CANCELLED

A Symphony of Discordant Notes: Navigating Evolving Technologies, Copyright Law, and Age-Old Indian Music

Discussants: Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sr. Counsel, Supreme Court of India; Mr. Ameet Datta, Founder, ADP Law Offices; Neel Mason, Counsel, Delhi High Court and Supreme Court of India; Adarsh Ramanujan, Counsel, Delhi High Court and Supreme Court of India; others: TBC

Moderator: Saikrishna Rajagopal, Managing Partner, Saikrishna & Associates

This discussion fosters a cross-disciplinary dialogue involving Indian music and legal experts to deconstruct the friction between modern studio practices and the demands of the evolving copyright framework. By examining the journey of a track from creation to commercialisation, the panel will attempt to identify, simplify, and possibly solve for the complexities of copyright law when dealing with the uniqueness and centuries old heritage of Indian music.

(Collaboration: Saikrishna & Associates)


 

Book Discussion Group

Q In The Garden of Grammar Learn Grammar: Learn Grammar through this Amazing Story!
By Amal Fabian (Konark Publishes, 2025)

Discussants: Mr. Anil Kumar Author of English Textbooks for Schools;   Swati Rai, English language teacher; Neelesh Kulkarni, Author of & In the Footsteps of Rama: travels with the Ramayana’; Amal Fabian, Author of the book
 

LIVING LANDSCAPES
An Ecosystem Approach for Restoration of Riverine floodplains

Speaker: Dr. Faiyaz A. Khudsar, Senior Scientist, Biodiversity Parks Program, CEMDE, University of Delhi

Discussants: Mr R. Srinivas, Former Town and Country Planner, TCPO, MoHUA; Prof. Meenakshi Dhote, Professor, Department of Environment Planning, SPA, New Delhi.

Moderator: Anuj Srivastava, Architect, Writer and Photographer

Rivers have supported human civilization for centuries and continue to shape our lives. Urban river ecosystems suffer from unplanned development, floodplain encroachment, and sewage discharge, turning many rivers into open sewers. Restoration efforts now prioritize ecosystem approaches, such as the Yamuna Bio-diversity Park. Dr. Faiyaz Khudsar leads this initiative, sharing his expertise in treating rivers as living landscapes.

(The sixth talk in the Series on Living Landscapes)
 

BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

Gender Discrimination at Work in Urban China: The Paradox of Equality and Difference in the Women's Liberation Movement
By Usha Chandran (Routledge India; 2025)

Discussants:  Prof. Patricia Uberoi, Emeritus Fellow and Former Chairperson, Institute of Chinese Studies; Govind Kelkar; Executive Director, GenDev Centre for Research and Innovation, Gurgaon; Dr. Hemant Adlakha, Vice Chairperson & Honorary Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi; Dr. Ritu Agarwal, Associate Professor, Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Dr. Usha Chandran, Assistant Professor, Centre for Chinese Studies, School of Language, Literature & Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Honorary Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi & Author of the Book.

Chair:  Prof. Sabaree Mitra, Professor, Centre for Chinese Studies, School of Language, Literature & Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Editor, China Report (Sage), Honorary Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi
 

To Mark the 90th anniversary of Lodhi Garden (1936-2026)
Aravalli - Sentinel of Delhi NCR Ecosystem

Inaugural Address: Taranjit Singh Sandhu (TBC), Lieutenant Governor of Delhi

Chair: Suhas Borker, Founder Member, Green Circle of Delhi

Speakers: Ashok Lavasa, Former Union Secretary of Environment; Prof. C. R. Babu, Professor Emeritus, Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems, (CEMDE), University of Delhi; Dr. Ghazala Shahabuddin, Visiting Professor, Department of Environmental Studies, Ashoka University; Prof. C. P. Rajendran, Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru; Neelam Ahluwalia, Founder Member, Peoples for Aravallis; and P. K. Tripathi, Former Chief Secretary of Delhi

On the occasion NDMC Horticulture Department shall present a sapling to each participant; please bring a cloth/jute carry bag.

(Collaboration: Green Circle of Delhi)

The War in West Asia: The March of Folly

Discussants: Ambassador Ranjan Mathai, former Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to Israel; Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Kapil Kak, AVSM, VSM, veteran of the 1971 war, distinguished strategic affairs expert and former senior fellow at leading defence and policy institutions; Professor Achin Vanaik, former Professor of International relations and Dean of the faculty of social sciences, Delhi University.

Chair: Amb K P Fabian, Professor, Symbiosis, and World Peace University, Pune.

Poetry Recital by Sagari Chhabra, Writer and film director
 

The war on Iran initiated by Israel on 28th February, and joined by the U.S. immediately shows no sign of ending though President Trump has claimed that his military objectives have been more or less met. India has 10 million nationals in the region, including more than a lakh in Israel and about 9000 in Iran. The rise in oil and gas prices will adversely impact India and others in the region and the rest of the world. How soon can we expect the end of the war?

Law and Ethics of Right to live , Right to Die with Dignity :A Step Toward Dignified End-of-Life Care

Speakers: Prof Rajinder K Dhamija, Director IHBAS and Board member INPCS; Dhvani Mehta, Advocate Supreme Court of India and Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy; Dr R K Mani, eminent Pulmonologist

Chair:  K N Shrivastava, Director IIC

Co-Chair:  Dr N Subramaniam, Urologist, Apollo Hospital, New Delhi

Recently, the Supreme Court allowed the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment in the case of a 32-year-old man in an irreversible vegetative state for over 13 years. This has focused the nation’s attention on the right to live and the right to die with dignity. The culturally-sensitive issue involves complex medical, legal, and ethical considerations concerning patient autonomy and dignity. As India continues to grapple with the ethical challenges of modern medicine, the conversation on end-of-life rights has begun. This session will address some of these issues.

Immigration & Multiculturalism: Europe’s new challenge
Speaker: Roberto Tottoli, Rector, University of Naples “L’Orientale”, scholar of Islamic studies. He has held academic appointments at Princeton Institute of Advanced Study, Harvard, Princeton University, University of Tokyo, Paris EHESS and the University of Pennsylvania

Moderator: Dipanjan Roy Choudhury, Diplomatic Editor, Economic Times

As global mobility accelerates and migration corridors increasingly shape geopolitics, Europe stands at a critical juncture in managing immigration and redefining multiculturalism. In this lecture, drawing on his extensive work on Islam in Europe, Tottoli examines how the growing presence of Muslim communities has transformed debates around integration, secularism, citizenship, and social cohesion, balancing openness with security, rights with responsibilities, and diversity with shared civic frameworks.
 

Rewriting History: Recent Narratives of our Past

Papers by: R.Mahalakshmi, Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU (On Ancient Period); Syed Ali Nadeem Rizavi, former Secretary, Indian History Congress, Chairman and Coordinator, Centre for Advanced Studies in History, Aligarh Muslim University (On Medieval Period); and Mridula and Aditya Mukherjee, former Professors, JNU (On Modern History)

Chair and Moderator: Sucheta Mahajan, former Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU and Convenor of IIC’s Sectoral Policy Group on History.

(Organised by the IIC’s Sectoral Policy Group on History under the Convenorship of Sucheta Mahajan)
 

Book Discussion Group

Pandemics and Literature: Regional and Global Perspectives

by Kamlesh Mohan and Saurav Kumar Rai

Discussants: Dr. Akshaya Kumar, Professor, English Department, Panjab University;Dr. Madhuri Sharma, Assistant Professor, History Department, Bharati College, Delhi University; Dr. Vivek Sachdeva, Professor, English Department, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University; Dr. Kamlesh Mohan, Professor- Emeritus in History, Panjab University & Editor of the Book; Mr. Saurav K. Rai, Research Officer, Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti & Editor of the Book

Moderator: Dr. Amar Farooqui, Former Professor, History Department, Delhi University

About the Book: 

This volume provides a literary-cum-historiographical analysis of epidemics and pandemics. It looks at folklore, tribal folktales, eyewitness accounts, memoirs and missionary writings from India and the west to explore the history of some of the major outbreaks in history. The chapters focus on the impact of outbreaks such as plague, cholera, malaria, tuberculosis and COVID-19, upon the material life of people, their social dislocation and their complex responses to such crises. The book studies the role of pandemics in pushing scientists, social actors and littérateurs to develop new paradigms in knowledge generation, theories of environmental dislocation and the economic slide. It examines themes such as changes in the perception of epidemic diseases across different periods of history, popular responses to state intervention during epidemics, gendering epidemics, as well as the impact of rumours during epidemics.