NIAS October Report Final
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OCTOBER 2017 NIAS EVENTS AND ACTIVITES NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE CAMPUS, BANGALORE-12 NIAS was conceived and founded in 1988 by the late Mr. J. R. D. Tata, who sought to create an institution to conduct advanced multidisciplinary research. Housed in a picturesque green campus in Bangalore the Institute serves as a forum to bring together individuals from diverse intellectual backgrounds. The objective is to nurture a broad base of scholars, managers and leaders who would respond to the complex challenges that face contemporary India and global society, with insight, sensitivity, confidence and dedication. 2 EVENTS ROUND GLASS SAMSARA FESTIVAL 2-11 OCTOBER 2017 Coordinators: Prof Anitha Kurup and Dr Rajani MB 01 RoundGlass Samsara Festival 2017’ organised in association with National Institute EVENTS of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru held during 2-11th October 2017, Bengaluru. It is a global heralding of Conscious Action through Art, Appreciation and Dialogue, spear- headed by Grammy® Winner & well known Conservationist Ricky Kej, successfully concluded the 10 days long festival on Environment and Conservation. This large scale International Environmental Festival having thousands of audience had series of events including Environmental Art Exhibitions, Film Festivals, Music Concert and 02 Summits. All with the theme of Environment & Conservation, which were attended by Thought Leaders, Scientists, Legislators, Intelligentsia, Law-makers, Artists, Media CONFERENCE, & many more from different walks of life from around the world. WORKSHOPS AND MEETINGS 02 03 NIAS PUBLIC PROGRAMMES Mr. Anote Tong (Former 3 Term President, Republic of Kiribati), addressing the public at Round Glass 04 Samsara Summit, Vidhana Soudha, Bengaluru on 07 October 2017 04 International Film Festival: NIAS OUTREACH ‘RoundGlass Samsara Festival 2017’ opened at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS at IISc campus) on the auspicious day of Gandhi Jayanti on October 2nd with an insightful walk through wilderness with an array of environmental films. The Festival, launched by Grammy® Winner Ricky Kej, was attended by numerous dignitaries, including award winning Swedish filmmaker Mr. Frederic Ollerstam, also 05 a jury member for the festival; and Grammy-Nominee, Lonnie Park from USA. A total of 90 films from over 4000 entries from 105 countries were screened during NIAS NATURE this film festival. Each chosen film was carefully curated by an eminent panel of film CONNECT makers and has a theme of environment. While the chosen films are interesting, they were also entertaining and had the power to enter the consciousness of viewers. The film festival had a great response with more than 1500 people watching these environmentally conscious movies. It also had an ‘Indian Premiere’ of the Film ‘Naledi – A Baby Elephants Tale’ by Ben Bowie & Geoffery Luck from USA . 03 EVENTS International Art Exhibition: The International Environmental Art Exhibition opened on October 3rd at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Bengaluru. The Chief Guest for the inauguration of the Art Exhibition was Mr.Sudhakar Rao, Chairman, NGMA Bengaluru and the Guests of Honor were Mr.Y.K.Muddukrishna, Former Director of Kannada & Culture Department & Winner of Santha Shishunala Sharief Award and Mr.Vikram Sampath, Author & Winner of Sahitya Academi Yuva Puraskar. The 2nd Art Exhibition inaugurated at UB city on 4th October witnessed an overwhelming response from around the world. Eminent artists whose art works were displayed at the exhibition are Dhritiman Mukherjee, Dhimant Vyasand, Meital Rusdia etc. Their works boldly provoke thoughts of environmental consciousness and conservation; the message being the need of a drastic change to make this world a better place for us and our natural world. The exhibition was on till the 10th of October. The art exhibition showcased created using diverse mediums including Photography, Painting, Digital Illustrations, Sculpture, Installations, Mixed Media and Virtual Reality. The Exhibition over 7days had a footfall of over 7000 people. 04 EVENTS International Music Concert: RoundGlass Samsara Festival presented a historic environmental music concert by Grammy® Winning Musician Ricky Kej at the magnificent venue of Vidhana Soudha as part of its curtain raiser to the 60th year celebrations. The concert had over 200 artists from around the world, including other Grammy® winners from USA, Ghana, Tibet and South Africa. The concert witnessed spectacular and thought provoking performances by Darlene Koldenhoven (USA), Wouter Kellerman (South Africa), Monks of Sherbaling (Tibet), Rocky Dawuni (Ghana), Lonnie Park (USA), Hai Phuong (Veitnam) along with renowned Indian musicians B. Jayashree, M.D. Pallavi, Dr.Suma Sudhindra, Sumarani, Charanraj, Chaitra H G, Venugopal and many others. Environmental Summits. The festival concluded with two International Environmental Summits held at Vidhana Soudha and National Institute of Advanced Studies, (IISc campus) on Oct 7th & 8th respectively. The Summits touched upon topics such as Sustainability, Man-Animal Conflict, Climate Change, empowering people, Conservation and associated misconceptions, SDGs etc. Along with some thought-provoking, soul-stirring presentations and interactions, the Summits also saw musical performances and a meaningful awards ceremony honoring winners of the RoundGlass Samsara Film Festival, RoundGlass Samsara Photography Competition and RoundGlass Samsara Childrens Competitions. The Festival also honored 2 unsung heroes of our Forest Department, the Forest Range Officers. 05 EVENTS All the Festival events were attended by numerous dignitaries as speakers, participants and audience. The key speakers included Mr. Anote Tong (Former 3 Term President, Republic of Kiribati), Mr. Robert Swan(Adventurist, Guinness Record Holder), Mr. Kartick Satyanarayanan (Animal Rights Activist, Rescue Specialist), Mr. Jairam Ramesh (Former Union Minister), Mr. Vivek Menon (CEO, Wildlife Trust of India), Ms. Dia Mirza (Brand Ambassador - Wildlife Trust of India), Mr. Mordecai Ogada (Carnivore Ecologist, Kenya), A.S. Kiran Kumar (Chairman, ISRO), Ms. Meital Rusdia (Chief Field Office for UNICEF South India), Mr. Kalyan Akkipeddi (Founder of Proto Village- a Sustainable Village), Dr. Barbara Maas (Conservationist), Ms. Tashi and Ms. Nungshi Malik (Adventurists, Guinness record holders), Mr. Dhritiman Mukherjee (Nature/Wildlife Photographer) and Prof.Sundar Sarukkai (Professor of Philosophy at NIAS, Bangalore). Ricky Kej said, “The RoundGlass Samsara Festival was founded to encourage high-level, inter-disciplinary dialogue between Legislators, Scientists, Filmmakers, Artists, Environmentalists, Innovators, Musicians, Thought Leaders, Industry Leaders, Media and other important change-makers in the society to find solutions for the ecological crises in the country and around the world and to promote Environmental Consciousness. Through this Festival of Art, Appreciation and Dialogue, we hope to not only create awareness of what we are doing but to also create a consciousness about our actions in this world and the impact it has on all our co-inhabitants.” 06 EVENTS The closing statements by Prof. Baldev Raj, Director NIAS and Festival Adviser, stressed on the importance of going past caste, creed, gender, region and physical appearances to achieve sustainability. He said, “Sustainability can be achieved only from coming together and working towards it. All citizens have to be consciously involved otherwise the whole idea of sustainability is not met. The Samsara festival is like a lotus in a pool. The way a lotus multiplies in its ecosystem, this festival will similarly play the role in the journey of sustainability in the next 25 years of 'RoundGlass’ Phase 1.” Carbon Auditing of RoundGlass Samsara Festival: Smarter Dharma monitored every detail, right from the number of energy blubs used, the temperature of the air conditioning system, printing, air and land travel, food consumption etc in order to arrive at the cumulative carbon emission. Measures were taken at the outset to limit the footprint by using alternates, but what was not, will be offset through planting an equivalent number of trees or installing renewable energy resources or buying credits on solar installations etc among other such measures. On a very rough calculation (as data is still being accumulated), the Festival will need to plant and take care of about 90 – 130 trees to offset its carbon emission and hence become the first ever event in India to become fully carbon neutral. 07 CONFERENCE, WORKSHOPS AND MEETINGS AARAMBH 1: HINDUSTANI CLASSICAL MUSIC INITIATION WORKSHOP IN COLLABORATION WITH MS ADITI UPADHYA, WELL-KNOWN HINDUSTANI VOCALIST (OCTOBER 26 AND 27, 2017) Coordinator: Prof Sundar Sarukkai The Aarambh series, a Svarit initiative in association with NIAS, is an earnest attempt to demystify the complexities of Hindustani Raag sangeet for audiences and students featuring Smt. Aditi Kaikini Upadhya, a well known Hindustani vocalist. Through lucid explanation and live demonstration by expert artists in the field, the sessions unravel the key components of Hindustani music to make the abstract style more accessible. It intends to stimulate meaningful conversations on music that can enhance the listening experience and bridge the gap between the performer and the audience. It is aimed to reach a wide audience spectrum, from audiences who want to enhance their basic listening skills, to those