Speakers: Dr. Augusto Lopez, Executive Director and Chair, Global Governance Forum, Geneva; and Dr. Arthur Lyon Dahl, President, Global Environment Forum, Geneva

Panel discussion on Perspectives from the fields of Education, Law, Business, the Arts

Panelists: Dr. Kavita Sharma, former President, South Asian University, and former Director, IIC; Shri Pradeep Multani, Past President, PHDCCI; Ms Shovana Narayan, well-known Kathak artist; and Dr. Maja Daruwala, Senior Advisory, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative

Chair: Dr. Kazem Samandari
 
Gender discrimination is often seen from a human rights perspective; it is a violation of women’s basic human rights, as embedded in the Universal Declaration, the UN Charter and other such founding documents. Moreover, there is overwhelming evidence that restrictions and various forms of discrimination against women are also bad economics. They undermine the talent pool available to the private sector, they distort power relationships within the family and lead to inefficiencies in the use of resources. They contribute to create an environment in which women, de facto, are second class citizens, with fewer options than men, lower quality jobs, lower pay, often the victims of various forms of violence, literally from the cradle to the grave. They are also not fully politically empowered and have scant presence in the corridors of power, whether as finance ministers, central bank governors, prime ministers or on the boards of leading corporations. Why is gender inequality so pervasive? Where does it come from? Does it have cultural and religious roots? And what are the sorts of policies and values that will deliver a world in which being born a boy or a girl is no longer a measure of the likelihood of developing one’s human potential? A look at some of these and other such difficult questions.

Early Mahayana Caves in Western Deccan                                                                                                                                      

Speaker:  Prof Y.S. Alone, Professor in Visual Studies, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University who has written extensively on Buddhist caves, on popular neo-Buddhist visual culture, a critic of modern Indian art, and an interpretative framework of Dr. Ambedkar and social sciences. His book 'Early Buddhist Caves of Western India' was published in 2016 and reprinted in 2019. 

Chair: Prof. Seema Bawa, Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, Dept. of History, University of Delhi

Often the Mahayana phase in the western Deccan is dated to the fifth century CE, this assumption has dominated our understanding for a long time. The lecture contests this assumption and traces the early Mahayana phase in the western Deccan through inscriptional and visual evidence observed in important cave sites such as Ajanta, Kanheri, Kondivite, Panhale-Kaji and Mahad. 
 
 

Panelists: Prof. Manoj Kumar Jha, MP, Rajya Sabha; Shri Jawhar Sircar, MP, Rajya Sabha; and Ms Liz Matthew, Deputy Political Editor, The Indian Express

Moderator: Shri Suhas Borker, Convener, Working Group on Alternative Strategies

This is the 17th edition of the annual discussion started in 2006

(Collaboration: Working Group on Alternative Strategies)

The Lost Buddhist Stupa of Kahu-Jo-Daro: An Attempt at Reconstruction

Illustrated lecture by Shri Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Director General, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), Mumbai

Introduction: Dr. Himanshu Prabha Ray
Chair: Shri K.N. Shrivastava, Director, IIC

The Buddhist Stupa at Kahu-jo-daro was a chance discovery. It was part of a large Buddhist establishment in the present-day town of Mirpur Khas in the province of Sindh, Pakistan, and was excavated by British archaeologist Sir Henry Cousens in 1909. This research explores the early history of Singh and the roots of Buddhism in the Gandhara region as well as its influences on Singh and other neighbouring regions. The lecture will reveal the amazing story of its discovery, the possible date, the many instances of its destruction, systematic excavation and finally, an attempt at reconstruction
 

Presentations by Mr. Michal Tabisz, Vice President, Rzeszów–Jasionka Airport, Poland (online); and Shri Jagadeswara Rao Maddukuri, Founder and President, PolandIndia Business Council and Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awardee 2019

Chair: Amb. Dnyaneshwar Mulay, former Indian High Commissioner to the Maldives and presently Member, National Human Rights Commission

India brought back over 15,920 nationals on 76 flights under the evacuation mission ‘Operation Ganga’ that was launched following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Shri Rao Maddukuri and other Indian businessmen along with officials of the Indian and Polish embassies were instrumental in the evacuation of 4000 Indian students overland from Ukraine to Poland and then to India
 

 Treasures of Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library

An exhibition of texts, reproductions of archival photographs, facsimiles of rare books, digitised copies of illuminated and illustrated manuscripts including Tarikh-e-Khandan-e-Timuriyah, The Ramayana, Sirat-i-Firuz Shahi and Hisab- e-Fauji of Maharaja Ranjit Singh; and other digital reproductions from the collection of the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, Patna


Inauguration of the exhibition on 14 October 2022 at 4 pm

By Prof. Ashis Nandy, Trustee, IIC

(Collaboration: Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, Patna)

Speaker: Captain (IN) Anurag Bisen, Research Fellow, Manohar Parikkar-Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses

Chair: Cmdre C. Uday Bhaskar

India’s Arctic Policy, released by the Government of India on 17 March 2022, fulfils a longstanding need for a clear articulation on a rapidly transforming Arctic, which is warming three times faster than the rest of the world. This is leading to major transformation of global shipping routes and increased availability of mineral and hydrocarbon resources, both of which are likely to have an immense impact on the geo-political and resources landscape of the world, including India, in the coming years. The talk will examine the need for an Arctic Policy for India; look into the gaps in India’s present engagement in the Arctic; and analyse the features of the recently released policy. 

Illustrated lecture by Dr. Anu Gupta Jindal, artist, curator and scholar

Chair: Dr. Srikanth Kondapalli, Dean, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

With inputs by Dr. Kusum Ansal, Ikebana Practitioner and author

Japan and India have a long and rich history, heritage and culture. The two countries are indelibly linked historically through Buddhism. In modern times, much progress has been made in deepening and strengthening ties in many areas – politics, strategic partnerships, economy and trade, grants assistance, science and technology, urban planning, and in the field of art and culture. The talk will discuss the cultural interactions between Japan and India and prospects in the future which can percolate into multiple advantageous areas.

Dr Anu Jindal, artist, scholar & curator holds a Ph.D. in Japanese Art History from the National Museum Institute, New Delhi. As a Japan Foundation Fellow she studied at Doshisha University, Kyoto. For a year she worked as Visiting Research Professor at the International Research Centre for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, Japan. For three decades she has been involved with Japanese studies, with many presentations, teaching modules and publications. Her admiration of Japanese culture reflects in her artistic oeuvre too, through inspiration and influences from Japanese art & ethos.

Speaker: Prof. Matthew S.Hull, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan
Discussants: Prof. Deepak Mehta, Professor, Sociology and Anthropology, Ashoka University, Sonepat

Chair: Prof. Rita Brara, Editor, Contributions to Indian Sociology, Senior Fellow, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi and Visiting Professor, Ashoka University, Sonepat

The CIS-IEG-SAGE Annual Lecture 2022
 
In 2013, the Indian state of Punjab contracted with a corporation to operate a new police phone helpline. The corporation call centre not only took complaints, but also monitored, directed, and reported police responses to them. An original provision of the Indian Code of Criminal Procedure, maintained since 1861, requires that oral testimony of complainants must be ‘reduced to writing’ by an authorised official. This requirement has been strained by the integration of corporate call centre customer service practices into the Punjab State police procedures. Audio recordings and database text records of complaints have only some of the features of writing and are not produced by a government officer. Nevertheless, the composite records generated by the call takers through corporate customer service software form the basis of quasi-official police proceedings. We can see in this arrangement two parallel tensions: first, a tension between two forms of human and technological mediation—the paper-based records of police and the call centre voice and database records; second, a tension between two conceptualisations of a political subject within bureaucratic procedures: one requiring representation by another authorised person and the other able to present him or herself.

(Collaboration: Contributions to Indian Sociology; Institute of Economic Growth; and SAGE)

TREASURES OF KHUDA BAKHSH ORIENTAL PUBLIC LIBRARY 

An interactive walkthrough conducted by Dr. Shayesta Bedar, Director, Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library