Panelists: Prof. Parth Sen, former Director and Professor, Delhi School of Economics; Prof. Surajit Mazumdar, Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Prof. Siddhartha Mitra, Professor of Economics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata; Prof. Vikas Rawal, Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Dr Zakaria Siddiqui, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Jamia Millia Islamia; and Dr Pooja Sharma, Economist and Independent Researcher

Moderator: Suhas Borker, Convener, Working Group on Alternative Strategies and Trustee IIC
 
Discussion on the State of the Indian Economy (SoIE) is an annual event and is jointly organised by IIC and the Working Group on Alternative Strategies in December each year. This year marks the 31st anniversary of the Working Group on Alternative Strategies.
 
(Collaboration: Working Group on Alternative Strategies)

India’s Vaccine Growth Story: From Cowpox to Vaccine Maitri

By Sajjan Singh Yadav (Penguin Ebury Press: 2023)

A Conversation with the author, Dr. Sajjan Singh Yadav, Additional Secretary, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India; and Shri Lav Agarwal, Resident Commissioner, Andhra Pradesh Bhavan and former Additional Health Secretary

Moderator: Shri Manish Khurana, Senior Commissioning Editor, Penguin India

Speaker: Prof. Akeel Bilgrami, Sidney Morgenbesser Professor of Philosophy, Professor, Committee on Global Thought, Department of Philosophy, Columbia University, New York

Chair: Prof. Tanika Sarkar, Visiting Professor of History, Ashoka University

Akeel Bilgrami will seek to situate Gandhi’s views on caste as well as his disagreements with Ambedkar within the framework of Gandhi and Ambedkar’s differing views on the inevitability and scope of both liberal modernity and the capitalist economic formation to which the liberal notion of the state are tied.  He will consider the ambivalences into which he was forced on caste by Ambedkar’s skilful appeal to these emerging liberal institutions under colonial rule. 

Speaker: Prof. Carol Rovane, Violin Family Professor of Philosophy; Chair, Contemporary Civilization, Department of Philosophy, Columbia University, New York

Chair: Dr. Kranti Saran, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Head, Department of Philosophy, Ashoka University

Carol Rovane will argue that debates about relativism ought not to proceed without first arriving at an adequate formulation of the doctrine, and clarifying what most fundamentally divides relativists and their opponents.  After offering the needed formulation and clarification, she will go on to explore arguments for and against embracing relativism in the domain of morals — eventually coming down in favour of it.  
 

Multidimensional Poverty (MPI) as an Input for Strategic Intervention

Chief Guest: Shri Suman Bery, Vice Chairperson, NITI Aayog
 

Panelists: Dr. Hyun Hee Ban, Chief of Social Policy, UNICEF India; Dr. Amee Misra, Senior Economist and Head of Policy, UNDP India; and Dr. Amitabh Kundu, Distinguished Fellow, Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS)

Chair: Dr. Ramesh Chand, Member, NITI Aayog; Fellow, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Indian Society of Agricultural Economics

The panel discussion will analyse various conceptual and operational issues pertaining to measurement of multidimensional poverty and its application in designing, implementing and monitoring various government missions and their outcomes

(Collaboration: Egrow Foundation)

From the Margins of History

By Hasmukh Shah (Notion Press: 2023)

Discussants: Shri Pavan K. Varma, former diplomat, politician and author; Shri Balbir Punj, senior journalist and columnist; Ms Radhika Dhumal, architect and conservationist

Chair: Shri K.N. Shrivastava, Director, IIC

Odissi Recital

By Vani Madhav from Gurugram, disciple of Guru Sudhakar Sahu

At 19:00
Bharatnatyam Recital

By Swati Athmanathan from Chennai, disciple of Prof. C. V. Chandrashekhar and Smt. Jaya Chandrashekhar
 

Violin Recital

By Yadnesh Raikar from Mumbai, son and disciple of Pandit Milind Raikar

At 19:00
Hindustani Vocal Recital

By Madhumita Ray from Delhi, disciple of Ustad Asad Ali Khan and Pandita Naina Devi

Edited by Madhavi Desai (South Asia Press: 2022)

Discussants: Ms Mukta Naik, Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, architect and urban planner; Dr. Rukmini Sen, Dean,
School of Heritage Research & Management, Director, Outreach and Extension Division, Director, Centre for Publishing,
& Professor, School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University; Shri Aravind Unni, urban rights researcher, Urban Poverty Thematic Lead at Indo-Global Social Service Society; and Ms Madhavi Desai, architect, researcher and teacher, and editor of the book

Moderator: Shri Rohit Raj Mehendiratta

Ms. Vandini Mehta (Vote of Thanks)

Indo-Aryan and the Linguistic History and Prehistory of North India

By Claus Peter Zoller (Harrassowitz Verlag: 2023)

Discussants: Prof. Anvita Abbi, linguist and scholar of minority languages; Dr. Peggy Mohan, Writer, Visiting Professor, Ashoka University; Dr. Ayesha Kidwai, theoretical linguist and Professor, Centre for Linguistics, School of Language Literature and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; and Dr. Claus Peter Zoller, linguist and Professor of South Asian Studies, Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo and author of the book
 

Chair: Prof. Anvita Abbi, linguist and scholar of minority languages.