Curated by Rajiv Mehrotra

America’s First Guru (USA)
(89 min; 2024; English)
Director: Raja Choudhury

Screening will be followed by a conversation with the filmmaker, Raja Choudhury

This film, which premiered on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) in USA is the compelling story of how Yoga and Indian wisdom first entered the American mainstream in 1893, with the arrival of the Indian Saint Swami Vivekananda at the first Parliament of Religions in Chicago

(Collaboration: Foundation for Universal Responsibility of His Holiness The Dalai Lama)

Talk by Rahul Mehrotra, founder principal of RMA Architects; Professor of Urban Design and Planning, and the John T. Dunlop Professor in Housing and &Urbanization, Graduate School of Design,  Harvard University; and Naman P. Ahuja, curator and Professor, School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University

A recent volume Marg provides fascinating documentation of the kumbh mela, the largest human habitational space erected every twelve years, alongside grand qanats and shamianas of the Mughals, Deccani sultans and Rajputs. The speakers will focus on how India’s rich history of tents can be positioned within a global context. In fact the characteristics of tents – their lightness, agility, adjustability, reversibility, and ephemerality – can inspire designers, academics, planners and policy makers in crafting an urban future which is more adaptable to negotiate the immense flux we face on the planet

(Collaboration: MARG)
 

Vasna Ek Nadi ka Naam Hai
By Savita Singh (Vani Prakashan: 2024)

Discussant: Prof. Rohini Agrawal, poet and author; Prof. Sudha Singh, Professor of Hindi, University of Delhi; Ms Aditi Maheshwari, Executive Director, Vani Prakashan; and Prof. Savita Singh, Professor and founding Director, School of Gender and Development Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University (Delhi) and author of the book

Chair: Prof. Sukrita Paul Kumar , Guest Editor, Indian Literature, poet and academic 

(Collaboration: The Poetry Society, India)
 

For an Outstanding Woman Mediaperson of the Year

The Vishwa Nath-Delhi Press Award for Fearless Journalism, and the Kamla Mankekar Award for Journalism on Gender

will also be presented

Followed by

B.G. Verghese Memorial Lecture

Media, Courts and Freedom of Expresssion

To be delivered by Justice S. Muralidhar, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India and former Chief Justice, Orissa High Court and Judge, Panjab and Haryana High Court

(Collaboration: The Media Foundation)

Trump’s America First Trade Policy: Implications and Options

Speaker: Prof. Abhijit Das, expert on international trade and former Head, Centre for WTO Studies, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade

Discussant: Shri Anup Wadhawan, former Union Commerce Secretary

Chair: Shri Siraj Hussain, former Union Secretary Agriculture, Govt. of India and Advisor, Food Processing, FICCI

Speaker: Prabha Sankaranarayan, President and CEO of Mediators Beyond Borders International (MBBI). Drawing on her extensive mediation experience across the USA, Africa, and Asia, her lecture will delve into mediation as a transformative experience, emphasizing compassionate interaction over transactional settlement

The fourth edition of IIC-WISCOMP Dialogues: Conversations on Mediation, will present a compelling case for placing compassion at the heart of peace mediation. Drawing on her extensive experience working in Ukraine, Gaza, Colombia and Syria, internationally acclaimed mediator Prabha Sankaranarayan will explore the mediation as a transformative process beyond transactional settlement.

Ukraine: Where is it headed?

Speaker: Dr. John Cherian, senior journalist

Chair: Amb. K.P. Fabian

Midnight Haze
By Kaia Roy

Discussants: Shri Sunit Tandon, Director, India Habitat Centre; Prof. Sukrita Paul Kumar, Guest Editor, Indian Literature, poet, academic and critic; Prof. Malashri Lal, academic, writer, editor and anthologist; and Ms Kaia Roy, author of the book

Chair: Prof. Meenakshi Gopinath, Life Trustee, IIC
 

An illustrated lecture by Priyamvada Natarajan

Chair: Dr Shailesh Nayak, Life Trustee, IIC, Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru

Prof. Natarajan will present and discuss the latest results from the James Webb Space Telescope that have started to radically transform our understanding of the formation of the first stars, galaxies and black holes. Starting with the overall context and the current framework used to comprehend the cosmos, she will present the new ideas and theories that have been put to test by James Webb, including her own work on the new pathway to form the first black holes by direct collapse of gas in the very early Universe.