For 50th episode of संवाद series, we visited the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to talk to students and understand their idea of JNU, their views on various issues and the work they are doing. 0:00 Introduction 6:13 From Bihar to JNU 11:21 JNU - A place in decline? 16:27 The JNU Experience - Being a women 27:33 Discovering a conspiracy theory 29:36 American Studies at JNU 43:37 UPSC culture at JNU 45:49 The idea of JNU 56:10 How did JNU respond to its image problem 1:01:10 Change and continui...
Jun 05, 2022•2 hr 17 min
B. Mahadevan is a professor of Operations Management at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, where he has been teaching since 1992. Professor Mahadevan has more than 27 years of wide-ranging experience in teaching, research, consulting, and academic administration at IIM Bangalore and other reputed institutions such as IIT Delhi and XLRI, Jamshedpur. Professor Mahadevan’s research interests include researching the possibility of using ancient Indian wisdom to address contemporary concer...
Jun 05, 2022•59 min
Sudhanshu Mani is a former officer of the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers, where he served for 38 years. He retired as the general manager of the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, where Train 18 was built from design to development in record 18 months under his leadership.
May 16, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Kedar Phalke is a historian of medieval India who has written several books on the Maratha Empire.
May 16, 2022•1 hr 34 min
Gopi Shankar Madurai is an equal rights and indigenous rights activist. He was one of the youngest, and the first openly intersex and genderqueer, candidates to contest in 2016 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election. Shankar’s work inspired the Madras High Court (Madurai Bench) to direct the Government of Tamil Nadu to order a ban on forced sex-selective surgeries on intersex infants. In August 2020 the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment appointed Shankar as the South Regional represen...
May 16, 2022•58 min
Priyam Gandhi-Mody is a strategist specializing in political communication. She frequently writes political non-fiction and ‘A Nation To Protect’ is her third book. She’s an alumna of the University of Delaware and Florida State University. Having worked briefly at the Capitol in Tallahassee, she now lives in Mumbai with her husband, son and a golden retriever.
Apr 24, 2022•57 min
Vaibhav Singh is founder of Defensive Offence and Co-founder of DO Politics.
Apr 16, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Sudhanshu Mani is a former officer of the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers, where he served for 38 years. He retired as the general manager of the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, where Train 18 was built from design to development in record 18 months under his leadership.
Apr 16, 2022•1 hr 5 min
Dr Tripurdaman Singh is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London and a Visiting Fellow at the International Institute of Asian Studies, Universiteit Leiden. He is the author of ’ Imperial Sovereignty and Local Politics: The Bhadauria Rajputs and the Transition from Mughal to British India, 1600-1900’ and ‘Sixteen Stormy Days: The Story of the First Amendment to the Constitution of India’. His latest book is ‘Nehru: The Debates that defi...
Mar 20, 2022•1 hr 16 min
J. Sai Deepak is an engineer-turned-litigator, practising as an arguing counsel primarily before the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Delhi. he has been part of several landmark matters, such as the ones relating to the Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple, the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple and Basmati Geographical Indications. India, That Is Bharat, his first book in a comprehensive trilogy, explores the influence of European 'colonial consciousness' (or 'coloniality'), in particular its religiou...
Mar 18, 2022•1 hr 12 min
Rohit Pathania is an author, analyst and observer with varied interests in politics, history and environment.
Mar 13, 2022•1 hr 14 min
Nityānanda Miśra is an author based in Mumbai. He works in the investment banking industry. He has edited and authored eight books in Sanskrit, Hindi, and English. Born in Lucknow, Misra is an MBA from IIM Bangalore.
Mar 11, 2022•1 hr 19 min
Abhijit Iyer Mitra is a senior research fellow at New Delhi based think tank ‘institute of Peace and Conflict Studies’ where he focuses on defence issues, specialising in defence economics, technology and procurement, nuclear dynamics, governance issues and non-traditional security threats. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Stimson Center, Washington, DC.
Mar 02, 2022•1 hr 5 min
Vivek Agnihotri is National Award winning filmmaker and bestselling author of ‘Urban Naxals’. His latest movie ‘The Kashmir Files’ releases on 11 March 2022.
Mar 01, 2022•1 hr 29 min
Angad Singh is a Project Coordinator with ORF’s Strategic Studies Programme. His research focuses on defence and air power, with a focus on technology, operations and perspective planning in an air-centric defence paradigm. He has worked as a defence journalist and commentator for seven years, and has contributed to a number of books on military aviation. Angad is presently working on a project chronicling the MiG-27’s service with the Indian Air Force.
Feb 21, 2022•1 hr 29 min
Rohit Jayaraman is a corporate lawyer who has also worked as a political consultant.
Feb 17, 2022•1 hr 26 min
Arjun Singh Kadian is an academic and policy professional. A geologist by training, he graduated from Hansraj College, University of Delhi, and is a gold medalist in his master's degree. In addition to teaching, Arjun has worked at the chief minister's office, Haryana and travelled widely across the region to understand the nuances of the state. Arjun is an alumnus of the Observer Research Foundation and ZEIT-Stiftung. He is also a fellow at Konrad-Adenanar-Stiftung. Arjun is also involved with ...
Feb 02, 2022•1 hr 10 min
Abhishek Asthana, popularly known as Gabbbar Singh on Twitter, is a former software engineer who went on to found his own advertisement agency Ginger Monkey in 2019 and has now co-founded a social media startup Zorro.
Feb 02, 2022•1 hr 25 min
Abhijit Iyer Mitra is a senior research fellow at New Delhi based think tank ‘institute of Peace and Conflict Studies’ where he focuses on defence issues, specialising in defence economics, technology and procurement, nuclear dynamics, governance issues and non-traditional security threats. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Stimson Center, Washington, DC.
Feb 02, 2022•2 hr 6 min
Ashish Dhar is the co-founder of Pragyata and Upword Foundation and the Director of Operations at The Indic Collective Trust.
Jan 18, 2022•1 hr 26 min
Rohit Pathania is an author, analyst and observer with varied interests in politics, history and environment
Jan 16, 2022•1 hr 39 min
Pradeep Bhandari is an author, entrepreneur, psephologist, founder & MD of Jan ki Baat and hosts a prime time show at India News.
Jan 16, 2022•1 hr 19 min
Shantanu Gupta is the founder of a leading youth based organisation, Yuva Foundation, which works with youth and spreads awareness among them, on policy, politics and social issues. In the past he has worked for a renowned think tank, Center for Civil Society (CCS). Shantanu has worked long in the hinterlands of Bundelkhand with UNICEF in Uttar Pradesh. He has also lead large-scale remedial education interventions with Naandi Foundation in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and New Delhi. Shantanu has ...
Dec 26, 2021•1 hr 22 min
Chamu Krishna Shastry is an Indian educationist who has been working for the revival of the Sanskrit language for the last four decades, particularly spearheading the movement to teach Sanskrit through Sanskrit. He is the trustee and Secretary of Sanskrit Promotion Foundation. He is also the co-founder of Sanskrit Bharati. In 2017, Government of India awarded him with Padma Shri, fourth highest civilian award, for his contribution towards Literature and education. In November 2021, the Centre ap...
Dec 25, 2021•1 hr 12 min
Dr Meenakshi Jain is a historian interested in cultural and religious developments in ancient and medieval India. Her recent publications include Vasudeva Krishna and Mathura (2021); Flight of Deities and Rebirth of Temples (2019); The Battle for Rama: Case of the Temple at Ayodhya (2017); Sati: Evangelicals, Baptist Missionaries, and the Changing Colonial Discourse (2016); and Rama and Ayodhya (2013). In 2020, she was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.
Dec 14, 2021•1 hr 10 min
Dr. Anupam Singh is a physician and MD in Internal Medicine. He is a consultant at Aarogya Hospital in Ghaziabad and also works as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine in SMC, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. His areas of interest are: tuberculosis, asthma, meta-research, Bayesian methods and predictive modelling in medicine. Currently he is working on validity of western cardiovascular risk scores in Indian scenario.
Dec 14, 2021•1 hr 27 min
Dr Koenraad Elst (°Leuven, Belgium 1959) has a master’s in Sinology, Indology and Philosophy and a doctorate in Oriental Studies with a dissertation on Hindu Nationalism. While intermittently employed in political journalism and as foreign policy adviser in the Belgian Senate, his scholarly research findings earned him both laurels and ostracism. His numerous publications concern Asian philosophies, language policy, democracy, Indo–European origins, Vedic history and the interface of religion an...
Dec 14, 2021•1 hr 43 min
Nityānanda Miśra is an author based in Mumbai. He works in the investment banking industry. He has edited and authored eight books in Sanskrit, Hindi, and English. Born in Lucknow, Misra is an MBA from IIM Bangalore.
Dec 08, 2021•1 hr 50 min
S. Vijay Kumar is a Singapore-based finance and shipping expert who is general manager of a leading ocean transportation company. In 2007–08 he started a blog on Indian art. In 2010 Vijay got involved with both Indian and United States law enforcement agencies that were investigating cases of idol theft and smuggling. Vijay has played a role in the arrests of several idol thieves and smugglers. He has also successfully matched several stolen idols with pieces that have been acquired by museums, ...
Nov 21, 2021•1 hr 3 min
Arjun Singh Kadian is an academic and policy professional. A geologist by training, he graduated from Hansraj College, University of Delhi, and is a gold medalist in his master's degree. In addition to teaching, Arjun has worked at the chief minister's office, Haryana and travelled widely across the region to understand the nuances of the state. Arjun is an alumnus of the Observer Research Foundation and ZEIT-Stiftung. He is also a fellow at Konrad-Adenanar-Stiftung. Arjun is also involved with ...
Nov 14, 2021•1 hr 7 min