Organised in collaboration with Assam Association, Delhi – Platinum Jubilee Celebrations

Keynote Address: Dr. Samudragupta Kashyap, eminent writer, journalist and Information Commissioner, Assam and Chancellor, Nagaland University

Presentations by Dr. Ankita Dutta, Assistant Professor, University of Delhi; and Shri Ambrish B. Kishore, Editor, Publication Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Govt. of India

Chair: Shri M.P. Bezbaruah, IAS (retd.) former Secretary, Govt. of India

Coordinated by Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Ashok K. Mehta

Elections in Bangladesh: Again a Walkover for Sheikh Hasina?

 Panelists: Amb. Veena Sikri, former Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh; Dr. Smruti S. Pattanaik, Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses; and Ms Nayaima Basu, Defence and Diplomatic Editor, ABP News

Chair: Maj. Gen. Ashok K. Mehta

Elections in Bangladesh are slated for 7^th January 2024, and for the third time, not under a caretaker government, a provision removed from the constitution by the ruling government Sheikh Hasina government attracting widespread protests. The 2024 election is a matter of political survival for both the ruling Awami League and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Will Sheikh Hasina win the elections for a fifth term and other associated issues of government and economy will be discussed.

Melody meisters, Ruchika and Deepak Castelino 

In conversation with Sujata Prasad and Oroon Das

(Collaboration: Ahad Anhad)

Violence and the Arts

Speakers: Apoorvanand; M.K. Raina; Veer Munshi; Mithu Sen; and Rahaab Allana 

(Collaboration: The Raza Foundation)
 

Count Every Breath: A Climate Anthology

Edited by Vinita Agrawal (Hawakal Publishers: 2023)

Discussants: Dr. Sukrita Paul Kumar, poet and critic; Shri Kinshuk Gupta, bilingual writer, poet and translator; Ms Sahana Ahmed, poet, novelist and publisher; and Shri Kiriti Sengupta, poet, translator, Editor and publisher

Moderator: Prof. Vinita Agrawal, poet and Editor of the book

Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur: A Guided Listening Session

Illustrated presentation by Irfan Zuberi 

Chair: Shri Ashok Vajpeyi

Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur (1910-92) was an eminent Indian classical vocalist, belonging to the Gwalior & Atrauli gharanas. Having learnt from Pandit Nilakanthabua Alurmath, Ustad Manji Khan and Ustad Bhurji Khan, he was able to craft a gayaki that appealed to the cognoscenti as well as lay listeners. In this guided listening session, we would get to hear a selection of his important recordings, from the historical, musical and aesthetic perspectives.

Irfan Zuberi has been working in the domain of arts & cultural heritage for over two decades. Since its inception in 2014, he has headed the National Cultural Audiovisual Archives at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. Presently, Irfan is pursuing a doctorate at the University of Tübingen, Germany and is also working on a biography of Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur on a fellowship of the Raza Foundation, Delhi.

Panelists: Prof. Parth Sen, former Director and Professor, Delhi School of Economics; Prof. Surajit Mazumdar, Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Prof. Siddhartha Mitra, Professor of Economics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata; Prof. Vikas Rawal, Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Dr Zakaria Siddiqui, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Jamia Millia Islamia; and Dr Pooja Sharma, Economist and Independent Researcher

Moderator: Suhas Borker, Convener, Working Group on Alternative Strategies and Trustee IIC
 
Discussion on the State of the Indian Economy (SoIE) is an annual event and is jointly organised by IIC and the Working Group on Alternative Strategies in December each year. This year marks the 31st anniversary of the Working Group on Alternative Strategies.
 
(Collaboration: Working Group on Alternative Strategies)

India’s Vaccine Growth Story: From Cowpox to Vaccine Maitri

By Sajjan Singh Yadav (Penguin Ebury Press: 2023)

A Conversation with the author, Dr. Sajjan Singh Yadav, Additional Secretary, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India; and Shri Lav Agarwal, Resident Commissioner, Andhra Pradesh Bhavan and former Additional Health Secretary

Moderator: Shri Manish Khurana, Senior Commissioning Editor, Penguin India

Speaker: Prof. Akeel Bilgrami, Sidney Morgenbesser Professor of Philosophy, Professor, Committee on Global Thought, Department of Philosophy, Columbia University, New York

Chair: Prof. Tanika Sarkar, Visiting Professor of History, Ashoka University

Akeel Bilgrami will seek to situate Gandhi’s views on caste as well as his disagreements with Ambedkar within the framework of Gandhi and Ambedkar’s differing views on the inevitability and scope of both liberal modernity and the capitalist economic formation to which the liberal notion of the state are tied.  He will consider the ambivalences into which he was forced on caste by Ambedkar’s skilful appeal to these emerging liberal institutions under colonial rule. 

Speaker: Prof. Carol Rovane, Violin Family Professor of Philosophy; Chair, Contemporary Civilization, Department of Philosophy, Columbia University, New York

Chair: Dr. Kranti Saran, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Head, Department of Philosophy, Ashoka University

Carol Rovane will argue that debates about relativism ought not to proceed without first arriving at an adequate formulation of the doctrine, and clarifying what most fundamentally divides relativists and their opponents.  After offering the needed formulation and clarification, she will go on to explore arguments for and against embracing relativism in the domain of morals — eventually coming down in favour of it.