Conan Doyle and the Realm of the Faeries (UK) | Click here to watch
(75 min; 2007; English)
Director: Philip Gardiner

Ever since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first introduced him to readers back in 1887, Sherlock Holmes has fascinated fans of mystery fiction worldwide, and in this documentary filmmaker Phillip Gardiner explores the mind of both the author and the enduring characters he created. In exploring the life of Doyle, Gardiner uncovers a bizarre mystery of his own, one that seems almost stranger than the wildly imaginative fiction he penned for the written page. A tormented author with ominous ties to secret societies, the man who gave birth to Holmes, Moriarty, and Watson is almost as great a mystery as The Hound of the Baskervilles.

India’s Foreign Policy in the Post Covid: International Relations through the Eyes of Indian Diplomats

By Surendra Kumar (Wisdom Tree, New Delhi: 2021)

Discussants: Shri Shyam Saran, Life Trustee, IIC and former Foreign Secretary; Amb. Jayant Prasad, former Director General, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses and former Ambassador to Afghanistan, Algeria & Nepal; Amb. Manjeev Puri, Distinguished Fellow, Earth Science and Climate Change, TERI and former Ambassador to the European Union & Nepal; Amb. Gurjit Singh, Chair, the CII Business Task Force on Trilateral Cooperation in Africa and former Ambassador to Germany, Indonesia, ASEAN, Ethiopia & the African Union; Ms Suhasini Haider, National Editor and Diplomatic Affairs Editor, The Hindu; and Dr. Manoj Joshi, senior journalist and Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation

Moderator: Amb. Surendra Kumar, former Dean, Foreign Service Institute and Editor of the book

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Emerging from the Partition: Afterlives of Popular Sufi Shrines in Punjab

Illustrated lecture by Dr. Yogesh Snehi, Assistant Professor, School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University, Delhi and author of Spatializing Popular Sufi Shrines in Punjab: Dreams, Memories, Territoriality (co-published by Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla and Routledge, Delhi 2019)

Chair: Prof. Partho Datta, Professor, School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University

A large plethora of sacred spaces associated with Muslim piety or popular veneration in (Indian) Punjab were abandoned during Partition. These sacred spaces consisted of mosques, dargahs, khanqahs, takiyas or pirkhanas. One of the immediate repercussions of this tragedy was a break in ritual practice. While spaces like mosques came to disuse, the same wasn’t true for Sufi saint shrines. This lecture aims to evolve a discussion on complex ways in which Sufi saint shrines emerged from Partition. This presentation will share some narratives of the afterlives of Sufi saint shrines in Punjab.

AI, Society and Governance

Speaker: Prof. Arogyaswami J. Paulraj, Professor Emeritus, Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, USA

Welcome: Shri K.N. Shrivastava, Director, IIC
Chair:           Shri N. N. Vohra, President, IIC

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is beginning to reshape our marketplace, governance, national security, and the broader society. The technology breakthroughs from algorithms, computational power, and the massive availability of data, have enabled powerful AI applications with significant benefits, but also potential costs and risks. This has, in turn, raised the need for a wider public understanding of this emerging technology and for crafting public policies that protect fundamental societal interests.

This talk will outline the nature of AI technology, some of its many applications, its potential risks and the need for an informed public policy.

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Panelists: Dr. T.V. Paul, James McGill Professor of International Relations, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Mrs. Anita Khaldy-Kehmeier, President, International Trading Post, Denver, Colorado, USA; and Dr. Anuradha Chenoy, formerly Professor and Dean, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Chair: Amb. K.P. Fabian, Professor, Symbiosis University

The president of U.S.A. has enormous power and that power, ideally, should be used with utmost responsibility and wisdom. President Biden has just completed one year in office. He had promised, as candidate, to correct the foreign policy errors of his predecessor and to restore America's leadership role. 

Our distinguished panel will examine to what extent Biden has delivered and how he is addressing the crisis over Ukraine, the nuclear deal with Iran from which Trump walked out, and other international issues.

Welcome Remarks: Mr. Peter Rimmele, Resident Representative, India, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung ; Shri Jayadeva Ranade, President, Centre for China Analysis and Strategy and former Member, National Security Advisory Board

Panelists: Mr. Eric B. Brown, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute, Washington DC ; Dr. Gudrun Wacker, Senior Fellow, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Berlin ; Dr. Ting Hui Lin, Deputy Secretary-General, Taiwan Society of International Law ; Rear Admiral Sudarshan Shrikhande, former Head of Naval Intelligence; and Ms Namrata Hasija, Research Fellow, Centre for China Analysis and Strategy


China’s aggressive militarization of the South China Sea including by extending some islets, constructing airstrips and emplacing missiles along with the increasing threats to Taiwan have alarmed the US and other regional powers. The discussion will seek to ascertain how China’s growing naval strength and aggression are viewed by the different players and also provide a perspective as to the future contours of the region. The rising tension between China and Taiwan, the US and China and US efforts to build support for its Indo-Pacific strategy among the European countries will provide the backdrop

(Collaboration: Centre for China Analysis and Strategy; and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung)