BIC TALKS

It's here. The climate crisis is no longer a distant warning. Climate Change: The Policy, Law, and Practice is a vital intervention. A book that gathers decades of global negotiations, Indian legal battles, and emerging climate jurisprudence into one urgent and accessible narrative. From courtroom precedents to cutting-edge policy, from carbon markets to constitutional rights, it examines how law...

Insider accounts from political aides, bureaucrats, and diplomats have long illuminated the workings of power—but even more enigmatic were the lobbyists. Operating in the shadows, often invisible to public scrutiny, they were intimately privy to clandestine negotiations, back-channel discussions, and subtle bureaucratic skirmishes. In his new roman-à-clef  For No Reason At All , Ramjee Chandran sh...

Are we teaching children what to think, or how to think? When our children focus on rote learning and exam-based academic progress, how do we nurture the inventive Indian who can fuel the imagination of the world with creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving? What if classrooms became labs of imagination, not factories of repetition? These are the questions that the Agastya International...

As global power dynamics continue to shift, the Indo-Pacific sits at the heart of a rapidly evolving strategic and economic landscape. In this timely and wide-ranging session, Peter Varghese, former Australian Foreign Secretary and High Commissioner to India, offers a perspective shaped by decades of diplomacy and deep engagement with the region. His address will explore the complex forces redefin...

How do we honour truths without exploitation or erasure? This panel discussion will explore how the chapter of Partition is remembered, who holds the responsibility of preserving its stories, and what it means to give them an honest voice. Through literature, oral testimony, archives, or immersive media, each speaker has engaged with histories marked by silence, trauma, and survival. In this sessi...

Scholars of international relations, political thought, and India's diplomatic history continue to debate the meaning and relevance of non-alignment in India's foreign policy today. The origins of these debates lie in Jawaharlal Nehru's articulation of non-alignment at the height of the Cold War, a concept both resolute and ambiguous. In this talk, Dr. Swapna Kona Nayudu will draw on her acclaimed...

Journalism. Politics. Justice. One fateful evening in 2017, journalist Gauri Lankesh was shot outside her Bangalore home. Her death sent shockwaves across the country. But the story didn't end there. This evening with journalist and author Rollo Romig, as he explores in his powerful new book,  I Am on the Hit List , offers new insights into the life and assassination of Gauri Lankesh. In conversat...

Mumbai in the seventies and eighties was a city of sharp contrasts: glamour and gang wars, chaos and control. At the heart of it all was Assistant Commissioner of Police (Retd) Madhukar B. Zende, a sharp-minded officer with a knack for catching the city's most elusive criminals. Best known for arresting the infamous serial killer Charles Sobhraj, aka the Serpent, Zende's career spanned decades of...

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar is remembered and admired for many things: for his heroic, lifelong, campaign to eradicate the evil of untouchability; for his scholarly contributions as an economist and social theorist; for the social movements he led and the political parties he founded; for the educational institutions he nurtured; for his critical role in overseeing and directing the framing of the Constitu...

What was the process of wealth generation and accumulation by the most prominent business community of South India?  A journey that was marked by risk and courage; a journey that carried them to the greener pastures of South and Southeast Asia; and a journey that was shaped by the power of global events. In this conversation, scholar Prof. Carol Upadhya and veteran journalist K N Hari Kumar and Pr...

What happens when the promise of equal citizenship begins to fade for one of the world's largest Muslim populations? In today's India, the question is no longer theoretical, but urgent and deeply personal for over 200 million people. This session explores the shifting political landscape of Indian Muslims through the lens of  Shikwa-e-Hind , the new book by political scientist Mujibur Rehman. He e...

Around 15 years ago, the then UPA government had launched an all-out offensive (commonly known as 'Operation Greenhunt') targeting the armed cadres of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) (also known as Naxalites) across the 'Red Corridor' which consisted of Naxal-affected districts spanning Central and Eastern India and spilling into Southern India as well. According to reports at the time, Naxa...

Institutions and Public Policy for India's Sustainable Development – Perspectives on Governance, Technology, and Finance , is an edited volume in honour of Professor Vinod Vyasulu (Edited by – Sukhpal Singh, Jyotsna Jha, A. Indira and A. V. Arunkumar). The book addresses one of the most urgent challenges of our time – sustainable development. Across the globe economies are grappling with the combi...

Was Indira Gandhi a pragmatic nation-builder or an authoritarian disruptor or both? Historian Srinath Raghavan's new book,  Indira Gandhi: The Years That Transformed India , explores her complex legacy, from her central role in reshaping India's political structure to the controversial imposition of the Emergency. In this conversation with constitutional scholar Arun Thiruvengadam, the session wil...

The years between ages 10 and 19 are marked by intense physiological, psychological, and social change. Adding to the challenges of this already turbulent phase are mobile devices and social media. These platforms often exploit insecurities, creating echo chambers and negative feedback loops. While digital life can connect us, it also has the power to isolate. The TV series  Adolescence  highlight...

What would justice look like if it spoke in a queer voice? How might legal judgments shift if they were written through the lived experiences and realities of LGBTQIA+ individuals? In this session, we explore the bold and imaginative work of  The Queer Judgments Project,  an initiative that seeks to re-think, re-write, and re-invent legal judgments through queer and complementary perspectives. Eme...

When it comes to climate change and the environment, they are part of  the problem and part of the solution – Plastics and Lithium-ion. We cannot ignore the role these materials play in today's world. They have revolutionized many industries even while they have been the cause of negative ecological and social impacts. Mainly because their end-of-life management remains a significant global challe...

What happens when a defiant chronicler and an idealist revolutionary converge in the playground that is India's freedom struggle? Urdu newspaper Pratap, launched in pre-partition India, was a torchbearer against the British Raj. The man who publicly defended it against colonial censorship was none other than Jawaharlal Nehru. The pen picked up by freedom fighter Virendra, the paper's editor and th...

In this refreshingly jargon-free session, Lavanya Mohan, author of  Money Doesn't Grow on Trees,  gets real about why personal finance often feels confusing, boring, or just plain overwhelming. From spending in your 20s to planning in your 40s, Lavanya's approach is simple, meme-filled, and judgment-free. Whether you're dealing with your first paycheck, lifestyle creep, or just trying to adult res...

The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) has long been at the heart of India's constitutional and cultural tensions — hailed by some as a promise of equality, and critiqued by others as a tool of homogenisation. As the political momentum around the UCC gathers pace once again, with the recent Uttarakhand legislation in the news, this session revisits the debate from a constitutional, feminist, and social just...

Gurudev and Bapu  explores the extraordinary exchange of letters and ideas between Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, set against the backdrop of the Indian freedom struggle. Over 25 years, their correspondence reveals sharp differences on key issues—nationalism, civil disobedience, education—but also unwavering respect and affection between the two. Their dialogue reflects a time in India's...

From boasting of a lone International Master (IM) in Manuel Aaron in 1962, India has come a long way in the world of chess, particularly in the last two-and-half decades of the new Millennium. Today, India has 85 Grandmasters, including three women, 23 Woman Grand Masters, 140 International Masters and 42 Woman International Masters while the list of FIDE masters is growing by the day. In the top...

All Our Loves: Journeys with Polyamory in India  is an eye-opening book on polyamory—the practice of being in love, with or without sexual intimacies with more than one person simultaneously, with the consent of all. For anyone who has ever dreamed of love, sex, and companionship beyond the limits of traditional monogamy, this groundbreaking exploration navigates the infinite possibilities that po...

The fiercest wars are fought between siblings. Tara, a successful Delhi lawyer, is everything her younger brother isn't: dedicated, independent, thriving. When their beloved father retires, he summons them to a meeting. But what he has to say threatens to tear the family apart. Tara's friend Lila has it all: a great job, a lovely home, a beautiful family. But when Lila's father dies unexpectedly,...