Speakers:Pankaj Mishra, Editor-in-Chief, Co-Founder and CEO, Factor Daily; Rama Lakshmi, The Print; Ashish Malhotra, India Correspondent, Deutsche Welle and freelance multimedia journalist; and Zakka Jacob, Deputy Executive Editor, CNN-News 18

 

 

 

Moderator: Richa Bansal, Director Communications, CPR 

 

 

 

During the past decade, with advances in digital technologies and rapid increase in the penetration of the internet, media has undergone a dramatic change in the manner in which news is gathered, disseminated and interpreted. There is an emphasis on speed, a premium on immediacy and virtually instant interpretation such as through Twitter. Traditional media, both print and electronic, are struggling to stay relevant and are themselves, adapting to and adopting the new technologies to create web-based news portals, mixing text and images to survive in this new environment, which is still in the throes of rapid change. The panel on “Unpacking Media – Digital & Traditional” will seek to explore and understand these changes and look to what the future may hold. We have outstanding journalists who have lived through this transition and those who have achieved success in the new media. They will share their rich and varied experiences with us

 

 

 

(Collaboration: Niti Aayog; and Centre for Policy Research)

THE IIC  DOUBLE BILL DANCE CONCERT 

 

Bharatanatyam Recital

By Geeta Shirisha from Bangalore, disciple of Guru Shri K.R.S. Prasanna, Shri Kiran Subramanyam and Smt Sandhya Kiran

 

Followed by

AT 19:00

Kathak Recital

By Varsha Dasgupta from Delhi, disciple of Gurus Abhimanyu Lal and Vidha Lal

 

The Ambassador Series

 

Building a Common Future in Central Asia: The Way Forward for India-Uzbekistan Relations

 

Keynote Address by H.E. Mr. Farhad Arziev, Ambassador of Uzbekistan

 

 

 

Chair: Ambassador Ashok Sajjanhar, Adviser Central Asia, Ananta Aspen Centre, President, Institute of Global Studies & former Ambassador of India to Kazakhstan, Sweden and Latvia

 

 

 

Central Asia is a strategically and economically important region for India.  Among the five countries of the region, India enjoys a strategic partnership and shares a crucial relationship with Uzbekistan, the most populous Central Asian country.  The existing bilateral engagement has flowed naturally from long standing historical, cultural and civilizational ties. Bilateral cooperation runs the gamut from trade and investment, education and civil aviation all the way to tourism, science and technology, telecommunications, agriculture and IT. Alongside this exists a deepening military relationship, partly driven by a common concern about terrorism and regional stability. Uzbekistan was instrumental in India acceding to the Ashgabat Agreement in early 2018. Uzbekistan, itself a source of uranium, has supported India’s candidature for Nuclear Suppliers Group. Fresh elements have emerged in the partnership with the assumption of power by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in late 2016. 

 

Prime Minister Modi visited Tashkent twice over the last 3 years and also met President Mirziyoyev at the SCO Summit in Qingdao, China in June, 2018. With the first state visit of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to India in October, 2018 serving as a backdrop, the two governments can be expected to provide a strong impetus to the existing bilateral and multilateral partnership between the two countries

 

 

 

(Collaboration: Ananta Aspen Centre)

 

 

Radhe – Govind

In Kathak and Brij-Raas Style

Dance Choreography by Uma Sharma

Music Direction: Pt. Jwala Prasad

Accompanists: Madho Prasad (gayan); Vinay Prasanna (flute); Mubarak Khan (tabla); Khalid Mustafa (sitar); and Yograj Panwar (padhant)

 

Compere: Sadhna Shrivastav

 

 (Collaboration: Uma Sharma School of Dance and Music –  Bharatiya Sangeet Sadan)

Rethinking About Wickedness: From Nigamasarma to the Palestinian West Bank

Speaker: Prof. David Shulman, Indologist who is regarded as one of the world’s foremost authorities on the languages of South India. His research embraces many fields, including the history of religion in South India, Indian poetics, Tamil Islam, Dravidian linguistics and Carnatic music

 

Moderator: Shuddhabrata Sengupta, artist and curator with the Raqs Media Collective, Delhi

 

The Lecture is presented in conjunction with The Ila Dalmia FICA Research Grant, a grant given in support of research in the field of modern and contemporary art with particular focus on Indian art. Both these platforms are supported by art historian Yashodhara Dalmia.

 

In the talk Prof Shulman will draw analogies between the literary Mahatmya texts about Pandharpur where we find the tale of Nigama?arma, a seemingly incorrigible rogue who turns out to be capable of becoming a human being. 

 

Beginning with this story, he will move on to his first-hand experiences of wickedness enacted by Israeli settlers, soldiers, and policemen in the occupied West Bank. Wickedness can involve acts of overt, sadistic cruelty, but more often it is a subtle movement in the self, one that involves what can only be called a choice. All of us face such decisions, seemingly minor but possibly heavy with consequence, every day. Unlike "evil," a term suggesting a somewhat abstract and impersonal force, wickedness comes from the whole person and bears the marks of her or his character

 

(Collaboration: The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art)

 

Insiders and Outsiders: Issues of citizenship and belonging in Northeast India

 

Panelists: Sanjoy Hazarika, Director, Commonwealth Human Right’s Initiative; Suhas Chakma,,Director, Rights and Risks Analysis Group and  Subimal Bhattacharjee Director, Jookto;  a grassroots organisation from Barak Valley; Krishna Sarma, Managing Partner, Corporate Law Group and Rajat Sethi, Advisor to the Chief Minister of Manipur 

 

 

 

Moderator: Samrat Choudhury, author and columnist

 

 

 

Among the many issues that have bedeviled India's Northeast, a crucial one has long been the issue of who is an insider and who, an outsider. This issue had its reverse in the discrimination faced by people from the region in cities of mainland India. The desire to find and evict outsiders, typically depicted as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, is once again at the centre of attention not only in the region but nationally, with the publication of the final draft of the National Register of Citizens in Assam. A panel of experts from the region will discuss the complicated issue in its historical context

 

 

 

(Collaboration:  Good World Foundation, Shillong)

 

 

Roundtable Forum on Ending Impunity for Kleptocrats and Accomplices: Do we need an International Anti-Corruption Court?

 

Chair: Shri Soli J. Sorabjee, Life Trustee, IIC and former Attorney-General of India

 

 

 

Welcome Remarks: Shri Sunil Dang, Member, Executive Committee, IIC

 

Opening Presentation: Dr. Emil Bolongaita, Distinguished Service Professor of Public Policy & Head, Carnegie Mellon University, Australian and Member of the Board – III

 

 

 

Guest of Honour: Dr. Narinder Singh, former Chairman, International Law Commission and Additional Secretary (Retd.), Legal and Treaties Division, Ministry of External Affairs

 

 

 

Closing Remarks: Dr. G. Venkatesh Rao, Advocate, Supreme Court of India

 

 

 

(Collaboration: Integrity Initiatives International; and Carnegie Mellon University, Australia)

 

 

September 2018

 

 

 

Saturday 1

 

 

Rethinking about Wickedness: From Nigamasarma to the Palestinian West Bank

 

Speaker: Prof. David Shulman, Indologist who is regarded as one of the world’s foremost authorities on the languages of South India. His research embraces many fields, including the history of religion in South India, Indian poetics, Tamil Islam, Dravidian linguistics and Carnatic music

 

 

 

Moderator: Shuddhabrata Sengupta, artist and curator with the Raqs Media Collective, Delhi

 

 

 

The Lecture is presented in conjunction with The Ila Dalmia FICA Research Grant, a grant given in support of research in the field of modern and contemporary art with particular focus on Indian art. Both these platforms are supported by art historian Yashodhara Dalmia.

 

 

 

In the talk Prof Shulman will draw analogies between the literary Mahatmya texts about Pandharpur where we find the tale of Nigamaśarma, a seemingly incorrigible rogue who turns out to be capable of becoming a human being.

 

 

Beginning with this story, he will move on to his first-hand experiences of wickedness enacted by Israeli settlers, soldiers, and policemen in the occupied West Bank. Wickedness can involve acts of overt, sadistic cruelty, but more often it is a subtle movement in the self, one that involves what can only be called a choice. All of us face such decisions, seemingly minor but possibly heavy with consequence, every day. Unlike "evil," a term suggesting a somewhat abstract and impersonal force, wickedness comes from the whole person and bears the marks of her or his character

 

 

 

(Collaboration: The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art)

Adhyatma

With Sikkil Gurucharan (Carnatic vocal) and Aranyani Bhargava (Bharatanatyam)

Accompanists: Sumesh Narayanan (percussion); and Juned Khan (sarangi)

 

Concept and dance choreography – Aranyani Bhargava

Musical composition – Sikkil Gurucharan

 

Adhyatma or the metaphysical is one the major themes that poets in India have engaged with. Annamayya, is a 15th century Saint who composed thousands of poems describing God through the eyes of the devotee. Adhyatma is branch of his philosophical work which deals with addressing the mind and realising the harsh realities of the world while surrendering and sometimes hesitating to surrender at the feet of the Divine. The poems have been taken from Prof. David Shulman and Velcheru Narayana Rao’s book God on the Hill which served as a reference point 

 

(Collaboration: Seher)

Pochhammer Memorial Lecture 2018

 

Rabindranath Tagore’s Love for God and the World – and German Romanticism

Speaker: Dr. Martin Kämpchen, Tagore scholar, translator and author

 

Rabindranath Tagore attempted a unique feat in his poetry; he praised and enjoyed the good things of the world like the beauty of nature, the love between man and woman, the love among family members and in society at large. At the same time, he nourished a deep love of Divinity calling It by different names. He combined these two and made it a life-long project not to renounce one for the other, but to celebrate God and the World together. The German reception of Tagore reflects the German Romantic Tradition in literature and the arts which had a similar agenda

 

Followed by 

Rabindra Sangeet

Presented by Debashish and Rohini Raychaudhuri, the only “Father-Daughter Duo of Bengali Music”

 

(Collaboration: Federation of Indo-German Societies in India; and Hanns-Seidel Stiftung)