BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

Discussion on two books: 

Instrumental Lives: An Intimate Biography of an Indian Laboratory

By Pankaj Sekhsaria (Oxon: Routledge, 2019)

 

Money, Culture, Class: Elite Women as Modern Subjects

By Parul Bhandari (Oxon: Routledge, 2019)

 

Discussants: Dr. Simona Sawhney, Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; Dr. Dev Pathak, Dept. of Sociology, South Asian University, New Delhi; and Dr. Lipika Kamra, School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat

 

Chair: Prof. Saurabh Dube, El Colegio de México, Mexico City

FILMS OF THE SPIRIT

Curator: Rajiv Mehrotra

 

Ahimsa: Gandhi – The Power of the Powerless (103 min; 2019; dvd; English)

Directed by Ramesh Sharma, award winning and Emmy nominated filmmaker

 

Screening will be followed by a discussion with Ramesh Sharma and Ashis Nandy

 

The film commemorates the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. It documents the impact of the Gandhian philosophy of non-violence on some of the seminal global political movements of the 20th century, underscoring why Ahimsa remains the most powerful tool for conflict resolution in the intractable conflicts of contemporary times. The feature documentary weaves together rare archival footage and interviews with world – renowned scholars, biographers, Civil Rights activists, Nobel Laureates and family members of Mahatma Gandhi, to craft a compelling narrative of the impact of non-violence across diverse global contexts

 

(Collaboration: Foundation for Universal Responsibility of H.H. the Dalai Lama; and National Film Archive of India, Pune)

 

Seminar on Keys to Governance: The Steel Frame

Speakers: Dr. N.C. Saxena, former Secretary, Planning Commission, former Secretary, Rural Development & former Director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie; Shri Deepak Gupta, former Chairman, Union Public Service Commission & former Secretary, New and Renewable Energy; Prof. Ujwal Kumar Singh, Professor of Political Science, University of Delhi; and Shri N.N. Vohra, President, IIC 

 

Shri N.N. Vohra will also moderate the seminar

Introduction: Suhas Borker, managing Trustee, D.S. Borker Memorial Foundation

 

The fifth annual seminar in the series ‘Keys to Governance’; the earlier four seminars in the series were on ‘Compliance and Delivery’ (2016); ‘Political Will’ (2017); ‘Constitution as Ideology’ (2018); and ‘Education as Empowerment’ (2019).

 

Organised annually in remembrance of Shekhar Borker, ‘Banana Boy’ on the Indian postage stamp, private sector administrator, citizen environmentalist and advocate of empowerment of persons of disabilities who passed away in 2015 on 7 January

 

(Collaboration: D.S. Borker Memorial Foundation)

Acupuncture Diagnosis and Treatment

Release of the book by Anil Kumar followed by screening of a film and discussion

 

Film: India’s Only Blind Acupuncturist (11 min; dvd; Hindi with English subtitles)

Produced by Television News Features

 

Panelists:

 

 

The Geopolitics of Climate Change

Speaker: Dr. Nitin Desai, economist and international civil servant, former UnderSecretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations

 

Chair: Ambassador K.P. Fabian

 

The talk will explore the geopolitics of climate change by examining the current state of climate diplomacy, the geopolitical ethics of the mitigation actions that may be undertaken and the consequences of the climate change that is inevitable

 

Solving the Grand Challenges of Humanity

By Prof. Vivek Wadhwa, Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Law School and Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering at Silicon Valley, and author of Your Happiness Was Hacked: Why Tech Is Winning the Battle to Control Your Brain—and How to Fight Back; The Driver in the Driverless Car: How Our Technology Choices Will Create the Future;  The Immigrant Exodus: Why America Is Losing the Global Race to Capture Entrepreneurial Talent; and of Innovating Women: The Changing Face of Technology

 

Introduction: Shri M. Hari Menon, Director, India Office, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

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

 

Prof. Wadhwa will speak about how tomorrow’s general intelligence and superintelligence, enabled by advancing technologies, are making it possible to solve the grand challenges of humanity – including energy, education, food, health, shelter, and clean water

 

(Collaboration: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, India Office)

 

‘Breathe, You Are Alive’: A Half Day of Mindfulness

With Teachers from Thich Nhat Hanh’s tradition from Plum Village Monastery, France and India

 

The half day seminar/retreat will include talks and Q & A, as also experiential mindfulness practices of breathing, walking eating and deep relaxation. Mindfulness is the energy of being aware of what is happening inside and around us in the present moment that promotes a sense of well-being, decreases stress and enhances inner resilience

 

Facilitator: Shatum Seth, Dharmacharya

 

(Collaboration: Ahimsa Trust)

 

Exploring the Edge of Experimental Creativity

Data Visualization, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Live-Coding, and Music and Technology

Curated by Shankar Barua and organised in collaboration with Academy of Electronic Arts

 

FROM 14:30 TO 17:30

Presentations by Shankar Barua (shankarbaba.com), multiple media artist, musician and writer who will present an experimental performance; Natasha Singh & Mike CJ – Natasha Singh is Creative Head of Time Blur (timeblur.io), a Digital Experience Studio; and Mike CJ is a technocrat from Bengaluru; Anirudh Gautam, founder of Morph Digital Solutions (getmorph.com), uses technology across AR, VR, Holography, Projection Mapping, IoT and AI; and Soham Sarcar, Co-Founder of Transhuman Collective (transhuman.in), a collaborative multidisciplinary think tank coalescing traditional mediums and new frontier technologies to weave gripping Transmedia stories

 

FROM 18:30 TO 20:30

Presentations by Saurabh Babbar (ikigaiproduction.com), a.k.a. Jimmy Syrup, a self - taught singer/guitarist, Oversoul Sky  is a psytrance project by Sourabh Babbar ; Chintan Kalra (chintankalra.in), internationally acclaimed musician and co-founder of the indie band, Parikrama, and multi-media design & technology expert; Arsh Sharma (https://Inkfi.re/ETWYW&https://youtu.be/T9u3VVoGhWE), multi-faceted Producer, composer arranger and songwriter who has dabbled in a variety of media including television, films and advertising; and Abhinay Khoparzi (khoparzi.com), a multidisciplinary creative technologist who maintains a practice across film, video, music and web technologies; Khoparzi has performed live coded music and visuals with TidalCycles and Hydra at Fat Finger Mayhem (Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai, 2018 and 2019), Algorave Sheffield (UK, 2018), International Conference of Live Coding (Madrid, 2019) etc.

 

Women in Science & Technology in India

 

 

 

Disease Diagnostics and Tissue Engineering: A Chemist’s Perspective

 

Speaker: Dr. Neetu Singh, Associate Professor, Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
Introduction: Ms. Omita Goyal

 

 

 

Among myriad of health issues of global populace today, the problems associated with better means of diagnosis, and repair and regeneration of organs, bones, cartilages, etc. remain a big challenge. The prospect of using nanoscience and nanotechnology as a tool to answer questions arising out of these healthcare issues are exciting and form the basis of this talk. Nanostructures, due to their similar size scale as bio-macromolecules and cellular components, provide an unprecedented opportunity to target and potentially modulate important biological processes. Some of the key nanotechnology based scientific and technological contributions from our laboratory that are impacting disease diagnostics and tissue engineering will be discussed. Briefly, examples illustrating how knowledge of chemical science & nanotechnology has enabled us to develop platform technologies for easy quantification of cell growth and for spatially controlled differentiation of stem cells on a single substrate without addition of any exogenous enhancers will be highlighted. The technologies developed allow detecting diseases faster and achieving complex cell organization as seen in real organs

 

(Collaboration: Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, Govt. of India; and Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi)

Recent Development in Nepal – China Relations: Assessing President Xi Jingping’s Visit

 

Speakers: Ambassador Jayant Prasad, former Indian Ambassador to Nepal and Afghanistan and former Director-General, Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses; Maj. Gen. Rajiv Narayanan, AVSM, VSM (retd.), Distinguished Fellow, United Services Institute of India; and Prof. Srikanth Kondapalli, Chairperson, Centre for East Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

 

 

 

Moderator: Prof. Sangeeta Thapliyal, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University