BIC TALKS

Bilal Zaidi, founder of the political tech start up, OurDemocracy.in, is in conversation with Sweta Daga, as he gets to the brass tacks of the electoral campaign system in India. This conversation evaluates the ongoing practices which are looked upon as tradition in our electoral democracy, its shortcomings, the opacity in the process and lack of accessibility to the citizenry. Bilal and Sweta talk of the future of political campaign finances with the advent of digital India and whether electoral reforms are in sight or not.    With anecdotal information and comparative analyses with electoral procedures of countries like the United State of America, this conversation presents a possibility and a gradual change of direction towards transparency and greater understanding of how Democracy works. Bilal Zaidi is Founder and Executive Director of  OurDemocracy.in. Prior to founding OurDemocracy, he was a Global campaigner with Avaaz.org (based in New York). He is also a former journalist with more than 12 years of experience working with organizations like Times Now, NDTV, NewsX among others. He has covered more than 24 Assembly and 3 Lok Sabha elections. He believes his interview with Mr Narendra Modi (India’s current PM) and his coverage of the Syrian conflict were the highlights of his career. Sweta Daga has told stories across platforms, from television and film to theater. As a freelance journalist, she has worked in India focusing on climate justice with intersections in gender and equity. She has also facilitated workshops with change makers across the world on systemic change. 

Edward Luce, one of the most highly regarded commentators on US politics, talks about the dynamics of US politics, and the impact of the newly elected US government on the world, especially on India. This episode was originally streamed live on March 12th, 2021 as the annual Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Girish Karnad Memorial Lecture. One of the leading and most prestigious events on the calendar, the New India Foundation Annual Lecture has facilitated debate on important social issues, with talks featuring renowned scholars and thinkers. Edward Luce is the US national editor and columnist at the Financial Times. Before that he was the FT’s Washington Bureau chief. Other roles have included South Asia bureau chief, Capital Markets editor, and Philippines Correspondent. He is the author of three highly acclaimed books, The Retreat of Western Liberalism (2017), Time to Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent (2012), and In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India (2007).He appears regularly on CNN, NPR, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and the BBC. More details on BIC Talks podcasts on the BIC website

Researcher Siddharth Chakravarty and anthropologist & researcher Vani Sreekanta exchange notes on their most recent visit to West Bengal post the lifting of the lockdown. They talk about complexities of food habits, food production, policies that govern the ecologically sensitive areas of the Mangroves, coastal mechanisation, gender politics and the politics of migrating fishing workers and labour.  This wide ranging conversation mulls over the role of the researcher and the engagement, intervention and impact on their subjects. Siddharth Chakravarty is an independent researcher interested in the encounters between land-based policy-making and the biophysical properties of the oceans. He is interested in fish as they shape and are shaped by processes of territory-making, resource-sharing and trans-boundary migration. Vani Sreekanta is an independent researcher interested in the complex enmeshment of human and more-than human systems. She also likes to think about the roles networks and collaborations play in building more representative, participatory research. She has worked in environmental conservation for nearly a decade and is currently involved with a transdisciplinary collaboratory called the Southern Collective. 

The elemental relevance of poetry in lives and times such as ours is what binds this conversation with poet Ranjit Hoskote and Journalist Supriya Nair together. Ranjit's newest collection of poetry, Hunchprose is a response to and reflection of the many lives the poet possesses within him.  This conversation delves deep into inspirations, memories and experiences that affords us a glimpse into the life of the polymath and how life traces verse and vice versa. Ranjit Hoskote is a poet, cultural theorist and curator. His seven collections of poetry include Vanishing Acts, Central Time and Jonahwhale. He is also the author of I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Ded, the editor of Dom Moraes: Selected Poems and a translator of the legendary Urdu poets Mir and Ghalib. Hoskote curated India's first-ever national pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He has received the Sahitya Akademi Golden Jubilee Award, the Sahitya Akademi Translation Award and the S.H. Raza Literature Award. His poems have been translated into German, Hindi, Bengali, Irish, Marathi, Swedish and Spanish. Supriya Nair is a journalist from Mumbai. She is the editor of the publication Fifty Two and co-founder of the media company All Things Small. BIC Talks is brought to you by the Bangalore International Centre. Visit the BIC website for show notes, links and more information about the guests.

Pavan Srinath talks to Lekha Naidu about creating BIC Talks and releasing 100 episodes of the podcast since March 2020, when the pandemic lockdowns began in India. On this episode Pavan takes the guest seat, as Bangalore International Centre’s Programme Manager Lekha Naidu talks to him about the joys, lessons and challenges of podcasting. They discuss how BIC pivoted to podcasting within a week of the first nation-wide lockdown, how they managed to record deep conversations almost entirely remotely, and what kept the show going. Pavan also shares a few of his favourite moments and episodes from the last year, and his thoughts on podcasting in general. Pavan Srinath is a public policy researcher and podcaster, who also hosts The Pragati Podcast and the Thale-Harate Kannada Podcast. He’s accessible at @zeusisdead on Twitter and Instagram. Lekha Naidu is Programme Manager at BIC, and will be taking over Pavan’s role as host and producer of BIC Talks from Episode 103.  Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast and Stitcher. BIC Talks is brought to you by the Bangalore International Centre. Visit the BIC website for show notes, links and more information about the guests.

In early March 2020 as the shadow of the pandemic loomed large and uncertainty - financial and otherwise was the order of the day, Yes Bank joined a long parade of banking and financial scandals arisen due to malpractice. Another one seemingly bitten the dust when the moratorium on Yes Bank was imposed by the RBI. Journalist Furquan Moharkan had been following this story long before it broke and his research is now the basis for the book, The Banker who Crushed his Diamonds.  In conversation with Furquan is editor Shreya Punj, while taking us through what actually happened and how do we as citizens read the signs of an impending disaster. BIC Talks is brought to you by the Bangalore International Centre. Visit the BIC website for show notes, links and more information about the guests.

Author Keshav Desiraju and music enthusiast Vishnu Vasudev discuss Mr. Desiraju’s latest book Of Gifted Voice that looks at MS Subbulakshmi’s life and times, and the great musical tradition she belonged to and to which she brought so much, against the larger backdrop of developments in the world of Carnatic music. MS Subbulakshmi’s life was one of extraordinary achievement. Although she was portrayed in many ways – as a musician who sought and achieved an all-India appeal; a philanthropist and supporter of noble causes; an icon of style; a woman of piety and devotion; and a friend and associate of the good and the great – she was first and foremost a classical vocalist of the highest rank, of unmatched gifts, who lives on in the musical history of India. Though her story has often been told, we know little of the woman behind the image and the musician behind the public persona. Of Gifted Voice attempts, with warmth and keen-eyed perception, to understand the music, the history, the artiste and her incomparable presence. This episode of BIC Talks was originally streamed live on BIC Streams. 

Historians Dinyar Patel and Prashant Kidambi discuss the life and legacy of Dadabhai Naoroji, who Gandhi referred to as the ‘Father of the Nation’. Dinyar has authored the book, Naoroji: Pioneer of Indian Nationalism (Harvard University Press, 2020).  They discuss Naoroji’s life and work as an Indian nationalist thinker, as a member of the British parliament, and as a leading intellectual whose legacy lives on even beyond India in various anti-colonial, nationalist and suffragette movements.  This episode of BIC Talks was originally streamed live on BIC Streams on February 13th, in association with the Bangalore Literature Festival. Dinyar Patel is a historian of modern India, focusing on Indian nationalism, the city of Bombay/Mumbai, and the Parsi Zoroastrian community. He is currently Assistant Professor of History at the S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) in Mumbai. Naoroji: Pioneer of Indian Nationalism is his first book.  Prashant Kidambi is associate professor of colonial urban history at the University of Leicester, UK. Kidambi’s research explores the interface between British imperialism and the history of modern South Asia. He is the author of Cricket Country: An Indian Odyssey in the Age of Empire and the lead editor of Bombay Before Mumbai: Essays in Honour of Jim Masselos. BIC Talks is brought to you by the Bangalore International Centre. Visit the BIC website for show notes, links and more information about the guests.

Authors Taran Khan and Samhita Arni share personal experiences and stories from their time spent in Kabul, peeling away the many layers that make up the city and its rich and tumultuous history.  Taran N. Khan is a journalist based in Mumbai, and author of Shadow City: A Woman Kabul. Taran spent time working in Kabul between 2006 and 2013. She grew up in Aligarh and was educated in New Delhi and London. Shadow City, her first book, won the Tata Literature Live! First Non-Fiction Book Award for 2020. It has also been nominated for the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2021. Samhita Arni is the author of four books and retells mythological stories. Her most recent book is ‘The Prince’, and she lived and worked in Kabul in 2012 and 2013. Samhita was previously on BIC Talks to talk about Sex in Indian Epics and Literature (Episode #62) and on Pandemics in Prose (Episode #10). BIC Talks is brought to you by the Bangalore International Centre. Visit the BIC website for show notes, links and more information about the guests.

Jawhar Sircar and Siddharth Raja discuss the political dynamics of West Bengal, in the run up to the state assembly elections of 2021. They discuss the political history of the state, the ethnic, caste and class lines along which politics has taken place over the 20th century, and what conflicts lie ahead for the state in the 2021 elections.  Jawhar Sircar is a public intellectual and a retired civil servant who writes and speaks often in the popular press. He served as the CEO of Prasar Bharati, India’s public broadcasting agency between 2012 and 2016. Before that, he was Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Government of India between 2008 and 2012. He writes regularly for the New Indian Express as well as several other publications. Siddharth Raja is a lawyer based in Bangalore. He was previously on BIC Talks as a guest on Episode 34, to talk about the rich history of the Nandi Hills near Bangalore.  BIC Talks is brought to you by the Bangalore International Centre. Visit the BIC website for show notes, links and more information about the guests.