When a Man Raises the Flag of Dhamma but Conceals his Sins: Notes on Fake Ascetics in the Jatakas 

Speaker: Dr. Naina Dayal, Associate Professor, Dept. of History, St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi

Chair: Dr. Vijay Tankha

Early Indian literature often draws our attention to hypocrites who use gestures, words and costumes associated with holiness to acquire what the true holy man renounces. Naina Dayal will focus on some stories from the Pali Jataka corpus, which identify the characteristics of those who are not genuine ascetics, and in the process, formulate the ideal of renunciation
 

Does “South Asia” Have a Future?

Panelists: Ms Suhasini Haider, Diplomatic Editor, The Hindu; Prof. Atul Mishra, Associate Professor, International Relations and Governance Studies, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shiva Nadar University; Dr. Sanjay Kathuria, Senior Visiting Fellow, Centre for Policy Research; Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore; Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University; and Visiting Faculty, Ashoka University;and Prof. C. Raja Mohan, Senior Fellow, Asia Society Policy Institute

Chair: Amb. Shyam Saran, President, IIC

The idea of South Asia regionalism was put on the agenda with the founding of the South Asian Association for Regional Integration (SAARC). After more than three decades, there is growing disappointment with the inability of the SAARC to meet its objectives. Endemic conflict and divergent security perspectives continue to limit the prospects for regionalism in South Asia. The discussion will explore the possible regional futures and India’s policy choices in promoting regional integration in South Asia

(Collaboration: Asia Society Policy Institute, New Delhi)
 

Panelists: Nandan Unnikrishnan, Distinguished Fellow, Euasia Studies, Observer Research Foundation; Dr. John Cherian, Contributing Editor (Foreign Affairs), The Frontline; and Sandip Lal, India Central Asia Foundation, New Delhi

Chair: Amb. K.P. Fabian, Professor, Symbiosis University and Indian Society of International Law

Russia invaded Ukraine on 24th February 2022. Washington took the lead in building a coalition of NATO and others to send arms and other supplies to Ukraine. America has already supplied arms worth about $25 billion since the war started. While no accurate estimate of casualties are available, the U.S. military has indicated a figure of 100,000 casualties on either side. The figure includes the dead and the wounded.

The war has impacted adversely on the global economy, particularly on the South with food prices going up. India has followed a calibrated policy of refusing to join the West in condemning or imposing sanctions on Russia while calling for a cease-fire to be followed by negotiations. Will India as Chair of G-20 be able to persuade the belligerents to agree to a cease-fire? The panel will examine these issues and look at the likely trajectory of the war 
 

A discussion with Shovana Narayan, senior Kathak artist, Guru and author; Amal Allana, theatre director; and Paresh Maity, well-known artist

Chair: Amb. Suresh Goel, former Director-General, Indian Council for Cultural Relations

The discussion will focus on the importance of using public spaces for the development and exposure of the arts in the three primary genres – visual including painting and sculpture; theatre; and performing arts

(Collaboration: Legends of India)

Microplastics, an Invisible Threat to our Ecosystem

Panelists: Dr. Sumit Sharma, Programme Officer, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); Nandini Kumar, Consultant, CII-ITC Centre for Excellence for Sustainable Development; Dr. Shukla Pal Mitra, Director, National Productivity Council (NPC), Delhi; and Anand Bodh, Co-founder, Dharaksha Ecosolutions

Chair: Ravi Agarwal, Founder Director, Toxics Link

Microplastics is a global environmental concern that has the power to threaten marine life as well as freshwater organisms for decades and centuries and has the potential to poison the entire food chain. Considered global pollutants, microplastics can also act as vectors for spreading toxic chemical additives. Do we understand its real impact on human health and overall ecology? Do we still have time to stop its spread and mitigate the existing contamination of the ecosystem?

(Collaboration: Toxics Link)

Gandhi in the Twenty-First Century: Ideas and Relevance

By Anshuman Behera & Shailesh Nayak (NIAS & Springer: 2022)

Discussants: Dr. Varsha Das, well-known Gandhian, writer and art critic; Shri S.N. Sahu, former Officer on Special Duty to President K.R. Narayan and a student of Gandhian Thought; Dr. Anshuman Behera, Associate Professor, School of Conflict and Security Studies, National Institute of Advanced Studies and co-author of the book; and Prof. Shailesh Nayak, Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Life Trustee, IIC and co-author of the book

Moderator: Shri Suhas Borker, Convener, Working Group on Alternative Strategies and Editor, Citizens First TV (CFTV)

Stray Poems and The Temple

By  Abhay K. and Sanjula Sharma (Paperwall Publishing: 2022)

Discussants: Dr. Sukrita Paul Kumar, poet, critic and academician; Prof. Rumki Basu, formerly Head, Dept. Political Science & Professor of Public Administration, Jamia Millia Islamia; Shri Abhay K., Deputy Director, Indian Council for Cultural Relations, poet and author; and Ms Sanjula Sharma, poet and author

Chair: Ms Rajni Sekri Sibal, writer and civil servant

Illustrated lecture by Manu P. Sobti, prolific architectural historian and urban interlocutor of the Global South, International Engagement Director and Senior Lecturer, University of Queensland’s School of Architecture

Chair: Prof. Jyoti Pandey Sharma, Professor of Architecture, School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi

Between 1952-1965, Le Corbusier’s lesser-known cousin Pierre Jeanneret served as the collaborating Senior Architect on the monumental Chandigarh Capital Project in northern India. In its unprecedented usage of the Pierre Jeanneret Fonds at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) Archives in Montreal, this presentation explores Jeanneret’s engagements with the idyllic Punjab countryside and Chandigarh hinterland. Jeanneret’s recordings and musings were then undeniable reassertion of the complex human and landscape palimpsest that had and would experience inevitable (and substantial) erasure, while a new city emerged from these untidy ruins
 

“May I speak to Professor Panini, please?” Discovering the Algorithm for Rule Conflict Resolution in the  Aṣṭādhyāyī

Speaker: Dr. Rishi Rajpopat,   University of St. Andrews, Scotland

Chair:  Dr. Oscar Pujol, Director, Cervantes Institute, New Delhi

Organised by IIC-International Research Division with the support of Ministry of External Affairs

Speaker: Dr. Swapna Liddle, author and historian with specialization in the history of Delhi. Closely involved in the movement to preserve heritage monuments and sites. Dr. Liddle is associated with the Delhi Chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). She is the author of Chandni Chowk: The Mughal City of Old Delhi (2017); Connaught Place and the Making of New Delhi (2018); and recently, The Broken Script: Delhi Under the East India Company and the Fall of the Mughal Dynasty, 1803-1857 (2022)

Chair: Prof. Partho Datta, School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University

The cataclysmic events of 1857 had a profound impact on Delhi. The revolt and its brutal suppression also changed the way later generations would assess the culture of the period before 1857. To that extent 1857 is a prism that distorts the view of the preceding half-century. Based on the research in her recent book - The Broken Script: Delhi under the East India Company and the Fall of the Mughal Dynasty, 1803 - 1857, Swapna Liddle discusses the role of 1857 as a distorting lens, and how we can look behind it to reassess what Delhi was really like under the British East India Company and the last two Mughal emperors.