The 8th Social Change Annual Lecture

The Female Voice: Reinstituting Life

Speaker: Prof. Veena Das, distinguished anthropologist and Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University.

Chair: K.N. Shrivastava, Director, IIC  

This lecture argues for a renewed understanding of the project of anthropology and the anthropological tone in philosophy not through the super concepts of the knowing subject, but through an acknowledgement of the vulnerability of life and the constant work of reinhabitation and reinstitution it requires. The speaker’s claim is that the blind spot in classical theories of society lies in the exclusion of the work done by women in reinstituting life, through a contempt for the ordinary and the quotidian repetitions within which women find and nourish improvisations, newness, and expression. The constitution of the subject as the male subject, and the sexualization of language itself, marks the texture of abstract theorizing in the social sciences. Against this vision of theory, the speaker offers the work of women writers in the vernacular, with Krishna Sobti as an exemplar who demonstrates a method and theory through a female voice honed from the streets and born in the domestic, addressing the violence seeded in everyday life. The constant work of repair women undertake treats life not as an object external to the subject but as that within which the subject evolves, through a transfiguration revealed in attention to detail.

(Collaboration: Council for Social Development and Sage India)

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Redesigning Care for Nations, Populations and Patients: Virtual Humans, Digital Twins, and the Shift to Silicon-Scale Healthcare
Keynote speaker: Marc d. Paradis, Founder and Principal of SIYOM Consulting and Vice President & Dean of Data Science University at Optum.

Chair: Arjun Malhotra, Chairman of the IPHS Society at the Indian Institute of Public Health-Delhi. 
Discussant: Prof Ravi Mahajan currently associated with Apollo Hospitals Group and a leader in UK Anaesthesia and Intensive Care; and  Prof Suman Chakraborty,Director, Indian Institute of Technology,Kharagpur

The talk examines how emerging AI- and data-enabled capabilities can support that rethinking by enabling care models designed explicitly for population scale rather than incremental system expansion. Drawing on the experience deploying data and AI at scale within large health systems, it explores how care itself, rather than individual technologies, must be reengineered to meet national and population-level health needs.

(Collaboration:Open Health Systems Laboratory)

THE THIRD DELHI HISTORY CONGRESS
The Delhi History Congress is an annual conference organised by The History Collective with the support of the India International Centre. It aims to bring together historians to share and discuss new research on varied themes. The third annual event covers four themes - Entangled histories: Human, non-human and post-human; Sources and methods in history: The challenge of the oral and the visual; History of emotions; and Histories of conflict, contestations and co-existence

For more details on the programme and registeration please reach out to The History Collective.
Entry strictly by invitation only.

(Collaboration: The History Collective)
 

World Peace is Most Desirable but Why is it so Difficult to Achieve?
As part of the International House Association’s Global Forum series on “Pathways to Peace: Lessons in Reconciliation,” this panel session will explore how communities and nations rebuild trust and understanding after conflict. The programme will also highlight emerging opportunities for collaboration within the expanding International House network.

Panellists: Dr. Shashi Tharoor, MP and Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs; Author, Columnist and former UN Under-Secretary-General; Amb. Shyam Saran, President of the India International Centre; former Foreign Secretary; ex-Chairman of RIS and NSAB; and Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Climate Change and Nuclear Affairs; Dr. Anil Sooklal, The High Commissioner of South Africa to India (2024), and a former academic and diplomat with extensive multilateral postings; Amb. Vijay Nambiar, A former Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations and Chief of Cabinet to the UN Secretary-General; Kenneth Felix Haczynski da Nobrega, A Brazilian career diplomat and economist, currently serving as Ambassador of Brazil to India and Bhutan; Amb. Surendra Kumar, Founder and President IAFA; former High Commissioner to Kenya and former Permanent Representative to UNEP and UN-Habitat

Register here:
https://ihouse2025-worldpeace.eventbrite.com

(Collaboration: International House Association (IHA), Indo-American Friendship Association (IAFA), University of Chicago Center in Delhi)

The World is not Binary: Reflections from a COP of Truth and a COP of Implementation

Opening Remarks: Shyam Saran, President, IIC and former Special Envoy and Chief Negotiator on Climate Change

Lead Presentation by: Dr Arunabha Ghosh, CEO, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), and COP30 Special Envoy for South Asia

Panelists: Ravi Shankar Prasad, Former Special Secretary MoEF & CC, and (currently)Distinguished Fellow, CEEW; Laveesh Bhandari, President, Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP); Dr Ajay Mathur, Former Member of PM's Council on Climate Change and  Professor of Practice in the School of Public Policy, IIT, Delhi.

Chair: Shyam Saran, President, IIC

This talk reflects on COP30 as a pivotal moment where climate diplomacy confronts its limits and possibilities. Moving beyond binary narratives, it assesses concrete outcomes, hard truths, and the implementation-driven pathways shaping the world’s climate future.

The seventh edition in the series on ‘Understanding Qawwali’ conceptualised by Manjari Chaturvedi. It is a symposium on the traditional artform of Qawwali.


At 18:30
Venue: Fountain Lawns
Qawwali Mehfil Traditions & Experiments - A curated evening performance

Saiyan Sajilay – Celebrating Basant & Krishna in Qawwali (60 minutes)
By Qawwal Danish Hussain Badayuni from Badaun & Sufi Kathak by Manjari Chaturvedi

Sawaal Jawaab - Mian Samat Bin Ibrahim And Gopal Nayak (15 minutes)
By Qawwal Sibtain Nizami & Qawwal Saqlain Nizami from Delhi
In memory of Qawwal Late Ustad Meraj Nizami of Qawwal Bachche Dilli Gharana

Qaul - Khanqahi Qawwali (60 minutes)
By Qawwals Hussaini Brothers from Hyderabad
Adil Hussain Khan Warsi
Fazil Hussain Khan Quadri
Kaamil Hussain Khan
In memory of Qawwal Late Ustad Ahsan Hussain Khan Bandanawazi

(Collaboration: Ganga Jamuna Culture Foundation)
 

Vocal Recital by Sounak Chattopadhyay

A Hindustani vocalist with training from Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khansahab and Mubarak Ali Khan Sahab of the Kirana Gharana, semi-classical forms from Smt. Sanjukta Ghosh, advanced training in RabindraSangeet and other traditional Bengali songs.

(Collaboration: Impresario India)
 

INTACH-IIC National Heritage Quiz 2025

Delhi and NCR Zonal Final Round with School students

(Collaboration: Heritage Education and Communication Service, INTACH)
 

At War with the Single Strand : How Indian Science Fought the Covid-19 Pandemic

Edited By Renu Swarup, Govindarajan Padmanaban and Narendra Kumar Arora

Discussants: Dr. Vinod Paul, Member (Health) NITI Aayog ; Prof. A K Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to Govt. of India ; Dr. Renu Swarup, Former Secretary, Govt. of India ; Prof. G. Padmanabhan, Former Director Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru; Dr. N. K. Arora, Executive Director, The INCLEN Trust International

A World in Flux: India’s Economic Priorities

Essays in Honour of Shankar Acharya

Edited by Amita Batra and A K.Bhattacharya (Rupa Publications:2025)

Chief Guest: Hon’ble Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

Discussants: Shyam Saran, President IIC, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Former Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission; Shankar Acharya, Former Chief Economic Advisor, GoI; Sajjid Z. Chinoy, Managing Director and Chief India Economist, JP Morgan; Amita Batra, Professor, School of International Studies, JNU and editor of the book; and A.K. Bhattacharya, Editorial Director, Business Standard and editor of the book