METAMORPHOSES: TALKING TECHNOLOGY

Special Lecture

 

Beyond Techno-Narcissim: Self & Other in the Internet Public Realm

Speaker: Prof. Langdon Winner, Thomas Phelan Chair of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York

 

Chair: Amb. Vijay K. Nambiar, formerly UN Secretary General's Special Advisor on Myanmar

 

Expectations that the internet would provide a suitable place for the flourishing of democracy have recently encountered some grave setbacks. The rise of monopoly control within platforms of communication has greatly magnified the economic and political power of oligarchies.  Techniques for harvesting personal data to fuel targeted “computational propaganda” threaten to undermine the integrity of elections and to erode citizen confidence that their outcomes are fair.  While both roots and possible remedies for these maladies exist within large institutions, the erosion of democracy may have origins closer to home - in the activities and experience of selfhood on the Net

 

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

A Mehfil with Smt Bharathi Prathap (Khayal)

 

Smt Bharathi Prathap was initiated into Carnatic music in her childhood and later moved to Hindustani music at the behest of her uncle. She trained with Pandit Marutrao Inamdar and Pandit Rama Rao Naik and has been learning from Vidushi Lalith J. Rao for over 15 years. By virtue of her sustained ta’lim, she has a vast repertoire of the Agra-Atrauli gharana. For this mehfil, Bharathi will present a rare prakar of Kalyan, a variant of Malhar and compositions of her Dada-Guru Ustad Khadim Hussain Khan

 

(Collaboration: Shri Harshavardhan Neotia, Chairman, Jnana Pravaha: Centre for Cultural Studies and Research; and NaadSaagar Archives and Documentation Society for South Asian Music)

 

The Law Code of Vishnu

First critical edition of the legal treatise of Vishnu (Vi??u Sm?ti), by Patrick Olivelle, Professor Emeritus of Sanskrit in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He locates the text geographically in Kashmir and dates it to around the seventh century CE based, among other factors, on the iconographic description of Vishnu

 

The book will be released by Prof. Anne Feldhaus, President, Association for Asian Studies and Foundation Professor of Religious Studies, Arizona State University; and the Author, Prof. Patrick Olivelle

 

Panelists: Prof. Martha Selby, Department Chair & Professor, Asian Studies, University of Texas at Austin; and Prof. Kumkum Roy, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

 

 (Collaboration: Primus Books)

Himalayan Wisdom (30 min; dvd; English & with subtitles)

Director: Jaap Verhoeven

 

A portrait of Ngawang Gelek Namgyal, better known as Sey Rinpoche, the Third Lineage Holder of Tokden Drubwang Dugu Shakya Shri of the Drukpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. The film follows the construction of temple at Hilutaan, a picturesque village of 37 houses in Pangi valley, Himachal Pradesh. Sey Rinpoche explains the tradition of temple construction, where the starting point is that positive actions have a positive effect

 

The Mountain Yogi (57 min; 2016; dvd; English & with subtitles)

Director: Jaap Verhoeven

 

An inspiring film from Kinnaur in northern India, looking at the life and meditation of a modern-day Milarepa, Lama Govinda, who like his predecessor is following the way of Ngak, a non-monastic practitioner of Dzogchen or ‘Great Perfection’  a tradition of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism aimed at discovering and continuing in the natural primordial state of being

 

India’s Policy Towards China in the Changing Global Context

Panelists: Ambassador Shyam Saran, Life Trustee IIC and former Foreign Secretary; Ambassador Shivshankar Menon, Distinguished Fellow, Brookings Institution, and former Foreign Secretary; Ambassador Ashok K. Kantha, Director, Institute of Chinese Studies and former Indian Ambassador to China; and Dr. Jabin T. Jacob, China Analyst and Associate Editor of the academic journal, China Report

 

The panel will explore the changing dynamics of India-China relations in a fluid and uncertain international environment, characterised, inter alia, by intensification of strategic contestation with transition in the balance of power, concerns regarding China’s assertive actions and unpredictability associated with the US President’s policies. Though India-China engagement has a relatively impressive track-record of achievements despite numerous outstanding issues, it is passing through a particularly challenging phase which possibly calls for a new modus vivendi between the two countries

 

Organised as part of AAS- in-Asia

 

(Collaboration: Institute of Chinese Studies)

 

METAMORPHOSES: TALKING TECHNOLOGY

 

Vocabulary of The Digital

Keynote Speaker: Prof. K. Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India

 

Panelists: Shri Abhishek Pitti, Co-Founder & CEO, Nucleus Vision; Ms Mahima Kaul, Head of India - Public Policy & Government, Twitter; Shri Dhruv Arora, Manager, Digital and Strategic Communications, CPR  and Prof. Gagandeep Kang, Executive Director, Transnational Health Science Technology Institute 

 

The focus will be on the new and sometimes arcane vocabulary associated with the new digital technologies, which only the expert and the initiated understand. Language becomes an instrument of privileging knowledge and limiting understanding. It is important that we de-mystify digital jargon, narrow the gap between technology and its understanding among citizens and societies. An effort will be made to unpack concepts such as algorithms, blockchains, machine-learning, big data and artificial intelligence and explore their impact in different dimensions

 

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

Guli’s Children (43 min; dvd; 2017; English)

Directed by Joe Thomas Karackattu who will introduce the film

 

Screening will be followed by a discussion

 

 

Calicut (also known as Guli in Chinese) was an important node in the overall links between China and Kerala. The film brings out the cultural-historical ties, the physical artefacts and, most importantly, traces of human genealogy that survive between Kerala and China to this day. Spanning over two years of research, and nearly 20,000 kilometres of fieldwork across India and China, the film is a work of non-fiction

 

Homecoming

Acrylic on canvas – exhibition of paintings by Oinam Dilip from Manipur

 

Preview on Tuesday, 3 July 2018 at 18:30

As Times Change, The Story of an Ahmedabad Business Family: The Sarabhais 1823-1975

Discussion on the book by Professor Aparna Basu 

 

Introductory remarks by Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, Chairperson, IIC International Research Division

 

Book release by Dr. Ramchandra Guha will be followed by a dialogue with Professor Aparna Basu

Closing remarks by Professor B.N. Goswami

 

(Collaboration: Sarabhai Foundation)