BIC TALKS

Conflict at home, with neighbours, between communities. Conflicts about what the law means or should be.  Large collisions of power within and between institutions or nations. In this session on mediation, Hiram Chodosh will present both a global and local perspective to mediation in India. He will discuss the virtues, capabilities, and skills that make mediation a powerful response to conflict. He will evaluate the value of mediation in practice, including in the USA and other parts of the globe, within courts, communities, legislative bodies, international relations, and the role of professional mediators and lawyers in this practice. Sriram Panchu will present the perspective of the most senior mediation expert and leader in India. He will speak about the growth of mediation in India, its use in the court sector, commercial disputes, significant public disputes like the Ayodhya Babri Masjid – Ram Janambhoomi one, the Mediation Act 2023, the prospects for private mediation. He will also speak about the current foundations for mediation practice in India, the professional career paths, the role of centres and other programs that advance its targeted application in legal and other kinds of disputes. Thereafter, Hiram Chodosh and Sriram Panchu will have a conversation reflecting on the roots of Indian mediation and its future prospects, including lessons from Indian mediation that the world can learn from and the crucial initiatives now needed to take mediation to the next level of impact and value for meaningful practice and careers. In this episode of BIC Talks, Hiram Chodosh will be in conversation with Sriram Panchu. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in January 2025. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.

In Gandhi’s Integrity: Thinking Radically with Gandhi on Religion, Caste, Capital, Liberalism, Science, and Culture (forthcoming Columbia University Press), Akeel Bilgrami presents an account of the many aspects of Gandhi’s thought in a framework that integrates his resistance against imperialism with his critique of capitalist modernity, raising fundamental questions about how we should understand the relevance of these ideas for our own time and concerns. This is a panel discussion with Akeel Bilgrami (Author), Chandan Gowda (RK Hegde Chair Professor, ISEC) and Rajeev Kadambi (Associate Professor, OP Jindal Global University) moderated by Vishnupad (Dean, ESLA, SRM University, AP). In collaboration with: Easwari School of Liberal Arts and SRM University AP In this episode of BIC Talks, Akeel Bilgrami, Chandan Gowda, Rajeev Kadambi will be in conversation with Vishnupad .This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in January 2025. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.

The media is a cornerstone of Indian democracy, often called the “fourth pillar” for its role in supporting constitutional values. Yet today, trust in the media is eroding amid technological upheaval, shifting revenue models, political polarization, and the powerful rise of social media and artificial intelligence. As these forces reshape how information flows, can the media still serve as a guardian of our constitutional ideals? And who, if anyone, will defend the independence and integrity of the media? This session is the third in the series titled ‘We the People’ to celebrate 75 years of our Constitution. As part of this series, DAKSH, in collaboration with BIC, is organising a series of lectures and panel discussions on various aspects of the Constitution. In collaboration with: Daksh In this episode of BIC Talks, Barkha Dutt delivers a talk. This is an excerpt from a event that took place in the BIC premises in November 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.

The text of Kuvempu’s epic Kannada novel, Malegalalli Madumagalu (1967), and the recent translation, Bride in the Hills by Vanamala Viswanatha (Penguin Random House, 2024), will be discussed by an eminent panel of scholars, writers and the translator. Set in 1893 in the Malnad region of the Western Ghats with its majestic Sahyadri ranges, dense forests, and river Tunga, Kuvempu’s Malegalalli Madumagalu (Bride in the Hills) describes the saga of not one young woman but many, of varied hues, who aspire for love and fulfilment in marriage, in a self-serving, male feudal order. An organic network of interrelated stories, the well-known Kannada writer Devanoora Mahadeva locates the novel in the epic tradition of the Mahabharata and Tolstoy’s War and Peace. This woman-centric text weaves together the touching plight of young couples in love, such as Gutti and Timmi, from a Dalit community living on the ghats; Aita and Pinchalu, migrant labourers from below the ghats, and Mukundayya and Chinnamma from the land-owning Shudra caste. Fired from within by their love – the most powerful agent of change – these young people seek a life of freedom and dignity, leading to the transformation of the larger community. Their heartening stories are juxtaposed against the travails of hapless Nagakka and scheming Venkatanna, sickly Deyi and brute Chinkra, and gullible Kaveri and lecherous Devayya. All of them are, in different ways, up against the repressive regimes of the decadent landlords, who manipulate traditional feudal practices as well as the modern apparatus of a colonial state.  True to its claim as an epic novel, Kuvempu’s text with its multiple narrative strands vividly enacts its mission statement in the epigraph: “Here, no one is important; no one is unimportant; nothing is insignificant!” Every sentient and insentient thing – the degenerate Chinkra, orphan Dharmu, Huliya the dog, Biri the cat, the evergreen forest, the Hulikal Peak – has a place and a purpose in this narrative. Imbued with an ecological consciousness, the novel offers a veritable biodiversity register of the Malnad region. Kuvempu presents a ‘view from below’, a subaltern perspective which also takes in the world of the wealthy and powerful. Winner of the first Sahitya Akademi award in 1955 and the Jnanpith in 1967, Kuvempu (Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa 1904-1994) inaugurated the non-brahmin era in modern Kannada writing. Kuvempu’s versatile oeuvre includes a vast body of poetry, plays, novels, children’s writing, essays and an autobiography. While his poetic epic ‘Shri Ramayana Darshanam’ is a radical rewriting of the Valmiki epic drawing from the Jaina tradition, the two novels, The Kanur House (made into a film by Girish Karnad) and Bride in the Hills, are modern novels set in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Inspired by Tolstoy’s expansive canvas and Tagore’s unique Indian ethos, this first significant Shudra writer and an iconic figure in Kannada culture, has sculpted an entirely regional epic novel in Bride in the Hills. Image Credits Book Cover: MS Murthy and Jay Gosney Header: A Malnad Landscape, Photo courtesy Girish Kasaravalli Photo of Amit Chaudhuri by Richard Lofthouse/University of Oxford In collaboration with Rashtrakavi Kuvempu Pratishthana, Kuppali (Devangi, Thirthahalli, Shivamogga) In this episode of BIC Talks, Vanamala Viswanathan, Rajendra Chenni, Amit Chaudhuri and Arvind Narrain will be in conversation. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in November 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.

Ravi Bapna and Anindya Ghose, in their new MIT Press book Thrive: Maximizing Well-being in the Age of AI take on the challenge of demystifying AI for the layperson using examples from everyday life. Their hope is that by giving citizens agency and understanding in shaping AI we can get the most out of this newest industrial revolution. Join Ravi Bapna in conversation with Narayan Ramachandran as they chart their way through the ‘House of AI,’ a framework that provides a holistic perspective of the different pillars and layers of AI. They will discuss the role of generative AI versus traditional AI, what barriers companies face in adopting this technology, how we should think about the future of work and reskilling the workforce, and what an agentic future looks like where AI will augment human intelligence and capacity. In this episode of BIC Talks, Ravi Bapna in conversation with Narayan Ramachandran. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in November 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.

As conflict erupts in West Asia, the consequences are rippling across the globe, threatening to reshape the international order in ways not seen in decades. This session will bring together experts to explore the geopolitical, economic, and security implications of this crisis for the world and, for India. With deep insights from Ranjan Mathai, former Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to Israel, and Latha Reddy, former Deputy NSA, the discussion will be moderated by Stanly Johny of The Hindu. A Q&A with the audience will follow. In this episode of BIC Talks, Ranjan Mathai and Latha Reddy are in conversation with Stanly Johny. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in September 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.

By the canons of orthodox social science, countries like India are not supposed to have an environmental consciousness. They are, as it were, “too poor to be green.” In his new book, Speaking with Nature, Ramachandra Guha challenges this narrative by revealing a virtually unknown prehistory of the global movement set far outside Europe or America. Long before the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and well before climate change, ten remarkable individuals wrote with deep insight about the dangers of environmental abuse from within an Indian context. In strikingly contemporary language, Rabindranath Tagore, Radhakamal Mukerjee, J. C. Kumarappa, Patrick Geddes, Albert and Gabrielle Howard, Mira, Verrier Elwin, K. M. Munshi, and M. Krishnan wrote about the forest and the wild, soil and water, urbanisation and industrialisation. Positing the idea of what Guha calls “livelihood environmentalism” in contrast to the “full stomach environmentalism” of the affluent world, these writers, activists, and scientists played a pioneering role in shaping global conversations about humanity’s relationship with nature. Spanning more than a century of Indian history, and decidedly transnational in reference, this book offers rich resources for considering the threat of climate change today. In this episode of BIC Talks, Ramchandra Guha is in conversation with Harini Nagendra. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in September 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.

In 2018, Rahul Bhatia left his job as an investigative reporter to understand the necessity of the Aadhaar project. But over time, as he explored its roots, questions about citizenship and belonging began to grow louder in public life, culminating in extreme violence in New Delhi. As this happened, he discovered that India’s technological identity project was linked to a cultural identity project over a century old. These investigations culminated in The Identity Project, a journey through the slow burn of Indian democracy, and a record that connects the past and present to offer the first thorough account of how cultural imperatives are guiding the country’s direction. He describes the religious, societal, and technological changes that have brought India to a point at which a nationalist mindset that challenges democracy and human rights is spreading fast, all in an effort to bind the multiethnic, multilingual, and multicultural country into a single identity. Through a character-driven narrative informed by on the ground reporting, he investigates the history of disinformation in India, and looks at how justice works in the aftermath of riots. What emerges is a timely portrait of a country struggling to define its identity. Editor and journalist Prem Panicker will discuss the book with Rahul Bhatia. They will talk about the book’s journey, the process of reporting, and about finding the language to report on recent history. A Q&A session with the audience will follow. Presented by: Contxt In this episode of BIC Talks, Rahul Bhatia is in conversation with Prem Panicker. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in October 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.

This discussion will explore how the Constitution of India frames the concept of economic freedom. We often think of the constitutional guarantee of freedom in terms of the freedom of speech and expression. This discussion moves beyond this framing to examine the oft-ignored aspect of economic freedom for individuals and organisations. The panellists will discuss the balance between state intervention and individual economic rights, exploring issues like onerous licensing and compliance requirements for businesses, property rights and the right to trade occupation, profession and business. They will also discuss the evolving interpretation of these rights by the judiciary and how constitutional provisions have shaped economic policies and reforms in India over time. This session is the second in the series titled ‘We the People’ to celebrate 75 years of our Constitution. As part of this series, DAKSH, in collaboration with BIC, are organising a series of lectures and panel discussions on various aspects of the Constitution. In collaboration with: Daksh In this episode of BIC Talks, Karthik Muralidharan is in conversation with Harish Narasappa. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in September 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music