BIC TALKS

"The Gift That Keeps Giving," is a special five-part BIC Talks mini-series on the life and work of A.K. Ramanujan. Join us as we venture into the rich tapestry of Ramanujan's legacy, featuring exclusive interviews with writers, artists, and scholars who share a profound connection with his work. With each episode, we unravel the enduring impact of Ramanujan’s poetry, translations, and scholarship, providing insights into the creative spirit that continues to inspire generations. Discover the man whose intellectual contributions remain a perpetual gift to the world of literature, art, and academic thought. In the second episode, we delve into A.K. Ramanujan's vast intellectual landscape, exploring his unique ability to weave together the ancient and the modern through his translations and scholarship. This journey illuminates how Ramanujan's work serves as a bridge across cultures, uncovering universal human experiences within the rich tapestries of folklore, mythology, and literary traditions. Through engaging discussions with scholars and admirers, we celebrate Ramanujan's profound insight and boundless curiosity, inviting listeners to experience the world through his visionary lens, where every text and tradition opens new vistas of understanding and connection. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible and Amazon Music.

"The Gift That Keeps Giving," is a special five-part BIC Talks mini-series on the life and work of A.K. Ramanujan. Join us as we venture into the rich tapestry of Ramanujan's legacy, featuring exclusive interviews with writers, artists, and scholars who share a profound connection with his work. With each episode, we unravel the enduring impact of Ramanujan’s poetry, translations, and scholarship, providing insights into the creative spirit that continues to inspire generations. Discover the man whose intellectual contributions remain a perpetual gift to the world of literature, art, and academic thought. The first episode, offers an intimate narrative through the eyes of a fictional, yet relatable reader, tracing their transformative encounter with the brilliance of AK Ramanujan. This opening chapter invites listeners to embark on their own voyage of discovery, tracing the contours of Ramanujan's intellectual landscapes and delving into the essence of his work that continues to enchant and enlighten. Join us as we begin this exploration into the life and legacy of a man whose contributions are a ceaseless source of inspiration and wonder. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible and Amazon Music.          

As the pillars of democracy crumble across the globe, big and small actions of resistance prop up hope and keep alive a way to rebuild. In the past few decades, ordinary folk in India have stood up to repressive state authority over and over again. Their vital acts of hope preserve the collective spirit of resistance and unwavering resilience necessary to continue the fight for democracy. Audacious Hope is an archive of these struggles, including the protests that united farmers across state borders in 2020 and the national outcry following the controversial CAA legislation. From the myriad ways people came to the aid of their fellow citizens during the pandemic to the testing of free-speech boundaries by cultural activists, this book undertakes the task of documenting resistance in its many forms. The author, Indrajit Roy challenges the reader with his account of how a proud people are battling to save their beloved democracy. The question is, how can we, through individual and collective action, resist authoritarianism, casteism and majoritarianism? The answer is, of course, through the audacity of hope. In this episode of BIC Talks, Indrajit is in conversation with journalist and editor Prem Panicker. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in February 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible and Amazon Music.

Ruchira Gupta grew up on her father’s bedtime stories, sparking a desire to become a storyteller like him. Inspired by a childhood article titled The Autobiography of a Pencil, published at the age of ten, Ruchira resolved to become a journalist. Despite initial disinterest in college, she pursued it to secure a job at a Kolkata newspaper. A turning point occurred during a work assignment in Nepal, where she discovered the harrowing reality of girls being trafficked into Indian brothels. Her documentary, The Selling of Innocents, earned her an Emmy. Unfulfilled, Ruchira left journalism, founded the NGO Apne Aap, and collaborated with the United Nations to combat sex trafficking globally. Despite accolades and a book, I Kick and I Fly, she remains dedicated to eradicating human trafficking and envisions a world free from the buying and selling of human beings. In this episode of BIC Talks Ruchira shares her story on art and activism and discusses with activist and educator Manira Alva, her book, her work and the work that is yet to be done. This is an excerpt from an in-person event that took place in the BIC premises in February 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible and Amazon Music.

The global economic outlook in the future is going to be uncertain with wide disruption in all walks of life. The accelerating progress of AI comes at a pivotal moment in the global economy. AI and automation may offer a broad-based surge in productivity – resulting in all-round development and a more positive outlook. But to harness the true power of an AI-powered economy, a robust policy framework that fosters collaboration, and enhances human potential and responsible management of data is required. In this episode of BIC Talks economist & Nobel Laureate, Michael Spence is in a conversation educationist & CEO of Azim Premji Foundation with Anurag Behar.  This is an extract from an in-person event that took place in the bic premises in February 2024 Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible and Amazon Music.

Can a song trigger a murder? Can a poem spark a riot? Can a book divide a people?  From catchy songs with acerbic lyrics to poetry recited in kavi sammelans to social media influencers shaping opinions with their brand of ‘breaking news’ to books rescripting historical events, ‘Hindutva Pop’ or H-Pop is steadily creating societal acceptability for Hindutva’s core beliefs. What makes H-Pop so popular? Who are its stars and its audience? Who is pouring in the money,  the effort and the resources to produce and broadcast it? What is the political economy of H-Pop? These are some of the questions that award-winning independent journalist Kunal Purohit  explores in his riveting investigative book, H-Pop: The Secretive World Of Hindutva Pop Stars, as he travels through India profiling some of H-Pop’s  most prolific and popular creators—its stars and celebrities. In the process, he interrogates whether the creators are driven by ideology or commerce, and what motivates the audience to  consume their daily dose of bigotry. In this episode of BIC Talks, an extract from an in-person event that took place in December 2023, Kunal along with stand up comedian Namit Jain and cultural practitioner Arundhati Ghosh discusses the key issues raised in the book and explore the effects of the the Political Influencer Economy. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible and Amazon Music.

Described as “a brilliant history of economic ideas” by Amartya Sen, Aditya Balasubramanian’s recent book Toward a Free Economy: Swatantra and Opposition Politics in Democratic India, shows how ideas of ‘free economy’ emerged from communities in southern and western India as they embraced new forms of entrepreneurial activity, in opposition to the so-called ‘socialist planned economy’ of Nehruvian India. ‘Free economy’ became the rallying cry for the Swatantra (Freedom) Party, which rose and fell in 1960s India. Its project of opposition politics sought to create a viable conservative alternative to the dominant Indian National Congress and push India toward a two-party system. In this episode of BIC talks, author Aditya Balasubramanian is in conversation with Narayan Ramachandran. This discussion provides a perspective on the changing relationship between the state and markets and the evolution of democracy in India and help us better understand communities who have been disproportionately successful in the aftermath of liberalisation and shed light on the constructive role opposition has played in Indian society. This episode is an extract from an in-person event that took place at the BIC premises in December 2023. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible and Amazon Music.

The thinking on political theory that went into the making of the Indian Constitution was not derivative, but highly original. The constitution is based on a long tradition of highly original Indian political reflection. This originality lay in the framers’ forceful critique against some basic axioms of Western political theory. As illustrations, in this episode of BIC Talks Sudipta Kaviraj (Professor, Columbia University, and Distinguished Visiting Faculty at the NLSIU) shall present Tagore’s thinking on religion and modernity, Gandhi-Tagore-Nehru’s ideas of the nation, and Ambedkar’s late deployment of Buddhism. Indian nationalist thought also displayed a contending tradition that accepted and elaborated on fundamental Western ideas – as in Iqbal and Savarkar. The constitution sought to develop a state-form that was based on a rejection of the European idea of a nation-state – though this is sometimes obscured, because the framers used a Western-derived language. Thus, those who believe that the constitution is ‘Western’ or colonial are in error; and their search for an alternative is based, ironically, on an imitation of modern Western ideals. This episode was originally delivered by Sudipta Kaviraj as the MK Nambyar Annual Lecture in November 2023, in collaboration with National Law School of India University. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible and Amazon Music.

It is not often that an author and his editor strike up a relationship that survives forty years of epistolary exchanges and intellectual sparring. The strangely enduring and occasionally fractious friendship that developed between the famously outspoken historian Ramachandra Guha and his reticent editor Rukun Advani is the subject of his new literary memoir. It started in Delhi in the early 1980s, when Guha was an unpublished PhD scholar, and Advani a greenhorn editor with the Oxford University Press. It blossomed through the 1990s, when Guha grew into a pioneering historian of the environment and of cricket, while also writing his biography of Verrier Elwin. Over these years, Advani was Guha’s most constant confidant, his most reliable reader. He encouraged him to craft and refine the literary style for which Guha became internationally known. Four decades later, though he no longer publishes his books, Advani remains Guha’s most trusted literary adviser. Yet they also disagree ferociously on politics, human nature, and the nature of their commitment to India. They usually make up – because it  just wouldn’t do to allow such an odd relationship to die. In this episode of BIC Talks, built around letters and emails between an outgoing and occasionally combative scholar and a reclusive editor prone to private outbursts of savage sarcasm, Ramachandra Guha discusses his new book, The Cooking of Books: A Literary Memoir. This episode is adapted from an in-person event that took place at the BIC premises in early February 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible and Amazon Music.

Dr. Raghuram Rajan Economist, Educator & Former Governor, RBI speaks in context of his latest book - Breaking the Mould: Reimagining India’s Economic Future, in the context of a first-time collaboration between Dr Rajan and economist Rohit Lamba. These two distinguished voices from the field of economics and public policy have put together a gripping book about the future of India’s economic development. There is a truly Indian path to prosperity, they argue, that builds on the strengths of our people and our political and societal frameworks. They examine fundamental policy choices that concern every Indian. In this episode of BIC Talks, Dr. Rajan speaks followed by a conversation with Dr. Lamba and Prof. Manaswini Bhalla, Associate Professor of Economics, IIM-B, tackling questions like - Where is India going today? Is it surging forward, having just overtaken the United Kingdom to become the fifth-largest economy in the world? Or is it floundering, unable to provide jobs for the millions joining the labour force? What should India do to secure a better future? Breaking the Mould: Reimagining India’s Economic Future tackles these critical questions that revolve around India’s growth and progress in the 21st century. This is an excerpt from an in-person event that took place in December 2023. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible and Amazon Music.