Chair: Prof. D.P. Agrawal, Chairman, Governing Council, Climate Change & Research Institute (CCRI) and former Chairman, UPSC

Keynote Speaker: Prof. K. Palanivelu, Director, Climate Change & Disaster Management, Centre for Environmental Studies, Anna University, Chennai

Guest Speaker: Prof. Mohamed Kheireddine Aroua, Associate Dean (Research and Post Graduate Studies) and Head, Centre for Carbon Dioxide Capture and Utilization, Sunway University, Malaysia

Speakers: Shri Gautam Sen, former Senior Vice President, Reliance and former Executive Director, ONGC; and Dr. Abhijit Mitra, Director, Research, Techno India University, West Bengal and former Head, Dept. of Marine Science, University of Calcutta, Kolkata

Moderator: Dr. (Smt) Malti Goel, President, CCRI and former Adviser, DST, Govt. of India
 
Shifting seasons, changing rainfall patterns, floods and fires across the globe, all have become realities before us. In the meeting of COP 26 held in Glasgow in November 2021, world leaders have agreed to take intense climate change mitigation actions in a move towards net-zero emission targets. It is therefore vital to recognize Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) as one of the key energy technologies and understand natural and manmade carbon sinks on land and air. 

(Collaboration: Climate Change Research Institute)

Indian Knowledge Systems

Chair: Shri N.N. Vohra, President, IIC

Speakers: Shri K.N. Shrivastava, Director, IIC; Dr. Ranjana Aggarwal, Director, CSIR-NIScPR; Dr. Anil D.Sahasrabuddhe, Chairman, AICTE; Dr. Sudha Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, IIC-International Research Division; Shri Chamu Krishna Sastry, Member, Mission High Level Committee (MHLC) of Indian Knowledge Systems; and Dr. Aditya Kumar Gupta, Faculty, Dept. of Philosophy, University of Delhi

India is renowned for its treasure-house of literature going back several millennia with a great diversity of languages, from pan-Indian Sanskrit to hundreds of regional languages. However, many traditional and ancient knowledge systems have been lost to humanity for various reasons. The actions and initiatives to mainstream Indian knowledge systems have been either sporadic or limited. Intensive and extensive approaches are therefore required to bring Indian knowledge systems and, whenever possible and relevant, bridge them to the present-day knowledge systems.

(Collaboration: CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research)

MEET JOHN DOE (USA) | (122 min; 1941; b/w; English)

Director: Frank Capra

With Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold

A reporter writes a fictitious column about a man named "John Doe," who claims to despair at America's neglect of the little people and plans to kill himself. The newspaper then hires a ballplayer-turned-hobo to pose as John Doe. In a series of radio addresses written by a publisher with fascist leanings, Doe captures the public's imagination. When he finally realizes he has been used, Doe comes to his senses and becomes the man he never knew he could be.

Frank Capra’s most ambitious and disturbing film, Meet John Doe is possibly more relevant today than when it first appeared in 1941. The idea of a completely media-fabricated celebrity — raised almost to the level of deity and used as a tool for political gain — probably seemed pretty fantastic then. It doesn’t seem so far-fetched now. Nor do the circumstances that set the story in motion.

https://archive.org/details/meet_john_doe
 

A 4-part series directed by David Wallace for BBC2/PBS with the English historian and broadcaster, Michael Wood. The Spanish conquest of the Americas in the sixteenth century was one of the most important and cataclysmic events in history. Spanish expeditions endured incredible hardships in order to open up the lands of the ‘New World’, and few stories in history can match these for drama and endurance.

In Conquistadors, Michael Wood follows in the footsteps of some of the greatest of the Spanish adventurers travelling from the forests of Amazonia to Lake Titicaca, the deserts of North Mexico, the snowpeaks of the Andes and the heights of Machu Picchu. He experiences the epic journeys of Cortes, Pizarro, Orellana and Cabeza de Vaca, and explores the turbulent and terrifying events surrounding the Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires.

Conquistadores: All the World is Human (49 min) | ( Click here to watch )

Cabeza de Vaca was shipwrecked off the coast of Texas in 1528 and lived with Indians for 8 years. Upon his return to Spain he wrote a book based on his experiences. His tale is one of empathy and respect for the Indians. Michael Wood traces his journey.

https://www.documentarymania.com/player.php?title=Conquistadors%3A+All+…

Einstein’s Quantum Riddle | ( Click here to watch )

(52 min; 2019; English)
Producer & Director: Jamie Lochhead

Einstein’s Quantum Riddle tells the remarkable story of perhaps the strangest phenomenon in science – Quantum Entanglement. It is a story of mind-bending concepts and brilliant experiments, which leads us to a profound new understanding of reality.

At the start of the 20th century Albert Einstein helped usher in quantum mechanics -a revolutionary description of the behaviour of tiny particles. But he soon became uncomfortable with the counter intuitive ideas at the heart of the theory. He hunted for flaws in the equations and eventually discovered that they predicted a seemingly impossible situation…

https://www.documentarymania.com/player.php?title=Einstein+Quantum+Ridd…;

(85 min; 2003; English)
Director: Chris Durlacher

A BBC Television docudrama

Recipient of the Emmy Award for Arts Programming, International Emmy Awards 2004

George Orwell: A Life in Pictures tells the life story of the British author, George Orwell.

Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was a British author and journalist. His work is marked by keen intelligence and wit, a profound awareness of social injustice, an intense, revolutionary opposition to totalitarianism, a passion for clarity in language and a belief in democratic socialism. Considered perhaps the twentieth century's best chronicler of English culture, Orwell wrote fiction, polemical journalism, literary criticism and poetry. He is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (published in 1949) and the satirical novella Animal Farm (1945). They have together sold more copies than any two books by any other twentieth-century author. His Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences as a volunteer on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, together with his numerous essays on politics, literature, language and culture, are widely acclaimed.

Orwell's influence on contemporary culture, popular and political, continues. Several of his neologisms, along with the term Orwellian, now a byword for any draconian or manipulative social phenomenon or concept inimical to a free society, have entered the vernacular.

Handel, The Conquering Hero (UK) | (58 min; 2017; English)

Director: Andy King-Dabb
Presented by Charles Hazlewood

Conductor Charles Hazlewood explores the glorious music of George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), who made his home in Britain and became a celebrity and national icon in the process.

Millions across the world heard Handel's 'Zadok the Priest' when Elizabeth II was crowned Queen at Westminster Abbey in 1953, but he was immensely popular in his own lifetime too, as his memorial in Westminster Abbey shows. World-renowned soloists Danielle de Niese and Ian Bostridge join Charles Hazlewood's ensemble, Army of Generals, in some of the best-loved music in our history.

The Foundling Hospital Museum and Handel's birthplace in Halle are two of the many places Charles visits to explore the stories behind this fascinating composer who has had such a profound influence on our cultural heritage.

By Siddhartha Bhose from Kolkata, disciple of Pt. Partho Sarothy

Accompanied by Asif Khan (tabla)

The artist will present Raga Maru Bihag in teentaal

Video recording of a concert for IIC online programmes
 

India and the Bangladesh Liberation War

By Chandrashekhar Dasgupta (Juggernaut, New Delhi: 2021)

Discussants: Shri Shyam Saran, Life Trustee, IIC; Cmdre. C. Uday Bhaskar, Director, Society for Policy Research; and Amb. Chandrashekhar Dasgupta, former Ambassador to China and the European Union, and author of the book

Chair: Shri N.N. Vohra, President, IIC