorium
At 16:15 
The Music & Dance Heritage of Tiruvarur, illustrated Lecture-Demonstration by Dr Nandini Ramani

At 18:30 Young Dancers Festival
Odissi Recital
By Vrinda Chadha, New Delhi

At 19:45
Kuchipudi recital
By Avijit Das, Bengaluru
 

Heidelberg Lecture
Himalayan cryosphere: Changes, Disasters and Socio-Hydrological Challenges

Speaker: Prof Marcus Nuesser, Head of Department, Department of Geography, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University.
It focuses on the rapid shrinkage of the Himalayan cryosphere, highlighting glacier retreat, permafrost degradation, and increasing hazards like floods and landslides. The talk will examine human-environment interactions, the impact of climate change and development, and the need for interdisciplinary approaches to address ecological and socio-economic challenges in the Himalayan region.
(Collaboration: Heidelberg University, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, and The Indo-German Science & Technology Centre) 
 

The 8th Social Change Annual Lecture

The Female Voice: Reinstituting Life

Speaker: Prof. Veena Das, distinguished anthropologist and Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University.

Chair: K.N. Shrivastava, Director, IIC  

This lecture argues for a renewed understanding of the project of anthropology and the anthropological tone in philosophy not through the super concepts of the knowing subject, but through an acknowledgement of the vulnerability of life and the constant work of reinhabitation and reinstitution it requires. The speaker’s claim is that the blind spot in classical theories of society lies in the exclusion of the work done by women in reinstituting life, through a contempt for the ordinary and the quotidian repetitions within which women find and nourish improvisations, newness, and expression. The constitution of the subject as the male subject, and the sexualization of language itself, marks the texture of abstract theorizing in the social sciences. Against this vision of theory, the speaker offers the work of women writers in the vernacular, with Krishna Sobti as an exemplar who demonstrates a method and theory through a female voice honed from the streets and born in the domestic, addressing the violence seeded in everyday life. The constant work of repair women undertake treats life not as an object external to the subject but as that within which the subject evolves, through a transfiguration revealed in attention to detail.

(Collaboration: Council for Social Development and Sage India)

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Redesigning Care for Nations, Populations and Patients: Virtual Humans, Digital Twins, and the Shift to Silicon-Scale Healthcare
Keynote speaker: Marc d. Paradis, Founder and Principal of SIYOM Consulting and Vice President & Dean of Data Science University at Optum.

Chair: Arjun Malhotra, Chairman of the IPHS Society at the Indian Institute of Public Health-Delhi. 
Discussant: Prof Ravi Mahajan currently associated with Apollo Hospitals Group and a leader in UK Anaesthesia and Intensive Care; and  Prof Suman Chakraborty,Director, Indian Institute of Technology,Kharagpur

The talk examines how emerging AI- and data-enabled capabilities can support that rethinking by enabling care models designed explicitly for population scale rather than incremental system expansion. Drawing on the experience deploying data and AI at scale within large health systems, it explores how care itself, rather than individual technologies, must be reengineered to meet national and population-level health needs.

(Collaboration:Open Health Systems Laboratory)

THE THIRD DELHI HISTORY CONGRESS
The Delhi History Congress is an annual conference organised by The History Collective with the support of the India International Centre. It aims to bring together historians to share and discuss new research on varied themes. The third annual event covers four themes - Entangled histories: Human, non-human and post-human; Sources and methods in history: The challenge of the oral and the visual; History of emotions; and Histories of conflict, contestations and co-existence

For more details on the programme and registeration please reach out to The History Collective.
Entry strictly by invitation only.

(Collaboration: The History Collective)
 

World Peace is Most Desirable but Why is it so Difficult to Achieve?
As part of the International House Association’s Global Forum series on “Pathways to Peace: Lessons in Reconciliation,” this panel session will explore how communities and nations rebuild trust and understanding after conflict. The programme will also highlight emerging opportunities for collaboration within the expanding International House network.

Panellists: Dr. Shashi Tharoor, MP and Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs; Author, Columnist and former UN Under-Secretary-General; Amb. Shyam Saran, President of the India International Centre; former Foreign Secretary; ex-Chairman of RIS and NSAB; and Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Climate Change and Nuclear Affairs; Dr. Anil Sooklal, The High Commissioner of South Africa to India (2024), and a former academic and diplomat with extensive multilateral postings; Amb. Vijay Nambiar, A former Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations and Chief of Cabinet to the UN Secretary-General; Kenneth Felix Haczynski da Nobrega, A Brazilian career diplomat and economist, currently serving as Ambassador of Brazil to India and Bhutan; Amb. Surendra Kumar, Founder and President IAFA; former High Commissioner to Kenya and former Permanent Representative to UNEP and UN-Habitat

Register here:
https://ihouse2025-worldpeace.eventbrite.com

(Collaboration: International House Association (IHA), Indo-American Friendship Association (IAFA), University of Chicago Center in Delhi)