Launch of 

8th Indo-Pak Peace Calendar 

 

Seminar on

Sharing of Hopes for a Peaceful Co-existence

 

Speakers: Radha Bhatt, Veteran Gandhian activist; Fr. Jospeph Kalathil S J, Peace activist and priest, known as Postman Priest; Swami Agnivesh , Peace activist, Founder-Bonded Labour Liberation Front and Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam; and Kavita Srivastava, Peace activist, National secretary- PUCL, Activist in Right to Food

 

Aaghaz-e-Dosti, an Indo-Pak Friendship Initiative launches its annual peace calendar that includes paintings of Indian and Pakistani school students (6 from each side). Alongside the calendar, a seminar is being organised wherein peace activists and experts would talk about fostering peace between India and Pakistan, particularly through strengthening people to people relationships 

 

(Collaboration: Aaghaz-e-Dosti)

Hundred Years of Guayasamín

An exhibition of lithographic prints by the celebrated master painter and sculptor from Ecuador, Oswaldo Guayasamín. The works on view represents three periods of Maestro Guayasamín’s artistic trajectory: The Trail of Tears; the Age of Rage; and The Tenderness. Lending his voice to the downtrodden masses, the works on view represent the struggle, pain and suffering as well as happiness, beauty and hope. The exhibition celebrates the centenary year of the Maestro

 

Inauguration by H.E. Mr. Héctor Cueva, Ambassador of Ecuador to India on Thursday, 9th January 2020 at 18:30

 

(Collaboration: Embassy of Ecuador)

 

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)