Gilded Cage: Years that Made and Unmade Kashmir

By Sandeep Bamzai (New Delhi: Rupa Publications India, 2023)

Discussants: Shri K.N. Shrivastava, Director, IIC; Shri Salman Khurshid, former Foreign Minister, and Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India; Lt. Gen. Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd.), PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, SM, VSM and former General Officer Commanding, 15 Corps (Srinagar) & Military Secretary; Shri Haseeb Drabu, Economist and former Finance Minister, Jammu & Kashmir; and Shri Sandeep Bamzai, Senior journalist and author of the book

Keynote Speaker: Shri Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India

(Collaboration: India Justice Report Collective)

G20 @2023: The Roadmap to Indian Presidency

By V. Srinivas (New Delhi: Pentagon Press, 2023)

Discussants: Dr. R. Kavita Rao, Director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPF); Amb. Rajiv Bhatia, Distinguished Fellow, Gateway House and former Indian Ambassador to Myanmar and Mexico; and Shri V. Srinivas, Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances and Dept. of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare, and author of the book

Moderator: Ms Kalyani Shankar, political commentator and columnist

India-China Relations: Dealing with Asymmetry

Speaker: Amb. Shyam Saran, President, IIC
 
Moderator of the series: Suhas Borker
Introduction: Vinay Kumar, Secretary General, Press Club of India (PCI)
 
The series of Conversations with Media is jointly organised by IIC and PCI; and is hosted by them alternately every month
 

The Struggle and the Promise: Restoring India’s Potential

By Naushad Forbes (HarperBusiness: 2022)

Discussants: Dr. V. Ananta Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India; Shri Dammu Ravi, IFS, Secretary, Economic Relations, Ministry of External Affairs, Govt, of India; Shri Tarun Das, Chairman, Sasakawa India Leprosy Foundation and former Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry; and Dr. Naushad Forbes, Co-Chairman, Forbes Marshall, former President, Confederation of Indian Industry and author of the book

Moderator: Dr. Rakesh Mohan, President and Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Social and Economic progress (CSEP) and former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India

Phanigiri: Interpreting an Ancient Buddhist Site in Telangana

The Jewel in the Crown: Lessons on Heritage from Phanigiri
Illustrated lecture by Naman P. Ahuja, Curator and Professor, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University

A Gateway to Phanigiri: Reading Architecture, Constructing Narrative at an Early Buddhist Site
Illustrated lecture by Parul Pandya Dhar, Professor of Indian and Southeast Asian Art History, Dept. of History, University of Delhi

Chair: Prof. Nayanjot Lahiri

The remains of what must have been a jewel of a Buddhist monastery, perched high on a granite massif, have been found at Phanigiri, 150 km away from Hyderabad. The main construction and artefacts date between the 2nd to 4th centuries AD – a decisive period when Buddhism was sharing space with a rising number of organised sects. Naman Ahuja will take the audience through the astounding quality of sculpture at Phanigiri and focus on just one piece: a stele that shows Siddhartha sacrificing his turban, the mark of his inheritance. This narrative forms one of the key moments in Buddhist art. Parul Pandya Dhar will speak about the unique torana gateway of the stupa, which is the only one of its kind in all of peninsular India

(Collaboration: The Marg Foundation)

By Ashok K. Lahiri (Penguin Business; 2023)

Discussants:Shri N.K. Singh, economist, academician and former Member, Rajya Sabha; Prof. Pinaki Chakraborty, economist; Dr. Devi Shetty, Chairman and Executive Director, Narayana Health; Shri Rahul Kanwal, journalist and News Director, India Today; and Shri Ashok K. Lahiri, former Chief Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance and author of the book 

Session I: Rethinking the River

Panel discussion moderated by Shiv Visvanathan

In Conversation

Nandini Oza, writer and activist; Ambika Vishwanath, water security specialist; and Shalini Singh, journalist and co-founder PARI

At 18:20

Session II: River/Water as Metaphor

Panel discussion moderated by Kishalay Bhattacharjee

In Conversation

Sumana Roy, poet and author; Anjali Capila, author and educator; and Ritu Priya, political geographer

The river has been the greatest source of imagination as language, as metaphor. It literally carries our civilization. From the theory of the city to the idea of the state, from the sense of the sacred to the very idea of metaphor, rivers have under written the ideas of civilization. This series is an attempt to challenge the mainstream imagination around rivers showing the multiplicity of visions, myths and realities they offer. In this sense the Ganges, the Indus, the Brahmaputra and the Hoogly nearly become tributaries of the Indian imagination. This is not geography but geography of the imagination.

(Collaboration: New Imaginations, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat)
 

Between Hope and Despair: 100 Ethical Reflections on Contemporary India

By Rajeev Bhargava (Bloomsbury: 2023)

Discussants: Prof. Romila Thapar, eminent historian, Professor Emerita, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Justice Madan Lokur, former Judge, Supreme Court of India; Shri Javed Akhtar, poet, lyricist, and screenwriter; Shri Sudheendra Kulkarni, politician and columnist; Ms Seema Chishti, writer and senior journalist; and Dr. Rajeev Bhargava, political theorist and author of the book

Moderator: Ms Seema Chishti, writer and senior journalist

Chair: Shri Shyam Saran, President, IIC

Valedictory Address: Dr. S. Jaishankar, Hon’ble Minister of External Affairs