Delhi Literature Festival
India@70: Change Begins Here
Times Lit Fest-Delhi 2016 is a celebration of 70 years of India. As independent India begins its 70th year, we bring together the country’s leading authors, thinkers, influencers and change-agents to talk and debate the big ideas that have shaped the world’s largest democracy down the decades.Show more.. TLF-Delhi 2016 is a festival of books and ideas, where we showcase panel discussions, keynote addresses, talks and performances which examine the hopes, anxieties, achievements and course-corrections of what has been called the biggest and boldest democratic experiment in history: India@70. How has Indian writing in English evolved and mirrored the changes that have taken place in these last 70 years? How has Indian cinema reflected India and evolved through the generations? What has been the record of Indian secularism? Is Indian nationalism inclusive or exclusive? Have Indian myths and traditions been explored enough? Does Indian spirituality provide answers to modern problems? Is Indian politics part of the solution or the problem? How free are Indian entrepreneurs to explore new vistas? How have Indian fashions and styles changed over these last 70 years? Has student rebellion come of age? Has social media become the new national conversation? Is stand up-comedy finally coming of age in India as a new form of satirical self-expression? Some of India’s brightest minds and writers will be discussing these questions and many more at Times Lit Fest Delhi 2016.Ruskin Bond, Shashi Tharoor, Nandan Nilekani, Devdutt Pattanaik, Ramachandra Guha, Sharmila Tagore, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Husain Haqqani, Subramanian Swamy, P. Chidambaram, Amitabh Kant, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Sonal Mansingh, Raghu Rai, Rajdeep Sardesai, Rishi Jaitly, Ashwin Sanghi, Ravi Subramanian, Kanhaiya Kumar, Barkha Dutt and Ravish Kumar will be among a wide galaxy of diverse talents speaking at TLF-Delhi 2016.
Change has been a constant in the life of India over the past 70 years and The Times of India has always been its vanguard. Reflecting this underlying spirit of the newspaper, TLF-Delhi 2016 will also showcase the theme 'Change Begins Here'. Our authors and speakers will not only dwell on the past but also discuss how to bring about change in every sphere of India: how can we move beyond the shibboleths of the past and embrace change, how do we create a society where change is positive, robust and moves us along towards an open, welcoming progressive society?
The talks and discussions at TLF-Delhi thus will not only look back but also forward, into a future that may be yet be unknown but is challenging and calling out for transformation: the role of technology, changes in media, the rise of citizen power, the rise of the Millennial, from speech to tweet, towards smart cities, how to bring change in elections, how to transform the economy, how to deal with political differences and plurality. ‘India@70—change begins here’. TLF-Delhi 2016 promises to be a think-fest with a difference, a conclave reflecting the pulsating heartbeat of India and the twists and turns of its shifting social moods. It is a Lit Fest imbued with the spirit of the Republic, the zeitgeist of India as its turns 70 and, above all, a celebration of new ideas that define our daily present and shape our futures.
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Speakers
Ruskin Bond
Known as the "Indian William Wordsworth", Ruskin Bond's wide range of short stories, novels, essays and poems have inspired generations of Indians.Bond’s first novel, The Room on the Roof, written when he was seventeen, received the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. Since then he has written over five hundred short stories, essays and novellas and more than forty books for children. A pioneer of children’s literature in India, Bond’s vast body of work spans several genres, reflecting the changing political, social and cultural aspects of India from the colonial to the post-colonial and post-independence phases of India.Bond received the Sahitya Akademi Award for English writing in India in 1993, the Padma Shri in 1999, and the Delhi government’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi’s Bal Sahitya Puraskar for his ‘total contribution to children’s literature’ in 2013 and was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 2014. He lives in Landour, Mussoorie, with his extended family. His autobiography Lone Fox Dancing will be released in 2016.
Ramachandra Guha
Ramachandra Guha is one of India’s foremost historians. He has taught at the universities of Yale and Stanford, held the Arné Naess Chair at the University of Oslo, and been the Indo-American Community Visiting Professor at the University of California at Berkeley. He has also served as the Philippe Roman Professor of History and International Affairs at the London School of Economics. The New York Times has referred to him as ‘perhaps the best among India’s non fiction writers’ and Time Magazine has called him ‘Indian democracy’s pre-eminent chronicler’.Guha’s books include a pioneering environmental history, ‘The Unquiet Woods’, and an award-winning social history of cricket, ‘A Corner of a Foreign Field’. His path-breaking ‘India after Gandhi’ was chosen as a book of the year by the Economist, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out, and Outlook, and as a book of the decade in the Times of India, the Times of London, and The Hindu. His ‘Gandhi Before India’ was chosen as a notable book of the year by the New York Times.Guha’s latest book, ‘Democrats and Dissenters’ explores different facets of current Indian politics and traces the origins of these contentious issues. He also writes a syndicated column that appears in six languages in newspapers. His books and essays have been translated into more than twenty languages.Guha’s awards include the Leopold-Hidy Prize of the American Society of Environmental History, the Daily Telegraph/Cricket Society prize, the Malcolm Adideshiah Award for excellence in social science research, the Ramnath Goenka Prize for excellence in journalism, the Sahitya Akademi Award, the R. K. Narayan Prize and the Fukuoka Prize. In 2009, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan.
Sharmila Tagore
Sharmila Tagore is one Indian cinema’s best known actors. She began her career with numerous Bengali classics before moving to Hindi cinema, appearing in several critically acclaimed and superhit films. A winner of two National Film Awards, Tagore led the Central Board of Film Certification from 2004 to 2011. She is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2013.
Nandan Nilekani
Nandan Nilekani is the former Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India. He co-founded Infosys with six others under the leadership of Narayana Murthy, creating one of the greatest success in Indian business. He gave up his role as Infosys co-Chairman in 2009 to set up UIDAI, at the invitation of then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.A recipient of the prestigious 'Padma Bhushan', Nilekani was listed by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2006 and 2009. Foreign Policy magazine listed him as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers in 2010.Nilekani is the author of 'Imagining India', which was one of the finalists for the FT-Goldman Sachs Book Award for the year 2009, and ‘Rebooting India: Realizing a Billion Aspirations’ (with Viral Shah).
Amitabh Kant
Amitabh Kant is CEO, NITI Aayog (National
Institution for Transforming India). He was till recently Secretary, Department
of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).
He is the author of "Branding India -
An Incredible Story" and has been a key driver of ‘Make in India’,
‘Startup India’, ‘Incredible India’ and ’God's Own Country’ campaigns which
positioned and branded India and Kerala State as leading tourism destinations.
These campaigns have won several international awards and embraced a host of
activities - infrastructure development, product enhancement, private-public
partnership and positioning and branding.
Kant has worked as Chairman & CEO,
Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corporation; CMD – ITDC; Joint Secretary, Ministry of
Tourism, Government of India; Secretary, Tourism, Government of Kerala;
Managing Director, Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation, District
Collector, Kozikhode and Managing Director, Matsyafed.
A Chevening scholar, Kant studied at
Modern School, Delhi, St. Stephens College and Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Devdutt Pattanaik
Devdutt Pattanaik is a renowned author, mythologist, and leadership consultant, whose work focuses on deriving management insights from mythology to reveal a very Indian approach to modern business.He hosts the popular TV show `Devlok' and has authored over 30 books, many of them best-sellers like Myth = Mithya, Business Sutra, The Pregnant King, and Jaya: An illustrated retelling of the Mahabharata. Many of his books have been translated in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati and Marathi.Trained in medicine, Pattanaik spent 15 years in the healthcare industry, with companies such as Apollo Health Street and Sanofi Aventis, before joining Ernst & Young as Business Advisor. All this while, he continued to study and write on mythological stories and symbols, drawing rich insights about business, leadership, and modern life. His columns on management and culture appear regularly in The Economic Times (Corporate Dossier supplement), Mid-Day, Speaking Tree and the DailyO (India Today website). Pattanaik was the Chief Belief Officer of Future Group and is now a sought-after public speaker and culture consultant for corporations and business leaders. He consults with Reliance Industries on matters related to culture and with Star TV on various mythological serials. Pattanaik's parents migrated from Odisha to Mumbai over 50 years ago. He was born and educated in Mumbai, and he lives in Mumbai.
Arvind Subramanian
Arvind Subramanian is the chief economic advisor to the government of India. He is currently on leave from his position as the Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He has also served as senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. His books include Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China's Economic Dominance, India's Turn: Understanding the Economic Transformation and Who Needs to Open the Capital Account? Foreign Policy magazine named him as one of the world's top 100 global thinkers in 2011.Subramanian has been assistant director in the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund, served at the GATT (1988–92) during the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations and taught at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government (1999–2000) and at Johns Hopkins' School for Advanced International Studies (2008–10). He obtained his undergraduate degree from St. Stephens College, Delhi; his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad, India; and his M.Phil and D.Phil from the University of Oxford, UK.
Ram Madhav
National General Secretary of the BJP, Ram Madhav is one of the most well-known faces of the current government. He is a pivotal member of the ruling party, credited with playing a key role in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s diplomatic initiatives. He was the NDA’s representative in creating the ruling alliance with the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP in J&K. A former spokesperson of the RSS, Ram Madhav has authored several books, his latest one being, `Uneasy Neighbours: India and China after Fifty Years of the War.’
Shashi Tharoor
Shashi Tharoor is the bestselling author of fifteen books, both fiction and non-fiction. His books include the path-breaking satire The Great Indian Novel (1989), The classic India: From Midnight to the Millennium (1997), and most recently, India Shastra: Reflections on the Nation in Our Time (2015). He was the former Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and the former Minister of State for Human Resource Development and Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India. He is a two-time member of the Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram and chairs Parliament’s External Affairs Committee. He has won numerous literary awards, including the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and was honoured as New Age Politician of the Year (2010) by NDTV. He was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, India’s highest honour for overseas Indians.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president and chief executive of CPR, is a political scientist who has taught at Harvard University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and the New York University School of Law. His areas of research include political theory, constitutional law, society and politics in India, governance and political economy, and international affairs. Mehta has served on many central government committees, including India’s National Security Advisory Board, the Prime Minister of India’s National Knowledge Commission, and a Supreme Court-appointed committee on elections in Indian universities.Mehta is a prolific writer; he is an editorial consultant to the Indian Express, and his columns have appeared in dailies including the Financial Times, the Telegraph, the International Herald Tribune, and the Hindu. He is also on the editorial boards of many academic journals, including the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Democracy, and India and Global Affairs.Mehta holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford and a PhD in politics from Princeton. He received the 2010 Malcom S. Adishehshiah Award and the 2011 Infosys Prize for Social Sciences - Political Science.
Raghu Rai
Raghu Rai is India’s foremost and most celebrated photographer. He started his career as a photographer with the Statesman as its chief photographer, worked as Picture Editor for Sunday and Director of Photography for India Today from 1980 to 1992. He was nominated to Magnum Photos in 1977.He has produced more than 18 books, including Raghu Rai’s Delhi, The Sikhs, Calcutta, Khajuraho, Taj Mahal, Tibet in Exile, India, and Mother Teresa.A recipient of the Padmashree, Rai has exhibited his works in London, Paris, New York, Hamburg, Prague, Tokyo, Zurich and Sydney. His photo essays have appeared in many of the world’s leading magazines and newspapers including "Time", "Life", "GEO", "The New York Times", "Sunday Times", "Newsweek", "The Independent," and the "New Yorker".He has served three times on the jury of the World Press Photo and twice on the jury of UNESCO's International Photo Contest.
Ravi Subramanian
Ravi Subramanian is India's numero uno thriller writer, who has been hailed as India’s John Grisham. An alumnus of Indian Institute of Management (Bangalore), he is currently head of a leading financial institution. A career banker and financial services professional, Ravi has worked with various multinational banks (Citibank, ANZ Grindlays Bank and HSBC) for over eighteen years.His books include: If God was a Banker (2007), I Bought the Monks Ferrari (2007), Devil in Pinstripes (2009), The Incredible Banker (2011), The Bankster (2012), Bankrupt (2013), God is a Gamer (2014).Subramanian's book, The Bestseller She Wrote (2015) marks the beginning of a new chapter in his writing. A significant departure from his usual fare, this is Ravi’s first book on romantic intrigue. If God was a Banker won him the Golden Quill readers choice award in 2008. He also won the Economist Crossword Book Award for The Incredible Banker in 2012. "The Bankster", released in 2012 won him the Crossword Book Award in 2013. Subramanian currently lives in Mumbai with his biotechnologist turned banker wife, Dharini and his daughter Anusha.
Husain Haqqani
Husain Haqqani is a Pakistani scholar and public figure who most recently served as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States from 2008-2011. He is widely credited with managing a difficult partnership during a critical phase in the global war on terrorism.Haqqani’s books include ‘Magnificent Delusions: US, Pakistan and the Global Jihad’ which has been described as “timely, valuable and objective” by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Haqqani’s 2005 book ‘Pakistan Between Mosque and Military’ was acclaimed for explaining the roots of Pakistan’s foreign and domestic policies. His latest book is ‘India v/s Pakistan: Why Can’t we Just be Friends?’Haqqani started his public life as an Islamist student leader and has, over the years, emerged as a strong voice for democracy and civilian control of the military in Pakistan and an exponent of liberal values in the Muslim world. His distinguished career in government includes serving as an advisor to three Pakistani Prime ministers, including Benazir Bhutto, who described him as a loyal friend in her last book ‘Reconciliation.’ He also served as Pakistan’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka in 1992-93.Haqqani is currently Senior Fellow and Director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute. Haqqani also co-edits the journal ‘Current Trends in Islamist Ideology’ published by Hudson Institute’s Center for Islam, Democracy and Future of the Muslim World.
Selina Nwulu
Selina Nwulu is currently the Young Poet Laureate of London. She is a writer, social researcher and campaigner with a focus on social and environmental justice, education and global politics.Her work has appeared in The Guardian, Red Pepper, Sable Litmag and The Free Word Centre.Her debut collection, The Secrets I Let Slip, was published by Burning Eye Books in 2015 and won a Poetry Book Society (PBS) recommendation.
Subramanian Swamy
Subramanian Swamy is a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha. He was the President of the Janata Party until it merged with Bharatiya Janata Party. Swamy has served as a member of the Planning Commission of India and was union minister of commerce and law in the Chandrashekhar government.He has a PhD in economics from Harvard University where he also taught for many years. He has also taught at IIT Delhi and has served on the board of Governors of IIT Delhi and the Council of IITs.Swamy is the author of several books and is a veteran parliamentarian.
Ashwin Sanghi
Ashwin Sanghi is an Indian writer who has been hailed as the Indian Dan Brown. He is the author of three best-selling novels: The Rozabal Line, Chanakya's Chant and The Krishna Key. All his books have been based on historical, theological and mythological themes. He is one of India's best-selling conspiracy fiction writers and is an author of the new era of retelling Indian history or mythology in a contemporary context. Forbes India has included him in their Forbes India Celebrity 10. He wrote his first novel in 2006 and thereafter continued to pursue dual careers, as a businessman as well as writer. In 2013, Ashwin Sanghi and James Patterson announced that they would be co-writing an India-based thriller called "Private India" within Patterson's "Private" series,the book was subsequently released in July 2014. Sanghi completed his schooling at the Cathedral and John Connon School, graduated with a BA (Economics) from St. Xavier's College and has an MBA from the Yale School of Management. He is part of the overall trend of young professionals and businessmen turning to writing as a parallel career.
Amit Mitra
Amit Mitra is the finance, commerce and industries minister of Bengal. He has previously served as Secretary General of the Federation Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).He taught at Duke University and Franklin & Marshall College for over a decade before returning to India. He received the prestigious Sears-Roebuck Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching, 1990
Sonal Mansingh
An iconic cultural personality of India, Dr. Sonal Mansingh is acknowledged as master of cultural interpretations and an exemplary teacher who explains inter-linkages with philosophy, literature, sculpture and mythological parables through lectures and dance. She has performed, given lectures and conducted workshops in over 90 countries.Sonal has been unique among dancers who has mastered multiple Indian classical dance forms from different parts of India like Bharatanatyam, Odissi and Chhau. Her concern for nagging issues of ecological imbalance, environmental protection, empowerment of women and social justice specially for weaker sections of society have led to creation of numerous path-breaking choreographies. As a Founder-President of Centre for Indian Classical Dances (1977) she has trained several talented performers who are carrying the message of Indian culture all over the world.Sonal’s ever vibrant creativity has given new dimensions to known repertories practiced in India, latest being the Naatya-Katha. This is the ancient form of story-telling which Sonal has embellished with her own singing, narrative skills and abhinaya-the art of expressive communication through hand-gestures, words and a face that reflects myriad emotions. Her book ‘Incredible India - Classical Dances’ published by Wisdom Tree and book on her ‘Devpriya’ in Hindi written by Yatindra Mishra have gained wide readership. She had also contributed number of articles on dance and Indian culture in prestigious magazines and newspapers. She is the recipient of the high civilian honours of Padma Bhushan (1992) and Padma Vibhushan (2003) from the President of India.Her significant contribution to Indian culture has been recognized with numerous awards and honours notably Central Sangeet Natak Akademi award, Nritya Choodamani, Kalidas Samman, Hanumant Samman, Kameshwari (from Adi Shaktipeeth of Kamakhya in Assam), Three honorary doctorates - Doctor of Sciences (Honoris Causa) from G.B. Pant University, Uttarakhand, D.Litt Honoris Causa from Sambalpur University, Orissa and Honorary Doctorate from KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, was appointed as the Honorary Professor of the University of Delhi. Currently she is a visiting professor at Banaras Hindu University (BHU).
Rohini Nilekani
Rohini Nilekani is the founder and chairperson of Arghyam, a foundation she set up with a private endowment to work on water and sanitation issues in India. She is also founder and chairperson of Pratham Books, a charitable trust that seeks to put a book in each child’s hands. Author and philanthropist, Nilekani is deeply involved with developmental issues and is currently chairperson of the Audit Advisory Board of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. Along with Nandan Nilekani, she is co- founder of Ek Step a platform to create learning opportunities for children.She has authored a novel, ‘Stillborn’ and a non-fiction account of the dialogues she moderated between social and corporate leaders, ‘Uncommon Ground’.
Farahnaz Ispahani
Farahnaz Ispahani is the author of the recently released book (Harper-Collins, India) Purifying The Land of The Pure: Religious Minorities in Pakistan. In 2015, she was a Reagan-Fascell Scholar at the National Endowment for Democracy, in Washington, DC. Ispahani was a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center from 2013-2014. A Pakistani politician, Ispahani served as a Member of Parliament and Media Advisor to the President of Pakistan from 2008-2012. She returned to Pakistan with Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto in 2007 after opposing the Musharraf dictatorship in the preceding years. In Parliament she focused on the issues of terrorism, human rights, gender based violence, minority rights and US-Pakistan relations. The most notable pieces of legislation enacted with her active support include those relating to Women’s Harassment in the Workplace and Acid Crimes and Control, which made disfiguring of women by throwing acid at them a major crime. She was also a member of the Women’s caucus in the 13th National Assembly. The caucus, which straddled political divides, was instrumental in introducing more legislation on women’s issues than has ever been done before during a single parliamentary term. Ms. Ispahani spent the formative years of her career as a print and television journalist. Her last journalistic position was as Executive Producer and Managing Editor of Voice of America's Urdu TV. She has also worked at ABC News, CNN and MSNBC.
P. Chidambaram
P. Chidambaram is former Finance Minister of India. A member of the Indian National Congress, he has had three stints as Finance Minister (1996-1998, 2004-2008 and 2012-2014) and also served as Union Home Minister (2008-2009). As a cabinet minister, he has held additional charge of the ministries of Law, Justice and Company Affairs (1996). In addition, at various times, he has been Union Minister of State for Commerce (1985; with independent charge in 1991-92 and 1995-1999); Personnel, Administrative Reforms, Training Public Grievances and Pensions (1985-1986); and Home Affairs -Internal Security (1986-1989). As Finance Minister, he was widely credited with implementing a series of reforms to stem a slowdown in growth, curb a widening fiscal deficit and attract more foreign investment into Asia's third largest economy. Between 1984 and 2009, Chidambaram was elected as a Member of Parliament to the Lok Sabha seven times. A leading lawyer, he holds degrees from Madras University in Chennai and a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard University.He is the author of ‘Standing Guard: A Year in Opposition’
Rajdeep Sardesai
One of India’s most respected journalists, Rajdeep Sardesai, has nearly three decades of journalistic experience in print and TV. He has been the founder- editor of chief of IBN 18 network, which included CNN IBN. Prior to setting up the IBN network, he was the managing editor of NDTV 24 x 7 and NDTV India. Sardesai has won more than 100 national and international awards for journalism, including the Padma Shri in 2008. He is currently consulting editor at the India Today group.He is the author of the best-selling 2014: The Election that Changed India.
Raghu Karnad
Raghu Karnad is the award-winning author of Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the Second World War. He works as a journalist and has written for Granta, n+1, the Financial Times and the Caravan, and is a contributing editor at The Wire.
Pavan K Varma
Writer-diplomat Pavan K. Varma is a graduate in History from St. Stephen's College, after which he took a degree in Law from the University of Delhi. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1976. He has been Press Secretary to the President of India, the Spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs, Joint Secretary for Africa, High Commissioner for India in Cyprus, Director of the Nehru Centre in London, Director General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, New Delhi, and Ambassador of India to Bhutan. He is now a sitting member of parliament in Rajya Sabha representing Janta Dal (United).A writer of depth and insight, he has written over a dozen best-selling books including, the highly successful Krishna: The Playful Divine on India’s most popular deity, the critically acclaimed biography of the Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib, Ghalib: The Man, The Times, and the Havelis of Old Delhi. His first book on a contemporary subject was the path breaking The Great Indian Middle Class, followed by the astoundingly successful Being Indian: The Truth About Why the 21st Century Will Be India’s. Another work is a witty adaptation of Vatsyayana’s Kama Sutra, which was published early in 2007 and has since been translated into French and German. Mr. Varma’s first work of fiction When Loss is Gain launched in 2012, is now being adapted into a Bollywood film.
Asaduddin Owaisi
Asaduddin Owaisi is the President of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen. He is a three-time MP in the Lok Sabha, representing the Hyderabad constituency. He studied at Nizam College, Hyderabad, and Lincoln’s Inn in London where he became a bar-at-law.
Jairam Ramesh
Jairam Ramesh is a Congress leader and former union minister, having held, at various points, diverse portfolios such as commerce, power, environment, rural development and drinking water and sanitation. He is the author of 'To the Brink and Back: India's 1991 Story', an inside account of India's adoption of economic reforms from his perspective as officer on special duty to then-Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. He is also the author of 'Green Signals: Ecology, Growth, and Democracy in India' and ‘Telangana: Old History, New Geography’.
Srinath Raghavan
Srinath Raghavan is Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research and author of War and Peace in Modern India: A Strategic History of the Nehru Years, and most recently 1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh. He is also a senior research fellow at the India Institute at King’s College London. Srinath works on contemporary and historical aspects of India’s foreign and security policies. He is a regular columnist and commentator on international and strategic affairs.He has been lecturer in defence studies at King’s College London. He also took his MA and PhD in war studies from King’s College London. Prior to his academic career, he spent six years as an infantry officer in the Indian Army.
Margaret Alva
Margaret Alva has been governor of Uttarakhand,
Rajasthan, Goa and Gujarat. A lawyer by profession, she was first elected
to Parliament in 1974 and served 4 consecutive six year terms in the Rajya
Sabha and one in the Lok Sabha. During her 30 years in Parliament she served on
several important and prestigious committees. She was Union Minister for 10
years handling important portfolios in the Government of Rajiv Gandhi and
P.V.Narasimha Rao. She served as Advisor to the Bureau of Parliamentary
Studies and Training between 2004 and 2009. She is also a recipient
of several awards in India and abroad including the First Nelson Mandela Award
for Minority Empowerment in New York, The Shiromani Award for her contribution
to Public Life and the Global Leadership Award from Vital Voices, Washington.
Her book, ‘Courage and Commitment: An Autobiography’(Rupa, 2016) - details
her forty-year career under four Prime Ministers: Indira Gandhi, Rajiv
Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh, and her eventual transition from
politician to Governor.
Barkha Dutt
Barkha Dutt is one of India’s foremost TV anchors and editors. She is co-founder of Print, Consulting Editor, NDTV and host of We The People and The Buck Stops Here on NDTV. She is the author of ‘This Unquiet Land–Stories from India’s Fault Lines’.An award-winning journalist, Dutt has been named twice on the list of 100 "Global Leaders of Tomorrow" compiled by the World Economic Forum. In 2013, she was awarded the Padam Shri.
Ravish Kumar
Ravish Kumar is executive editor, NDTV India and the host of 'Prime Time'. He has what he calls a 'Compulsive Blogging Disorder' and needs this disorder to keep himself in order. His blog Qasba is a place where he keeps his own permanent records of himself. Unplanned writing is his way of coping with living in unplanned Delhi. He lives in chaos and finds that life becomes much simpler whenever he comes out of chaos. Kumar is the author of 'Ishaq Me Shehar Hona', published by Rajkamal Prakashan. He finds that the unknown Delhi is the only really known city to its lovers. It is lovers who truly explore the city and they have explored Delhi for his book.
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is a leading film director, writer and producer. His films include the award-winning Rang De Basanti, Delhi-6, Aks, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and Mirzya. His film Rang De Basanti won 4 National Awards and was India's official entry to the Oscars 2006- 2007.
Ajit Ninan
Ajit Ninan, a well-known Indian political cartoonist, excels in both visual and verbal content in his cartoons. He lives in New Delhi where he works for the Times of India
Akshaya Mukul
Akshaya Mukul has been a journalist for over two decades. He works with the Times of India and reports on politics, culture and society. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India, published by HarperCollins in 2015. Akshaya Mukul's Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India won both the Tata Lit Live and the Atta Galata Prize for the best non-fiction book of the year.
Akash Banerjee
Akash Banerjee is Vice-President & Regional Programming Head (North and East India) at Radio Mirchi.Prior to his current assignment – he has been an anchor/reporter with Times Now and Headlines Today for close to a decade.Akash currently hosts India’s first weekly Political Satire show called #WhySoSeriousEducated at La Martiniere College, Lucknow and St. Stephen's College, Delhi; he’s also authored a book - Tales from Shining and Sinking India – that details the working of news channels.
Amrita Tripathi
Amrita Tripathi is a novelist and independent journalist. She is Editor-at-large at SheThePeople.TV and is working on mental health initiative called The Health Collective. Tripathi writes contemporary fiction and both of her novels — Broken News and The Sibius Knot — deal with life, relationships, and urban realities. A former senior broadcast journalist and news anchor, Tripathi is working on independent film projects and in digital media at present.
Anshul Chaturvedi
Anshul Chaturvedi is Editor, Delhi Times and author of Works Sucks. He began his journalism career as a hard news journalist, in 1996, and shortly thereafter became the editor of local English dailies based in Jammu, specialising in topics such as the Kashmir militancy and the ISI, an unlikely starting point for someone currently managing lifestyle content in Delhi. He then moved out of J&K to work with The Times of India’s (TOI’s) launch edition, in Chandigarh, in the year 2000. He was temporarily sent on deputation to the features section, but it soon became his primary work area, which it has been since then. He was then posted to Lucknow and worked as editor of multiple products across Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) for four years. In 2005, he was brought to the capital, to begin his journalistic stint in Delhi as the editor of the Delhi Times. In the past few years, that role has expanded to include charge of many similar supplements in North India, and today he oversees features teams in about a dozen cities.A collection of his interviews with the three Khans of Bollywood over the past decade was published in the form of a book, Uncut (2013). He is also an occasional writer on his version of everyday philosophy for The Speaking Tree.
Arun Kumar Singh
Arun Kumar Singh has been one of India’s leading diplomats and is an expert on India-US strategic relations. He has served as India’s ambassador to the US and France and previously as joint secretary in charge of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan in the Ministry of External Affairs. He has also served as deputy chief of mission in Washington for nearly five years.
Avijit Ghosh
Avijit Ghosh is a senior editor with The Times of India. He is the author of two books on cinema: Cinema Bhojpuri, which traces the history of Bhojpuri films and maps its growth over the past five decades and 40 Retakes: Bollywood Classics You May have Missed, which takes a second look at a bunch of outstanding films that failed to wow the critics and the moviegoers when first released. He has also penned a novel, Bandicoots in the Moonlight, which suffered the fate of an honourable art film: a critical success and a commercial failure. His second novel, set in Delhi of the late 80s, is scheduled for release in the summer
Bhavish Aggarwal
Bhavish Aggarwal is Co-founder and CEO of Ola Cabs. He began his career with Microsoft Research, left his job in August 2010 and moved to Mumbai. In September 2010, he co-founded Ola Cabs from his home town of Ludhiana.Bhavish received his bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay, in 2008.
Boria Majumdar
Boria Majumdar is an acclaimed sport historian, writer and journalist. He is currently Consulting Sports Editor, India Today Group, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Central Lancashire and Adjunct Professor, School of Journalism, Australian and Indigenous Studies, Faculty of Arts at Monash University, Melbourne. In 2014, he co-authored Sachin Tendulkar's best-selling autobiography, Playing it My Way. His other books include Olympics: The India Story, Sellotape Legacy: Delhi and the Commonwealth Games, Twenty Yards to Freedom: A Social History of Indian Cricket. Majumdar, a Rhodes scholar, has a B.A. in History from Presidency College, Calcutta University, M.A. in Modern History from the same university and went to St John's College, Oxford University to do a D.Phil. he has taught at the Universities of Chicago, Toronto and La Trobe where he was first distinguished Visiting Fellow in 2005. He was also the first Indian to be awarded a fellowship to work at the International Olympic museum archives in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Bulbul Sharma
Bulbul Sharma is an author and an artist. She has written three collections of short stories - My Sainted Aunts, The Perfect Woman andAnger of Aubergines, along with a full length novel Banana Flower Dreams. Her works have been translated into many foreign languages like Italian, French and Finnish. Her works for children are titled Fabled Book of Gods and Demons and The Children's Ramayana. She has been conducting art and storytelling workshops for special children for the last 15 years.
C. Raja Mohan
C. Raja Mohan is director of Carnegie India. A leading analyst of India’s foreign policy, Mohan is also an expert on South Asian security, great-power relations in Asia, and arms control. He is the foreign affairs columnist for the Indian Express, and a visiting research professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. He was a member of India’s National Security Advisory Board.From 2009 to 2010, Mohan was the Henry Alfred Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress. Previously, he was a professor of South Asian studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and the Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. He also served as the diplomatic editor and Washington correspondent of the Hindu. Mohan’s most recent books are Modi’s World: Expanding India's Sphere of Influence (Harper Collins India, 2015) and India’s Naval Strategy and Asian Security (Routledge, 2016) (co-edited with Anit Mukherjee).
Colleen Taylor Sen
Colleen Taylor Sen is an independent food historian and writer based in Chicago, specializing in the cuisine of the Indian subcontinent. Her previous publications include Curry: A Global History (2009) and Street Food around the World: An Encyclopedia of Food and Culture (co-editor, 2013).
Coomi Kapoor
Coomi Kapoor is consulting editor, Indian Express. She has held several senior positions during her long stint with the newspaper and was the Delhi editor of the Indian Express between 1994 and 2007. Coomi has also worked with India Today, Sunday Mail, The Indian Post and the Illustrated Weekly. She has written the popular, behind- the- scenes political column ‘Inside Track’ for more than 25 years. She is the author of ‘The Emergency: A Personal History’
Dhruva Jaishankar
Dhruva Jaishankar is a Fellow with Brookings India. His areas of expertise include India's foreign relations, Asia-Pacific security, U.S. foreign policy, international politics in theory and practice, and technology and societies. Jaishankar has previously been a Transatlantic Fellow with the German Marshall Fund (GMF) in Washington where he managed the India Trilateral Forum, a regular policy dialogue involving participants from India, Europe, and the United States. Jaishankar is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and in 2013 was selected as an IISS-SAIS Merrill Center Young Strategist. He holds a bachelor's degree in history and classics from Macalester College, and a master's degree in security studies from Georgetown University.
Devendra Jhajharia
Devendra Jhajharia is the first Indian para-athlete to win two gold medals at the Olympic Games: first in Athens 2004 and then in Rio 2016. The 36-year-old javelin thrower is currently ranked third in the world. Jhajharia's achievements include winning gold medals at the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games, 2002 FESPIC Games in South Korea and 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships, apart from silver at the same event in 2015 and one at the 2014 Asian Games. A former Indian Railways staffer now employed by the Sports Authority of India, Jhajharia is coached by Dronacharya awardee RD Singh. He received the Padma Shri in 2012.
Dinesh C Sharma
An award winning journalist, columnist and writer, Dinesh C Sharma has reported extensively on science and technology, health and environment for national and international media in the past three decades. His latest book, The Outsourcer: The Story of India’s IT Revolution (MIT Press, 2015), has won the Computer History Museum Book Prize for 2016, awarded by the US Society for the History of Technology. He has been a Fellow of the New India Foundation, Bangalore, in the past and is currently a Fellow at the Centre for Media Studies, New Delhi.
Deepa Malik
Deepa Malik is India’s first woman Paralympic medalist at the Olympic Games. She made the country proud by winning a silver medal at the Rio 2016 Paralympics in the shotput F-53 category. Malik is an accomplished swimmer, adventure sports junkie, biker and entrepreneur and has had her name entered into the Limca Book of Record four times. She also has to her credit 54 gold medals at the national level and 13 at the international level across sports, including swimming and in the javelin throw and shot put. Apart from this, she even represented the Rajasthan women's cricket team. In 2012 she was the oldest recipient to be honoured with the Arjuna Award at the age of 42.
Farhan Akhtar
Farhan Akhtar is a leading film director, writer, actor, singer and producer. He made his directorial debut in Hindi cinema with the 2001 hit Dil Chahta Hai (2001) and has since delivered a slew of commercially successful and critically acclaimed films.He has directed films like Lakshya (2004), the remake of the 1978 cult classic Don (2006), and starred in films like Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Luck by Chance and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (which he also produced and wrote dialogues for).Farhan is one of Indian cinema's most multi-talented personalities - actor, singer, lyricist, writer and producer - with an astonishingly varied and rich body of work. He made his singing debut with the cult film Rock On, which he also produced and starred in.He new film, Rock On 2, has recently been released.
Gayathri Prabhu
Gayathri Prabhu is the author of the historical novel The Untitled, published in September 2016 by Fourth Estate, HarperCollins. A story of art and intrigue set against the last summer of Tipu Sultan, The Untitled is Gayathri's third novel, after Birdswim Fishfly (2006) and Maya (2003). She teaches literary studies at the Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities.
Entry free. No registration required.
Performances
Music Performance
Sonam Kalra @Plaza Steps, 26 Nov 7:30 pm
Stand-up Comedy
Abijit Ganguly@Plaza Steps, 27 Nov 7:30 pm
Stand-up Comedy
Amit Tandon@Plaza Steps, 27 Nov 7:30 pm
Stand-up Comedy
Anirban Dasgupta@Plaza Steps, 27 Nov 7:30 pm
Stand-up Comedy
Maheep Singh@Plaza Steps, 27 Nov 7:30 pm
Stand-up Comedy
Neeti Palta@Plaza Steps, 27 Nov 7:30 pm
Directors
Festival Director
Nalin MehtaNalin Mehta is an award-winning social scientist, journalist and author. He is associate professor with Shiv Nadar University, consulting editor with The Times of India and editor of the international journal South Asian History and Culture (Routledge) as well as the Routledge 'South Asian History and Culture' book series. He has previously been managing editor of India Today's English news channel, adjunct professor at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and held senior positions with the Global Fund in Geneva, Switzerland, and UNAIDS. He currently sits on the governing board and governing council of the University Grants Commission Consortium for Educational Communication, an inter-university centre that coordinates the work of 22 centres in universities nationwide on education through communication technologies. He is also on the editorial board of the South Asia Archive, a digital archive encompassing millions of pages of original documents stretching back to the 18th century, and the international peer-reviewed journal Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics. Mehta's new book, Behind a Billion Screens: What Television Tells Us About Modern India(New Delhi: HarperCollins, 2015) is a critically acclaimed national bestseller and was longlisted as Business Book of the Year by Tata Literary Live. His other books include 'India on Television: How Satellite Channels Have Changed the Way We Think and Act, which won the 2009 Asian Publishing Award for Best Book, the best-selling Sellotape Legacy: Delhi and the Commonwealth Games, and a critically acclaimed social history of Indian sport, Olympics: The India Story. He has edited Television in India: Satellites, Politics and Cultural Change and co-edited Gujarat Beyond Gandhi: Identity, Conflict and Society as well as 'The Changing Face of Cricket: From Imperial to Global Game' Read More
Festival Co-Director
- Sagarika Ghose
Sagarika Ghose is a journalist, author and broadcaster. She joined journalism in 1991 and has been a journalist for over two decades. She began her career at The Times of India, was part of the start up team of Outlook magazine as special correspondent and then went on to work as Senior Editor at The Indian Express. She was co-founder of the news network CNNIBN, as well as prime time anchor of the flagship show Face the Nation. She is the author of two novels, 'The Gin Drinkers' and 'Blind Faith', both published worldwide. In 2004 she became the first woman to anchor the flagship BBC World debate programme Question Time India. She was awarded the Best Anchor Award by the Indian Television Academy in 2013 and named as one of the 50 Most Famous Rhodes Scholars by the Rhodes project. At the moment she is Consulting Editor, The Times of India. Read More
