New Broadcast Bill: Regulations or Control?

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has come out with the draft Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill 2023, which is open for public consultation until Dec 9, 2023. The bill seeks to bring all broadcasting entities, including radio, television, OTT streaming platforms and digital news portals under its ambit. The Media Dialogue will focus on the ways in which the regulatory features of the bill may impact broadcast media, including digital news portals, and whether or not this will restrict their freedom of expression, their ease of operation, and so on.

Panelists: Barkha Dutt, Editor, Mojo Story; Jawhar Sircar, MP and former CEO Prasar Bharati; Seema Chishti, Editor, The Wire; and Abhishek Malhotra, Partner, TMT Law Practice; and Nikhil Pahwa, Founder, MediaNama

Moderator: Vibodh Parthasarathi, who teaches media policy and communication at Jamia Millia Islamia University

(Collaboration: The Media Foundation)
 

Speaker: Dr. Srinivas M., Director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
Chair: Shri K.N. Shrivastava, Director, IIC

Moderator: Dr. Ashwani Kumar
 

Hills of Paradise: Freedom and the Female Body

Speaker: Prof. Mineke Schipper, Emeritus Professor of Intercultural Literary Studies, University of Leiden, The Netherlands. She is the author of several bestsellers and in India, she has published Never Marry a Woman with Big Feet (2018); Naked or Covered: A History of Dressing and Undressing Around the World (2018); and Hills of Paradise: Power, Powerlessness and the Female Body (2023)

(Collaboration: Speaking Tiger Books; and with the support of Leiden University Fund; Dutch Foundation for Literature; and Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in New Delhi)

A Pottery Story: The work of Ira Chaudhuri(New Delhi: Tulika Books, 2023)

Release of the book by Dr. Raj Kubba, connoisseur and ceramic art collector

Followed by a talk on 
Ira Chaudhuri’s pottery by Kristine Michael, ceramic artist and curator
Moderator: Ina Puri, Curator

The book is a simple commemoration of the work of master potter Ira Chaudhuri, over seven decades-primarily through 150+ images of works juxtaposed with quotes from the artist. Ira Chaudhuri describes her life’s journey in an essay at the end, along with critical writings by artists and critics. The candid, forthright and lucid essay is valuable because Ira Chaudhuri’s career as a self-taught potter tracks the trajectory the development of ceramic art in India, from nascency to its ongoing and gradual insertion into contemporary art practice. Neelima Sheikh, Trupti Patel and Ella Datta’s pieces serve to excavate other facets- her artistic temperament, stylistic influences, and signature technique. The book is compiled and edited by her son Itu Chaudhuri and his studio.
 

Are we REALLY in a New Cold War? The Belt-Road, US-China Relations, and Perceptions of a New Cold War

Speaker: Prof. Ivan Willis Rasmussen, Undergraduate Coordinator, Social Sciences and Associate Professor of Practice in Political Science, NYU Shanghai

Chair: Prof. Pallavi Raghavan, Head of the Department, Assistant Professor of International Relations, Ashoka University

The People’s Republic of China’s (China) now 10 year Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) rhetorically centres around development projects in Asia. While much attention is focused on the Chinese strategy behind the BRI, less analysis has looked at member state motivations for participation. The talk will use qualitative, statistical analysis to look at why specific states should join the BRI. Participation in the BRI can be linked to a variety of factors including GDP per capita, regime type, whether the country is an ally of the United States, and proximity to China. Looking at the regional relevance of BRI, the speaker offers correlations between these factors and whether a country is either an initial member of the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB) or has signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding BRI. The talk offers a novel approach to understanding the state motivations for joining the BRI and regional implications of the Initiative asking whether we have entered a New Cold War
 
(Collaboration: Centre for Chinese Studies, Ashoka University; and NYU Shanghai)
 

Speakers: Dr Trilochan Mahapatra, former Director General, Indian Council for Agricultural Research; Shri Sompal Singh Shastri, former Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Dr. George John, former Vice Chancellor, Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi

Chair: Dr. Siraj Hussain, Advisor, Food Processing
 

Discussion on Public Mental Health: from stigma to positive acceptance - way forward

Lead Speakers: Prof Ashis Nandy, Well known author, sociologist and clinical psychologist; Prof Nimesh G. Desai, Independent consultant mental health and former Director, Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences 

Panelists: Shri P. K. Tripathi, former Chief Secretary of Delhi; Dr Lavlin Thadani, Writer and filmmaker; Ms Rita Panicker, Child Rights Activist and Director, Butterflies India; and Dr Vishal Chhabra, Consultant Psychiatrist and President, Delhi Psychiatric Society
   
Moderator: Suhas Borker, Mediaperson and Trustee, IIC 

(Collaboration: Delhi Psychiatric Society)

Illustrated lecture by Sumanjit Chaudhry who has had a distinguished career in the corporate sector and was formerly, President, The Oxford and Cambridge Society of India 

Chair: Ravi Bhoothalingam

The talk will trace the development and growth of Van Gogh as an artist and a painter through the very intimate 902 letters that Vincent wrote to his brother Theo who provided both emotional and financial support to the artist throughout his life. It will cover his early life, forays into peasant painting and his admiration for the Barbizon school of art, his struggles to master drawing and painting, his interaction with the early impressionists in Paris and the astounding effect that this had on his painting style, his fascination with Japanese art and its influence on his work, his move to Arles in France and his bursting forth with his own very colourful style and his interactions with other impressionist painters.  
 

We, the people of India, and the Constitution of India

Inaugural lecture to be delivered by Shri N.N. Vohra, Life Trustee, IIC 

Chair: Shri Shyam Saran, President, IIC

First lecture in a new series of lectures and discussions that will bring together the experiences of practitioners of the Constitution, and constitutional scholars who will speak about their theoretical origins. The series will centre around the five themes in the preamble: Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic, Republic. The series is a continuation of the Special Issue of the IIC Quarterly Working of the Constitution of India (Winter 2021-Spring 2022)

Discussion based on the book edited by Mritiunjoy Mohanty and Runa Sarkar (Routledge: 2023)

Chief Guest: Dr. Kirit Parikh, Former Member, Planning Commission; Chairman, Integrated Research and Action for Development (IRADe)

Discussants: Shri Ajay Shankar, formerly Secretary, Industry, Govt. of India and currently with TERI University; Shri Upendra Bhatt, Co-founder and MD, cKinetics; and Ms. Suravee Nayak, Associate Fellow, Centre for Policy Reseach, Delhi

(Collaboration: Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta)