Decoding Risks and Challenges in the Real Estate Sector

Indian real estate has evolved over the last decade with the opening of FDI in 2005. During the period 2005-08, this resulted in a large flow of institutional money. But we were not ready for this large influx of capital, resulting in the creation of large projects for which execution infrastructure was not in place. With REITs and other regulatory intervention (like RERA, GST, Benami Act) there is renewed interest from large investors like Blackstone, Brookfield, CPPIB, APG, Ascendas, QIA, etc. But is it very important for investors and developers to understand the key risk factors in the Indian built environment sector and their mitigation strategies. In the last decade, we have seen many unfinished projects and conflicts between investors, lenders, and developers, which have a trickle-down impact on the home buyers and end users. The key questions are, do investors, lenders and developers understand these risks? And what is the best practices to mitigate them

 

The panelists will include Private equity investor, lender (bank of NBFC), a developer and lawyer

 

(Collaboration: RICS School of Built Environment, Amity University)

 

 

FRONTIERS OF HISTORY

 

Cultural Labour: Conceptualising the ‘Folk Performance’ in India

Illustrated lecture by Dr. Brahma Prakash, Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University and author of Cultural Labour (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2019)

 

Chair: Dr. Shubha Chaudhuri, Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology, American Institute of Indian Studies

 

In Cultural Labour, Prof. Prakash studies bhuiyan puja (landworship), bidesia (theatre of migrant labourers), Reshma-Chuharmal (Dalit ballads), dugola (singing duels) from Bihar, and the songs and performances of Gaddar, who was associated with Jana Natya Mandali, Telangana. He examines various ways in which meanings and behaviours are engendered in communities through rituals, theatre, and enactments. Focusing on various motifs of landscape, materiality, and performance, Prof. Prakash looks at the relationship between culture and labour in its immediate contexts

 

ART MATTERS

 

Celebrating Literature

With Namita Gokhale and Urvashi Butalia

 

(Collaboration: The Raza Foundation)

ART MATTERS

 

Celebrating Literature

With Namita Gokhale and Urvashi Butalia

 

(Collaboration: The Raza Foundation)

 

A Mediated Magic – The Indian Presence in Modernism: 1880-1930

Edited by Naman P. Ahuja and Louise Belfrage (Mumbai: Marg, 2019)

 

Launch of the book followed by presentations by contributors to the volume: Dr. Naman P. Ahuja, Professor of Art History, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Dr. Peter Marx, Chair of Theatre and Media Studies, University of Cologne; Dr. Kalpan Sahni; and Ms Kristine Michael, artist and arts educator 

 

The exchanges with ideas Indian and with Indians themselves, had a decisive impact that contributed to the eruption of Modernism in the West. In turn, they lead us to think about how these ideas fed back to shape India’s self-perception. The latest book by Marg provides an intriguing history of how India was typecast in artistic, scientific, cultural and spiritual circles – as mediated for the stage by the Ballet Russes – Anna Pavlova, Léon Bakst, Gustav Holst, Stanislavsky and Tairov; in the arena of spiritual and cultural discourse by C.G. Jung, Helena Blavatsky, Annie Besant, Rabindranath Tagore, and Ananda Coomaraswamy; and in art, by Hilma af Klint, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian and Natalia Goncharova, to name only a few. The four contributors to the book will present these greats of European art in astonishing new light

 

(Collaboration: Marg)

 

CARNATIC MUSIC FESTIVAL: 13 & 14 SEPTEMBER 2019

Flute Recital

By Kalailmamani Smt Sikkil Mala Chandrasekhar from Chennai

Accompanists: G. Raghavendra Prasath (violin); Kumbakonam N Padmanaban  (mridangam); & P. Adhitya Narayan (kanjira)

 

CARNATIC MUSIC FESTIVAL: 13 & 14 SEPTEMBER 2019

Organised in collaboration with Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha, New Delhi

 

Vocal Recital

By  K. Venkateshwaran from Delhi, disciple of Gurus Smt Padma Natesan and Dr. Radha Venkatachalam

 

Accompanists:  G. Raghavendra Prasath (violin) and B. Manohar (mridangam)

 

Discussion on ‘Political Economy of the Indian Media’

Speakers: Shri Sukumar Muralidharan, Associate Professor, Jindal School of Journalism & Communication, O.P. Jindal Global University; Shri Hartosh Singh Bal, Political Editor, The Caravan; and Shri Siddharth Varadarajan, Founding Editor, The Wire

 

Moderator: Suhas Borker

 

A political economy approach analyses the relationships between politics, economics and the Indian media. The media in India, as elsewhere, has grown phenomenally in recent years, especially in the digital formats. How the media is organised and funded is central to understanding its role in the country. This ultimately has a bearing on the functioning of the media within the broader parameters of representative democracy. Is the government able to manipulate media content through a patronage relationship? How are corporatisation and the concentration of media ownership impinging on democratic practices, values, norms, and social and political institutions? In this context, is there a potential for the creation of a public space which reflects a true diversity of voices and could contribute to the deepening of democracy?

 

The discussion also marks 25 Years of Jan Prasar

 

(Collaboration: Jan Prasar)

 

The Future of Sustainability

Speaker: Shri Surya P. Sethi, UNESCO Chair Professor Climate Science & Policy; and former Principal Advisor Power & Energy and Core Climate Negotiator to Government of India; Shri Sethi is widely recognized for his expertise in contemporary development issues in a resource and climate constrained world

 

Chair: Shri Shyam Saran, Life Trustee, IIC

 

Climate action has been reduced to the art of wordsmithing what Climate Science is confirming with greater and greater certainty. The Paris accord is a weak response to mankind’s greatest contemporary challenge. Global emissions continue to rise and even the two-degree centigrade warming bound looks increasingly unachievable under more stringent probability assumptions. The global partnership for eradication of poverty and the primacy of development for the bottom half of the world, both recognized as being essential to any definition of a sustainable future, has been floundering since 1970.  The means of implementation, namely finance, technology and capacity have been missing.  At least 60% of fellow Indians remain highly vulnerable and lack adequate adaptive capacity to bear the consequences of global warming.  Access to basic needs that ensure a threshold level of well-being, including modern commercial energy remains a major determinant of such adaptive capacity.  How can India ensure such adaptive capacity for all Indians for a sustainable future?