In the third episode of Safe Spaces, we discuss a commonly misunderstood reality — child sexual development. We also look at child sexual abuse and restorative practices that can lead children to grow into more balanced, healthy adults. In our society, discussing sexuality openly with family, friends, and peers has often been taboo, shrouded in mis…

In the second episode of Safe Spaces, we take a look at the factors that shape our beliefs and behaviours in the bedroom. Join Dr. Sangeeta Saksena and host Anishaa Tavag as they explore how societal norms and misconceptions about gender have developed over time, setting the stage for a deeper understanding of contemporary issues in sexuality and g…

In the premiere episode of Safe Spaces, we delve into the history of human evolution to uncover the roots of gender bias. Join Dr. Sangeeta Saksena and host Anishaa Tavag as they explore how societal norms and misconceptions about gender have developed over time, setting the stage for a deeper understanding of contemporary issues in sexuality and g…

The Great Flap of 1942 is a narrative history of a neglected and scarcely known period—between December 1941 and mid-1942—when all of India was caught in a state of panic. This was largely a result of the British administration’s mistaken belief that Japan was on the verge of launching a full-fledged invasion. It was a time when the Raj became undu…

At the start of his career as sub-collector of Parvathipuram sub-division in north-coastal Andhra Pradesh way back in 1974, Subbarao learnt – the hard way – that tribal development requires more than enthusiasm; it requires most of all an understanding of poverty. Nearly forty years later, in 2013, as the governor of the Reserve Bank of India in th…

In this episode of BIC Talks, Author & Historian- Hindol Sengupta discusses the relevance of a relatively lesser-known but fundamental text of the Advaita Vedanta School of Hinduism called the Ashtavakra Gita at a time of global conflict. It will focus on the personal experience of the transformative and redeeming power of the text amidst the turmo…

On the surface, an Indian doctor, a British poet, an UberEats courier in Pittsburgh, and a Chinese activist in exile have nothing in common. But they are in fact linked by a profound common experience―unexpected encounters with artificial intelligence. In her debut book Code Dependent, shortlisted for the inaugural Women’s Prize for Non-fiction 202…

Karthik Venkatesh, in his book, 10 Indian Languages and How They Came to Be, traces the long and varied journeys of ten languages through time, examining the cultural shifts and political and social influences that have shaped them. He provides a glimpse of their literature, tracks the growth of their scripts and identifies landmark moments that ha…

Karnataka elects 28 members to the Lok Sabha and is considered a crucial swing state (to borrow a term from American politics) in the forthcoming elections as the INDIA Alliance is hoping to make major gains here. But if history is any indicator, then the BJP has an advantage. In the past four parliamentary elections since 2004, the BJP has managed…

In India, the question of whether voters are truly getting what they vote for remains a complex and often debated issue. While elections provide a platform for citizens to express their preferences and hold their representatives accountable, challenges such as electoral misconduct, corruption, and the influence of money and power continue to cast d…

On the eve of the 2024 general election, electoral bonds have been thrust into the spotlight, representing a focal point in discussions surrounding political financing in India. These bonds, introduced as a means to ostensibly bring transparency to political funding, have instead been criticised for exacerbating the problem by allowing for anonymou…

Misinformation and fake news pose significant challenges in the electoral context in India, influencing public opinion, political discourse, and ultimately, democratic processes. With the widespread use of social media and messaging platforms, false narratives can spread rapidly, often targeting specific communities or political factions. This phen…

"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 …

"The Gift That Keeps Giving," is a special five-part BIC Talks mini-series on the life and work of AK 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 Ra…

"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 …

"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 …

"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 …

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 neces…

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 turnin…

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…

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 H…

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 …

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, i…

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 liter…

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 grippi…

The ongoing crises in Ukraine and Gaza highlight the pressing need for a revamped international approach that recognizes the increasing autonomy of middle and smaller powers globally. This necessitates a rejection of attempts to revive a failed unilateral U.S. dominance or force diverse conflicts into an outdated "great power competition" model aki…

Contemporary India is witness to a huge change in which, space for serious conversations on all aspects of culture, is receding. The advocacy of religious-cultural nationalism has come to replace all forms of culture. It has also come to take many forms. For instance, the murder of rationalists – Kalburgi, Pansare, and Gauri Lankesh – underlines th…

That the 20th century shapes our present and will influence our future is common point of debate in India. Clearly, politics and economics, culture and society clearly were deeply influenced, if not fundamentally shaped, by choices made at key points of time. Yet this applies equally, so with even greater long-term consequences, to the environment …

Kumaravyasa’s Bharata is a crown jewel of Kannada literature, beloved by scholars and common people alike. In this 15th-century classic, Kumaravyasa reimagines Vyasa’s epic, making it more compact, dramatic, closer to everyday life and language. He dispenses with most didactic material, cuts out subsidiary tales, and concludes with the end of the w…

Kumaravyasa’s Bharata is a crown jewel of Kannada literature, beloved by scholars and common people alike. In this 15th-century classic, Kumaravyasa reimagines Vyasa’s epic, making it more compact, dramatic, closer to everyday life and language. He dispenses with most didactic material, cuts out subsidiary tales, and concludes with the end of the w…

Kumaravyasa’s Bharata is a crown jewel of Kannada literature, beloved by scholars and common people alike. In this 15th-century classic, Kumaravyasa reimagines Vyasa’s epic, making it more compact, dramatic, closer to everyday life and language. He dispenses with most didactic material, cuts out subsidiary tales, and concludes with the end of the w…

How do people, who are often at the receiving end of legal violence, engage with the law? Amidst the grinding terror trials – which are replete with stories of torture, illegal detention and fabricated charges – this presentation will discuss how the terror-accused schooled themselves in legal language and came to understand how paperwork’s certifi…

Pranay Kotasthane, Co-author of "Missing in Action," and Devashish Dhar, Author of "India’s Blind Spot," come together for a unique duet in the realm of policy. Drawing inspiration from the classical music approach of jugalbandi that allows artists to showcase their mastery of instruments, Pranay and Devashish leverage their experiences at Takshash…

Gandhiji gave expression to his dreams for Swaraj or Independent India on many occasions in many ways. “The Swaraj of my…our…dream recognizes no race or religious destinations. Nor is it to be the monopoly of the lettered persons nor yet of moneyed men. Swaraj is to be for all, including the farmer, but emphatically including the maimed, the blind,…

This episode of BIC Talks is an excerpt from a live discussion at the BIC premises presented by DAKSH in late October 2023. The panelists in this discussion were Justice Suraj Govindraj, Judge, Karnataka High Court; Sarayu Natarajan, Founder, Aapti Institute; Prof. Nomesh Boliya, Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Delhi and …

In the aftermath of ChatGPT fueled AI hype, there’s an equally charged conversation on how the public and governments should respond to present (and future) harms related to these technologies. It’s a crowded space – with AI industry voices and existential risk (x-risk) doomers trying to shape the narrative on regulation alongside civil society adv…

As we approach the 300 episode milestone, this special installment of BIC Talks - the last of 2023 - featuring V Ravichandar, honorary director of BIC, Raghu Tenkayala, Chief of Operations and Infrastructure and Vikram Bhat, current Joint Director, taking over as director from the first of January in conversation with Lekha Naidu, Programme Manager…

In a world where more and more people burrow deeper into the silos of their way of thinking, the separation from an understanding of another view, much less an appreciation, is shrinking. In a healthy society, the moderate middle continues to grow at the expense of fringes competing against each other in deepening the wells of hate and misunderstan…

The Indians is a collection of essays by some of South Asia’s foremost historians and scholars that maps the origins, evolution, and present-day reality of India's civilisation and people. The collection covers a period of some 12,000 years-from the last Ice Age to the twenty-first century. The book is divided into seven sections - the first part l…

The Indians is a collection of essays by some of South Asia’s foremost historians and scholars that maps the origins, evolution, and present-day reality of India's civilisation and people. The collection covers a period of some 12,000 years-from the last Ice Age to the twenty-first century. The book is divided into seven sections - the first part l…

The Indians is a collection of essays by some of South Asia’s foremost historians and scholars that maps the origins, evolution, and present-day reality of India's civilisation and people. The collection covers a period of some 12,000 years-from the last Ice Age to the twenty-first century. The book is divided into seven sections - the first part l…

The Indians is a collection of essays by some of South Asia’s foremost historians and scholars that maps the origins, evolution, and present-day reality of India's civilisation and people. The collection covers a period of some 12,000 years-from the last Ice Age to the twenty-first century. The book is divided into seven sections - the first part l…

The Indians is a collection of essays by some of South Asia’s foremost historians and scholars that maps the origins, evolution, and present-day reality of India's civilisation and people. The collection covers a period of some 12,000 years-from the last Ice Age to the twenty-first century. The book is divided into seven sections - the first part l…

The Indians is a collection of essays by some of South Asia’s foremost historians and scholars that maps the origins, evolution, and present-day reality of India's civilisation and people. The collection covers a period of some 12,000 years-from the last Ice Age to the twenty-first century. The book is divided into seven sections - the first part l…

The Indians is a collection of essays by some of South Asia’s foremost historians and scholars that maps the origins, evolution, and present-day reality of India's civilisation and people. The collection covers a period of some 12,000 years-from the last Ice Age to the twenty-first century. The book is divided into seven sections - the first part l…

This lecture by the critic, thinker, educator and activist Professor GN Devy, focuses on the year 1923 and recounts Rabindranath Tagore’s visit to Gujarat in October/November of that year, Mahatma Gandhi’s days in prison and Dr. Ambedkar being awarded the D.SC. and being admitted to Bar in London. The lecture featured in this episode of BIC Talks p…

Over a month into Israel’s strikes on Gaza in retaliation for Hamas terror attacks, is the world on the brink of a bigger war with repercussions across West Asia? What are the likely off-ramps that could see a peaceful outcome now and how could the continuing violence impact the world? And, amidst growing global polarisation, what are India’s optio…

None Wiser than the Law is a miniseries of in-depth conversations with Justice MN Venkatachaliah, providing an intimate exploration of the legal realm, his life journey, political insights, and the Indian constitution. The title of this podcast draws inspiration from Aristotle, who said to seek to be wiser than the law is the very thing which is by…

None Wiser than the Law is a miniseries of in-depth conversations with Justice MN Venkatachaliah, providing an intimate exploration of the legal realm, his life journey, political insights, and the Indian constitution. The title of this podcast draws inspiration from Aristotle, who said to seek to be wiser than the law is the very thing which is by…

None Wiser than the Law is a miniseries of in-depth conversations with Justice MN Venkatachaliah, providing an intimate exploration of the legal realm, his life journey, political insights, and the Indian constitution. The title of this podcast draws inspiration from Aristotle, who said to seek to be wiser than the law is the very thing which is by…