Speaker: Prof. (Dr.) Arvind Sharma, Birks Professor of Comparative Religion, School of Religious Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Canada where he has taught for over thirty years. Prof. Sharma has published extensively in the fields of Indian religions and world religions and is the general editor of the Encyclopedia of Indian Religions (Dordrecht: Spinger, 2017)

Chief Guest: Smt. Meenakshi Lekhi, Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture

Chair: Dr. Ashok Vohra, formerly Head, Dept. of philosophy, University of Delhi

Moderator: Prof. Madhu Khanna

Tantra Foundation Annual Distinguished Lecture

(Collaboration: Tantra Foundation)
 

Lead presentation by Dr. Rajnish Karki who specialises in strategy and organisation design. Dr. Karki has advised business groups, multinational corporations, professional firms and institutions, government and allied entities at the centre and in Uttarakhand

Discussants: Amb. Kanwal Sibal, former Indian Foreign Secretary; and Shri K.N. Shrivastava, Director, IIC 

Chair: Shri Gurcharan Das, author, Commentator, Public Intellectual

The government is the pivotal instrument for realising India’s potential and aspirations. Efficacy of its organisational construct or the design is thus critical. Rajnish Karki in a recent IIC Quarterly article, ‘Organising the Indian Government: Where We Stand, and Could’, traced the patterns in its evolution and the challenges going further. There is indeed a strong case for the organisational reforms and being innovative, ahead of the curve. The panel delves into the ‘whats’ of right design and structure-process-cultural elements and the ‘hows’ of making it ready for the future.

An exhibition of paintings by Madhu Jain

Inauguration on Thursday, 8 December 2022 at 18:30

Organised to mark the 70th Anniversary of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between Japan and India
 

The True Potential of the Mind: 8 and 9 December 2022

A retreat with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Welcome Address: Shri Shyam Saran, President, IIC

The retreat will be led by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, who possesses a rare ability to present the ancient Indian and Tibetan wisdom in a fresh, engaging manner. Mingyur Rinpoche is a world-renowned meditation teacher with personal experience of anxiety and panic attacks, which he suffered from throughout his childhood and into his teenage years, when he learned to transform his panic through meditation. From childhood, he became interested in contemporary science through conversations with scientists on research projects that study the effects of meditation on the brain and the mind. 

Mingyur Rinpoche’s first book, The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness, debuted on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into over twenty languages. In his most recent book, In Love with the World, Mingyur Rinpoche shares how his meditation practice sustained him when he left his monastery to wander through India and the powerfully transformative insights he gained from the near-death experience he had at the beginning of his journey. 

More information on the Retreat can be accessed on:

https://www.cepeace.org/RegisterNow-Retreat-with-Mingyur-Rinpoche

(Collaboration: Centre for the Escalation of Peace; Nalanda Foundation; and with the support of Pallavan Learning Systems; and Ritinjali)
 

Architectural Adventurism in 19th Century India: Begum Samru’s Sardhana Church

Illustrated lecture by Prof. Jyoti Pandey Sharma, Professor of Architecture, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. She engages with issues of architectural and urban history and heritage and is widely published.

Chair: Dr. A.G.K. Menon

Operating against the backdrop of the politically fluid and culturally hybrid environment of the Indian subcontinent during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, this talk examines the ecclesiastical architectural feats of Begum Samru, Bibi of a German mercenary; subsequent ruler of Sardhana, a Jagir, near Delhi, and a zealous advocator of Christianity. It is argued that the Begum resorted to what can be termed as an ‘Architectural Adventurism’, to mark her identity as a devout Catholic. 

Speaker: Prof. Michael Grubb, Professor of Energy and Climate Change, University College of London. Since leading the Energy and Environmental Programme at Chatham House in the 1990s, his career has combined a wide range of energy systems and climate change research with half-time implementation roles. He is Strategy Director for a major international research programme on the Economics of Energy Innovation and System Transition. Prof. Grubb is the author of eight books, over sixty journal research articles and numerous other publications

Introduction: Prof. Shreekant Gupta, Professor, Dept. of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi

Chair: Shri Shyam Saran, President, IIC

Michael Grubb will summarise some of the key insights from the IPCC Mitigation Report published earlier this year, drawing on his experiences as Convening Lead Author for the first chapter.  After briefly setting the scene on climate change, he will focus on new insights in the IPCC report, highlighting areas of progress, and continuing challenges in national and global responses to climate change - including relationships between climate mitigation and sustainable development in the context of continuing deep inequalities.  Drawing also on debates amongst the IPCC authors, he will argue that we are in the midst of a major transition in our understanding of the climate change problem, and potential solutions – including some implications for international cooperative approaches.

HER VOICE – Simhika: Daughter of the Forest
 

Geeta Chandran presents a performance inspired by a character from Kathakali repertoire

Accompanists: Sharanya Chandran (nattuvangam); K. Venkateshwaran (vocal); Manohar Balatchandirane (mridangam); Varun Rajasekharan (ghatam); and G. Raghavendra Prasath (violin)

In this performance-dialogue, Geeta Chandran raises issues of rights of forest dwellers and their quest for justice alongside gender justice and equality

Speakers: Amb. Ajay Bisaria, former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan; Dr. Shalini Chawla, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi; and Dr. Happymon Jacob, Professor, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Chair: Amb. T.C.A. Raghavan, former Director General, Indian Council of World Affairs and former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan

The discussion will assess Islamabad’s attempts to navigate the deepening conflict between Beijing and Washington. For many decades, Pakistan’s foreign policy benefitted from simultaneous good relations with both China and the US. As the Sino-US rivalry reshapes the regional landscape in Asia, Pakistan is finding ways to adapt. The discussion will examine the extent of Pakistan’s room for manoeuvre and the domestic consensus in favour of a diplomatic reset with two of its most important strategic partners

(Collaboration: Asia Society Policy Institute)

Cine-Pop!

Bollywood Photo Culture
 

Amassed from the streets of Bombay, this growing array of images from the collection of Rahaab Allana highlights movie stills and associated memorabilia that advertised and popularised actors and epic sequences from the original film. Dated largely between the 1950s and 80s, this selection of handmade photographs, including tabloid images, comprises an essential subculture of photography that had mass appeal, many of which were transformed into large film posters, banners and hoardings.

This exhibition, revived on the 195th birth commemoration of photography as a medium was showcased during the centenary of Indian cinema in 2013 with Art Heritage. It is divided into different tropes and styles manifested in a later period of Hindi cinema, an era which saw the rise of a global audience for Bollywood. Affection, Action, Drama, Caricature and Villainy present some of the recurring ‘moments’ that were captured through film photography. These stills, which also travelled as lobby cards and show cards that were pinned up in foyers of cinema theatres, present some of the most unacknowledged forms in the history of the medium. This exhibition features photographs from studios such as Studio Nataraj, Himalaya Talkie Distributors and Pravinchandra G. Javeri, most of which are in Bombay (present day Mumbai). They present prominent actors such as Madhubala, Ashok Kumar, Nargis, Dev Anand, Pran, Mumtaz, Mehboob, Johnny Walker, Om Prakash, Randhir Kapoor, Dharmendra, Helen and Rekha among several others.
The exhibition features photographs from studios such as Studio Nataraj, Himalaya Talkie Distributors and Pravinchandra G. Javeri, most of which are in Bombay (present day Mumbai).
 

FULL PROGRAMME

Forest Mighties (48 min/2020/English/Poland) – directors: Mateusz Matysiak, Tomasz Ogrodowczyk, Michał Ogrodowczyk
The film follows the trail of the great forests of Poland

Farmer Collectives in North Bengal (18 min/2022/English/Hindi/India – director: Radhamohini Prasad
The film probes the benefits reaped by farmers as a collective

What Have we done (5 min/2022/Hindi/India) – director: Beno Pothen Kuruvilla
Soil, visualized as a young lady, tries to frantically convey her plight

Behind the Garden Gate (48 min/2021/English/UK) – director: Nick Hayman
In the 1970s, Guus Lieberwerth and friends cleared a path of agricultural wastelands to care for rare and endangered plants and animals. Now 50 years later, nature is thriving within a hidden paradise

Plastic Age – Forever? (18 min/2022/English/Austria – directors: Sebastian Posti, Sebastian Pichelhofer
Film on the problems of plastic waste, especially microplastics in the oceans

The Call from the Sea (16 min/2016/English/USA) – director: Taylor McNulty
Film on the Bajau, a nomadic sea group who have lived on the ocean for centuries in Indonesia

From 14:00 to 20:00
At the Bottom (23 min/2022/English/Kyrgyzstan) – director: Tamara Kubaeva
Each year a group of volunteer divers organises expeditions to collect garbage from the bottom of Lake Issyk-Kul

Moving Upstream: Ganga (105 min/2021/Bengali/Hindi/English/India) – directors: Shridhar Sudhir, Veditum India Foundation
The film follows the 3000 km walk by Siddharth Agarwal along the river Ganga over a 6 month period

Droughlands (28 min/2021/English/UK) – directors: Omkar Khandagale, Aditya Thakkar
Film on the sugarcane industry in Maharashtra

Toxic Neighbour (23 min/2021/English/Canada) – director: Colin Scheyen
The film showcases a farmer’s efforts to push his nuclear neighbor to greater transparency and accountability

The Round Lake (11 min/2022/English/Hindi/Pakistan) – director: Zayan Agha
The film is about two sisters who live in a community without running tap water

Lantana Management and Grassland Development (9 min/2020/English/Hindi/India) – director: Imrana Khan
The film showcases the successful restoration stories of lantana management and grassland development in Corbett Tiger Reserve

The Clocks (5 min/2020/English/Turkey) – directors: Ecem Aslanay, Yiĝit Tanel Kaçar
The film deals with climate crisis through the concept of time and acts as a poetic warning

Sherni (130 min/2021/Hindi/India) – director: Amit V. Masurkar
A forest officer captures and contains a man-eating tigress in a remote village