Illustrated lecture by Ritika Kochhar, author, art writer, and founder of ArtRadio, a platform dedicated to engaging audiences with art history and culture through podcasts, masterclasses, and curated walthroughs

Chair: Shri Sohail Hashmi

This lecture will focus on the rich tradition of miniatures from Timur to Bahadur Shah Zafar II (focussing mostly on Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, Mohammad Shah Rangila, Shah Alam II and BSZII), especially the mythological narratives, and masnavis, or poetic epics, under Akbar. Also the Gulshan Album that Nadir Shah carried away and the famous artists that worked in the royal tasvir khana. It will highlight how these artworks not only served as historical documents but also as expressions of cultural and spiritual imagination in the Mughal era.
 

Lead presentation by Prof. Rajinder K. Dhamija, Professor of Neurology and Director, Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences, New Delhi and Chair, National Task Force on Brain Health, Govt. of India

Discussants: Prof. K. Srinath Reddy, former President, Public Health Foundation of India; Dr. Yuta Nemoto, WHO SEARO, New Delhi; and Dr. Rajendra Pratap Gupta, Chairman, Dynamic Coalition on Digital Health, Internet Governance Forum

Chair: Shri K.N. Shrivastava, Director, IIC

WHO has passed a resolution in its 65th General Assembly on Intersectoral Global Action Plan on Neurological Disorders. India is also a signatory along with 190 member states. Further, India has taken the lead in constituting a National Task Force of Brain Health with neurologists from AIIMS, NIMHANS and other institutions as well as policy makers from the Ministry of Health, Govt. of India, ICMR, Social Justice and Disability and by Niti Aayog. The talk and discussion will discuss and deliberate about brain health and its impact on the Indian economy

Musaliar King: Decolonial Historiography of Malabar’s Resistance
By Abbas Panakkal (Bloomsbury Publishing India Pvt Ltd, 2024)

Discussants: Dr Saleena Kuzhuppil Basheer, Professor and Dean, School of Law, Hamdard Institute of Legal Studies and Research, Jamia Hamdard; Dr. Syed Iqbal Hasnain, former Vice Chancellor of Calicut University; Prof. Pallavi Raghavan, Assistant Professor, Ashoka University; and Dr. Abbas Panakkal, historian and author of the book

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

A World Within: Tales & Triumphs of Growing up with Autism
By Kanha Trehan

Discussants: Shri K.N. Shrivastava, Director, IIC; Ms Merry Barua, Founder Director, Action For Autism, National Centre for Autism, Activist, Trainer, Consultant; Dr. Rohit Verma, Senior Consultant, AIIMS, Delhi; Ms Neha Bhimwal, clinical psychologist, and Shri Kanha Trehan, author of the book

Chair: Dr. Shayama Chona, President, Tamana and former Principal, Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram
 

Speakers: Amb. Chinmaya R. Gharekhan, former Permanent Representative of India to the UN; Shri Sudhir T. Devare, former Secretary Economic Relations, Ministry of External Affairs; Shri K.P. Fabian, former Ambassador to Italy and Qatar; Shri Ronen Sen, former Ambassador to USA and Russia; and Prof. Anuradha Chenoy, former Dean, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Moderator: Suhas Borker, Editor, Citizen’s First TV (CFTV) and Trustee, IIC

This is the tenth annual seminar in the series 'Keys to Governance'; the earlier nine 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), Constitutional Morality (2022), Social and Communal Harmony (2023) and 'Free, Pluralistic and Independent Media'(2024).

The annual seminar is organised 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)   
 

Speaker: H.E. Dr. Ali Achoui, Ambassador of Algeria to India

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

Border Crossers: A Novel
By Bhaskar Roy (Hachette India: 2024)

Discussants: Amb. Meera Shankar, former Indian Ambassador to USA; Dr. Sanjeev Chopra, former Director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration; and Shri Bhaskar Roy, author of the book

Moidams – the Mound-Burial System of the Ahom Dynasty

An illustrated lecture by Dr. Deepi Rekha Kouli, Director,  Directorate Archaeology, Assam

The Charaideo Moidams, a unique 700-year old mound-burial system of then Ahom dynasty of Assam has been recently inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Similar to the pyramids of Egypt, the Moidams are earthen burial mounds of the members of the Ahom royalty whose 600-year rule ended with the British takeover of the region. They enshrine the remains of kings and other royals together with grave goods such as food, horses and elephants, and sometimes queens and servants.

First programme in a new series ‘The Fabric of Narratives: The Many Facets of North East India’ will focus on different aspects of the region and apart from talks and discussions, include seminars, exhibitions, performances and cuisine. Organised in collaboration with Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) 

Curator: Prof. Himanshu Prabha Ray

Reading Monuments, Reading Buddhist Monuments

Illustrated lecture by Dr. Shashank Shekhar Sinha, independent researcher who has been working as Publishing Director, Routledge (South Asia) since 2012. He is the author of Casting the Buddha: A Monumental History of Buddhism in India (Pan Macmillan 2021), Delhi, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri: Monuments, Cities and Connected Histories (Pan Macmillan 2021), and co-edited, Gender in Modern India: History, Culture, Marginality (Oxford University Press, 2024)

Chair: Ms Junhi Han, Cheif of Culture, UNESCO Office, New Delhi

Why are monuments so important in history and the reception of the discipline in the public domain. Do we study or understand them adequately? The will highlight how a more inclusive study of monuments (and related artefacts) could lead to a more nuanced understanding of history while also making the discipline more interesting for the non-history public.

Genetically Modified Democracy: Transgenic Crops in Contemporary India
By Aniket Aga ( Yale University Press ;Orient Blackswan: 2022)

Winner of the 2022 Ludwik Fleck Prize from the international Society for the Social Studies of Science 

Discussants: Shri Siraj Hussain, former Secretary Ministry of Food Processing Industries and Ministry of Agriculture & CMD, FCI; Dr. Suman Sahai, Founder of Gene Campaign; and Prof. Aniket Aga, Anthropologist, Academic and Author of the book

Moderator: Dr. Richa Kumar, Associate Professor of Sociology and Science & Technology Studies, IIT Delhi