Events

Conversation on the Book : The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate with India

Date: 18th August (Wednesday)

Time: 5.30 pm – 6.30 pm 

Speaker: Mr Vijay Gokhale

Chairperson: Amb Gautam Bambawale

India and the World’s Great Religions : Christianity and Indian Culture

Date: 13th August 2021 (Friday)

Time: 5.00 pm – 6.00 pm

Speaker: Dr. Sebastian M. Michael

Chairperson: Prof Pradeep Apte

Conversation on the Book : Decisive Decade India 2030: Gazelle or Hippo

Date: 10th August (Tuesday)

Time: 5.00 pm – 6.00 pm 

Speaker: Mr. Kiran Karnik

Chairperson: Dr. Ganesh Natarajan

Conversation on the Book: Renaissance State: The Unwritten Story of the Making of Maharashtra

Date: 6th August 2021 (Friday)

Time: 5.00 pm – 6.00 pm

Speaker: Mr. Girish Kuber

Chairperson: Dr. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha

For the fifth lecture in PIC’s ‘Ambassador Speaks’ series, we had the honour of hosting H. E. Mr. Mohamed Maliki, Ambassador of His Majesty the King of Morocco to India. HEon “Regional Emerging Challenges of Morocco and its Role, along with its partners, in the development and stability of Africa,” on 27th July. The event was chaired by Amb. Sudhir Devare, former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, India. Mr. Abhay Vaidya, Associate Director, PIC welcomed everyone and introduced the speaker.

Amb. Maliki began by providing a brief background of Morocco’s current relations with its partners in Africa. He touched upon the effect of the pandemic on globalisation, as well as bilateral and multilateral relations, especially with regard to the challenges with vaccine availability and distribution across the globe. He noted that like most countries, Morocco had to conduct a mid-term review of the national budget and development projects that were adversely affected by the on-going Covid-19 pandemic. He spoke of the evolution of relations between Morocco and its partners in the Maghreb and Sahel regions of Africa in finding solutions to the many issues the regions faced – from public health resource sharing to combating human trafficking. He noted that migratory flows of Africans to Europe was an issue that Morocco and its partner nations in Africa were working at managing, by having open and peaceful discussions to arrive at solutions to immigration issues.

Amb. Maliki also described some of the infrastructure projects like gas pipelines and electric grids that were being carried out by Morocco along with other African countries. He noted that the use of political Islam by Iran to destabilise the region was an issue of great concern not only for Morocco and North African nations, but also for the European Union. Another issue he elaborated on was that of the Sahara and Sahel regions, where Islamic fundamentalism had spread faster than the rest of Africa. Amb. Maliki noted that on-going democratisation processes and inter-African integration were being strengthened through military cooperation, religious and humanitarian diplomacy. He concluded that India’s role in the strengthening of such cooperation and integration in Africa, in partnership with African nations like Morocco and its partners was invaluable.

The lecture was followed by a round of questions and answers.

PIC Adda in July hosted Dr. Ajay Malshe, Technology Executive and Educator who spoke on the topic “Resilient Innovations for Social Equity (RISE): Frugal Engineering and Leadership” on 24th July. The session was moderated by Dr. Sangeeta Kale, Director (Policy and Planning), Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT) and Member, PIC. Dr. Kale welcomed the audience and introduced the speaker.

Dr. Malshe began by introducing his experience with setting up RISE Laboratories and the many innovations that came from his company. He provided the example of the African-American community having high death rates in USA during the first two waves of the pandemic. He briefly explained the data that RISE Laboratories used and the conclusions drawn from the same in order to innovate solutions for the community. He touched upon the technological and digital divide and how they had been drivers of exasperation and resentment in society, even in the USA. Dr. Malshe elaborated on how these circumstances drove him to adapt his study of social innovations to identify and analyse resilience in social innovation, or resilience as a component or outcome of social issues – and as an input factor for innovative solutions for these issues. He noted that this led to the development of the frugal engineering model for social innovations. He went on to describe how this informed his course design and student engagement with case studies on frugal engineering for social innovation.

An interesting round of questions and answers followed Dr Malshe’s talk.

PIC had the honour of hosting Dr. Prakash Hebalkar, Corporate Strategy and Public Policy Consultant and Dr. Shubhashis Gangopadhyay, Research Director, India Development Foundation and Dean, Indian School of Public Policy for a discussion on the topic “The Role of Digital Currency,” on 17th July. This session was chaired by Dr. Ajay Shah, Research Professor of Business, Jindal Global University. The event was moderated by Dr. Shilpa Phadke, Member, PIC, who introduced the speakers and chair.

Dr. Shah provided a brief background of the concept of digital currency – beginning from the origins of Bitcoin to the academic and technical debates over the viability and development of ‘stateless’ currency (that would not be regulated by institutions such as central banks), which could be used to transact digitally across the globe. Dr. Hebalkar elaborated on how the trend in use and availability of cryptocurrencies grew as they remained computationally complex commodities and thus available only to a technological, privileged few. He also explained other pseudo-currencies such as Ethereum and stable ‘coins’ while noting that their ‘trustworthiness’ was untested, especially given the anonymity they afforded everyone. He explained their growing popularity as investment instruments and the difficulties of regulating pseudo-currencies for government and market institutions. He concluded with a mention of the effect of digital currency on trade, monetary and economic power, which could tip the balance of power either way in the foreseeable future.

Dr. Gangopadhyay discussed the trustworthiness of digital currency. He explained that the reason central banks were now exploring digital currency technology was in order to reduce the cost of transactions, which were currently very high for most non-cash transactions conducted across the world today. He highlighted some issues that could be faced, including what would determine the value of digital currency, the role of central banks in this, as well as the split in the use of digital currency between the wholesale and retail ends.

The discussion was followed by a round of questions and answers.

PIC was pleased to conduct a webinar in collaboration with CUTS International on the topic “Improving India’s Competitiveness for Inclusive Growth” on 14th July. This webinar saw the launch of a draft white paper by CUTS International on the same topic, which was released by Dr. Vijay Kelkar (Vice President, PIC). The panellists included Dr. Ajit Ranade (Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group), Mr. Harsha Vardhan Singh (Chairman, Ikdhvaj Advisers LLP), Dr. Ajay Shah (Research Professor of Business, Jindal Global University) and Ms. Puja Mehra (Journalist). The discussion was moderated by Mr. Pradeep Mehta (Secretary General, CUTS International) who welcomed the audience and introduced the panellists.

The panellists highlighted several points that made the paper stand out. First, the efficient identification of priority issues such as centre-state cooperation, silo-based decision-making and policy implementation among others. Second, that it was a white paper that recommended implementable actions. Third, the identification of the vagueness of laws and their coerciveness given the government acting as authority over and not agent of the people. The discussion emphasised other points with regard to the influence of politics, trade, poor export growth and other factors on competitiveness in India as well as policy solutions to address these issues.

The discussion was followed by a round of questions and answers.

Dr. Abhay Firodia, Chairman, Force Motors Limited and Member, PIC, delivered the second lecture in PIC’s ‘India and the World’s Great Religions’ series. He spoke on “An introduction to Jainism – Philosophy, History and Relevance” on 9th July. The event was chaired by Dr. Arvind Jamkhedkar, Archaeologist and Historian, and moderated by Prof. Pradeep Apte. Mr. Abhay Vaidya welcomed everyone and Prof. Apte introduced the chair and speaker.

Dr. Firodia began his presentation by noting that there was need for a comprehensive view of India’s heritage, which had been influenced by several cultures over the past millennia. Touching upon the academic definitions of religion, he mentioned that myths, rituals and values formed three core aspects of any religion. He emphasised that the philosophy of Jainism was based on the law of the world (wherein living beings have to eat or be eaten) and how humans could practice a life or process of causing the least harm. This taps into the concepts of atma, karma and dharma. Within Jainism, he explained that three universal principles – ahimsa, anekantvada and aparigraha, are followed. He went on to explain the path defined by these principles, the Shramana tradition, and how a synthesis of Shramana and Vedic traditions brought about the current Hindu ethic. He provided some background and history on the tirthankaras of the Jain tradition from Rishabhadeva to Mahavira, explained some of the differences between the Digambara and Shwetambara sects of Jainism and the exchange of knowledge between the Shramanic and Vedic traditions.

The session concluded with Dr. Jamkhedkar’s remarks on the lecture by Dr. Firodia, and Mr. Vaidya delivered the vote of thanks.