Nehru and the Spirit of India

By Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee (Penguin Random House: 2022)

Discussants: Prof. Hilal Ahmed, Political sociologist and Associate Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies; and Shri Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee, poet and author of the book

Chair: Prof. Ashis Nandy, social theorist and political psychologist

Ravi Shankar: The Indian Sun who Rose in the East

Illustrated lecture by Oliver Craske, author of Indian Sun: The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar which was published to acclaim in 2020. During a career in book publishing, Craske had collaborated with Shankar on his memoir Raga Mala and has edited other books on subjects including Einstein, The Beatles, cricket and art collecting

Chair: Anita Singh, Vice-Chairperson and Director, Indian Music Society

Accounts of the sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar (1920-2012) usually focus on his groundbreaking achievements in popularizing Indian music overseas. His biographer Oliver Craske argues that his achievements within India, which are less lauded today, were equally significant and are essential to an understanding of the man who was perhaps India’s most important cultural figure of the 20th century
 

Speakers: Amb. Navdeep Suri, Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation and former Indian Ambassador to Egypt; Prof. P.R. Kumaraswamy, Centre for West Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; and Shri Atul Aneja, Editor, India Narrative who has reported conflicts from Baghdad, Beirut and Cairo

Chair: Ms Indrani Bagchi, CEO, Ananta Centre

The visit of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to Delhi as an honoured guest at the 2023 Republic Day celebrations marks an important moment in the evolution of relations between Delhi and Cairo. India and Egypt today reconnect at a moment very different from the Nehru-Nasser era in the second half of the 20th century. The discussion will explore the contours of a renewed partnership between India and Egypt

(Collaboration: Asia Society Policy Institute, New Delhi)

Speaker: Prof. Jay L. Garfield FAHA, Doris Silbert Professor in Humanities and Professor of Philosophy and Buddhist Studies; Chair, Department of Philosophy, Director, Five College Tibetan Studies in India Program, Smith College and Visiting Professor of Buddhist Philosophy, Harvard Divinity School

Chair: Kabir Saxena

The talk presents a Buddhist analysis of non-violence in a way relevant to our contemporary life. Prof. Garfield will start with an explanation of how violence manifests in the contemporary world; then develop a Buddhist analysis of that violence and its causes; and ask how a Buddhist ethical framework determines our responsibilities as agents in the context of that violence and a path to its eradication
 

Safe and Unsafe: how design choices help women online 

Speakers: Sabina Dewan, President and ED, JustJobs Network; Rwitwika Bhattacharya, CEO of Swaniti Initiative; Supriya Paul, Founder, Josh Talks; Tarunima Prabhakar, Co-Founder, Tattle; and Saranya Gopinath, Head, Public Policy, Razorpay

Moderator: Ms Mahima Kaul, Head Public Policy, Bumble APAC and former Public Policy Director, Twitter India

A well designed platform, with progressive policies and product features, can help offer ‘safe spaces’ for women online. Conversely, it is often found that points of vulnerability – be it harassment, fraud, even a confusing interface – can negatively impact women’s participation. How are women leaders across different sectors – employment, skilling, content, financial services – thinking about these issues?

ASI  Outside India

Conservation of Iconic Monuments in South-East Asia

Illustrated lecture by Shri Janhwij Sharma, Additional Director General  (Conservation, World Heritage), Archaeological Survey of India
 

Speakers: Col. (Dr.) Divakaran Padma Kumar Pillay, Research Fellow, Manohar Parikkar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses; and Dr. T.K. Vinod Kumar, IPS, Additional Director General of Police (Int.), Kerala Police

Chair: Dr. Adil Rasheed, Research Fellow and Coordinator of the Counter Terrorism Centre, Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses

Communal riots and terrorist attacks are one of the most extreme forms of violence that can occur in any society. It not only causes serious damage to property and loss of life, but also damages the social fabric. Communal conflicts also provide a fertile ground for rise of terror groups and the occurrence of terrorist attacks. Such conflicts and violence pose an existential threat to a diverse, multi religious democratic society. It is therefore the primary function of the state and the administration to monitor, prevent, and control the occurrence of communal conflict and terrorism in any society.
Kerala is one of the states in India with a high degree of religious diversity. While the diversity enhances the social and cultural vibrance of the society, it has posed a challenge for the rulers and administrators of the state historically. On the basis of a historic analyses of the relations between religious groups in the state, the talk addresses the challenges, tools, and processes of maintaining communal relationship in contemporary Kerala.

Speakers:  Dr. Mujibur Rehman, Assistant Professor, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Jamia MIllia Islamia; Dr. Harish S. Wankhede, Assistant Professor, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Dr. Ananya Vajpeyi, Associate Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi; and 
Prof. Mary E. John, Professor of Women's Studies, Senior Fellow and former Director, Centre for Women's Development Studies, New Delhi 

Moderator: Suhas Borker, Managing Trustee, D. S. Borker Memorial Foundation and Editor, Citizens First TV (CFTV)

This is the eighth annual seminar in the series 'Keys to Governance'; the earlier seven seminars in the series were on 'Compliance and Delivery' (2016), 'Political Will' (2017) , 'Constitution as Ideology' (2018), 'Education as Empowerment' (2019), 'Steel Frame' (2020), Independence of Judiciary (2021) and Constitutional Morality (2022).          
 
The annual seminar is held in remembrance of Shekhar Borker, 'Banana Boy' on the Indian postage stamp, private sector administrator, citizen environmentalist and advocate of empowerment of persons of disabilities who passed away in 2015 on 7 January. 

(Collaboration: D. S. Borker Memorial Foundation)       

Anticipating Environmentalism: Patrick Geddes and his Indore Report (1918)

Illustrated lecture by Abhilash Khandekar, journalist based in Bhopal with a special interest in the work of Patrick Geddes and has brought out an edition of the classic Indore Report

Chair: Snehanshu Mukherjee, architect, Founder Partner of TEAM

The talk will explore Patrick Geddes’ famous town planning report and his ideas on urbanism and sustainable environments
 

Speakers: Prof. Surajit Mazumdar, Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Prof. Partha Sen, former Professor of Economics, Delhi School of Economics; Prof. Farzana Afridi, Professor, Economics and Planning Unit, Indian Statistical Institute and Visiting Senior Fellow, Department of Economics, National University of Singapore (joins from Singapore); Prof. Vikas Rawal, Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University; and Dr Zakaria Siddiqui, Visiting Fellow, Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation, Thiruvananthapuram (joins from Canberra)

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

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Working Group on Alternative Strategies

Is there any reasonable prospect of the Covid pandemic marking a transition from industrial stagnation to industrial revival? Post-Covid the bottom end of the income distribution is struggling. What is the macroeconomic policy framework? In this is there a role for pro-poor growth? Has the allocation for public health and public education increased? What is the state of employment in India? Is India facing a crisis in its labour market? The agricultural sector continues to remain in a neglected catastrophic mess: agriculture’s share in India’s economy is less than 15% but two-thirds of India’s families depend on rural incomes and the majority of India’s poor live in rural areas. Is chronic hunger widespread in India? Do statistics on hunger and food insecurity correctly capture the Indian reality? Why do Indian children continue to suffer from malnutrition? What is the evidence from National Family Health Survey-5?

(Collaboration: Working Group on Alternative Strategies)