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?

 

FILMS OF THE SPIRIT

Curated by Rajiv Mehrotra

 

Diksha (Hindi)

(120 min; 1991; dvd; English subtitles)

Director: Arun Kaul

 

Diksha was the first feature film by film society activist, Arun Kaul. Based on the eminent Kannada novella ‘Ghatashraddha’, Kaul’s film is sturdily crafted, especially remarkable for its atmospheric details and the fluidity with which the story set against the feudal order is narrated. Told through the eyes of a child inducted into the Brahminical order, the plight of an unwed mother is harrowing. In a weaker moment during the long absence of her father, the young widow falls to temptation

 

(Collaboration: Foundation for His Holiness the Dalai Lama; and National Film Archive of India, Pune) 

 

THE IIC DOUBLE BILL MUSIC CONCERT 

 

Sitar Recital

By Harvinder Kumar Sharma from Haryana, disciple of Ustad Vilayat Khan

 

AT 19:00

Hindustani Vocal Recital

By  Riya Banerjee from Delhi, disciple of Shri Arun Debnath

 

Draft NEP 2019: Can India Become a Leader in Higher Education?

Speaker: Prof. Vinod Kumar Singh, Professor of Chemistry, IIT Kanpur. A recipient of several awards and honours such as Swarnajayanti Fellowship Award, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize and the Padma Shri, he has been elected as a Fellow of academies including The World Academy of Sciences 

Chair: Prof. Anita Rampal, Faculty of Education, University of Delhi

 

No country can become a developed one without a strong education system. The new draft education policy (NEP) is in the right direction for making us a global leader. Can just a policy on paper bring such a change? The answer can be yes and no. The talk will elaborate how we can come on the world map of higher education system

 

Book Discussion Group

 

 

 

Africa in World Affairs: Politics of Imperialism, the Cold War and Globalisation

 

By Rajen Harshe (Oxon, Routledge, 2019)

 

 

 

Discussants: Ambassador Virendra Gupta, former Indian High Commissioner to Tanzania; Prof. Ajay Dubey, Centre for African Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; and Ambassador Rajiv Bhatia, Distinguished Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies Programme, Gateway House

 

 

 

Chair: Ambassador Sudhir Devare, former Director General, Indian Council of World Affair

 

 

(Collaboration: Toxics Link)

Prof. M.G.K. Menon Memorial Lecture 2019

 

Can India become a Global Leader in Science?

Speaker: Prof. C.N.R. Rao, Linus Pauling Research Professor and Honorary President of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore, and former Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India

 

Chair: Shri N.N. Vohra, President, IIC