122 Annual Report 2003-2004 100 Board of Trustees Shri Soli J. Sorabjee, President Dr L.M. Singhvi Dr Karan Singh Dr Kapila Vatsyayan Prof. M.G.K. Menon Shri S. K. Singh Dr Arun Nigavekar Shri P.C. Sen Director Shri P. C. Sen Executive Committee Shri P.C. Sen, Chairman Dr R. K. Pachauri Shri M. H. Ansari Shri M.P. Wadhawan, Hon. Treasurer Shri Inder Malhotra Dr S. M. Dewan Lt.Gen.(Retd.) A. S. Kalkat Cmde. (Retd.) K.N. Venugopal Prof. (Mrs.) Sneh Bhargava Finance Committee Shri S. K. Singh, Chairman Shri M.P. Wadhawan Shri P.C. Sen Shri P. R. Sivasubramaniam Lt.Gen.(Retd.) A. S. Kalkat Cmde. (Retd.) K.N. Venugopal Shri Premlal Medical Consultants Dr K. P. Mathur National Heart Institute Dr K. A. Ramachandran Dr (Mrs.) Rita Mohan Dr Mohammad Qasim Dr B. Chakravorty Senior Staff Cmde (Retd.) K. N. Venugopal Secretary Shri L. K. Joshi Chief General Manager Shri P. R. Sivasubramanian Controller of Finance and Accounts Dr H. K. Kaul Chief Librarian Dr Geeti Sen Chief Editor Dr A. C. Katoch Administration Officer Ms Premola Ghose Chief, Programme Division Shri Arun Potdar Chief, Maintenance Division Shri W. R. Sehgal Accounts Officer 98 Annual Report 2003-2004 THIS IS THE 43rd Annual report of the India International Centre for the year commencing March 2003 up to 31 January 2004. It will be placed before the 48th Annual General Body meeting of the Cense, to be held on the 24th of March 2004. Elections to the Executive Committee and the Board of Trustees of the Centre for the two-year period 2003-05 were conducted in the latter half of 2002. The electoral process, which commenced in December 2002, concluded with the counting of ballots on the 18th of March 2003, in the presence of candidates and their representatives. The election results were announced by the President at the Annual General Body meeting held on the 28th of March 2003. Shri S. K. Singh and Dr Arun Nigaveknr were elected to the Board of Trustees, the former from the Individual Members’ constituency and the latter from the Corporate Segment. Lt. Gen. (Retd.) A. S. Kalkat and Shri Inder Malhotra representing the Individual Segment and Dr R. K. Pachauri and Dr S. M. Dewan, representing the Corporate Segment, were elected to the Executive Committee. Dr Sneh Bhargava and Shri M. H. Ansari were nominated to the Executive Committee by the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees reconstituted the Finance Committee for the two-year period April 2003 to March 2005 with Shri S. K. Singh as Chairman and Lt. gen. (Retd.) A. S. Kalkat and Ms. Prem Lal as Members. In the meeting held on the 19th of December 2003 by the Board of Trustees, it was decided to extend the tenure of the existing Library Committee and House Committee from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2005, in view of The fact that there is a new team at the top level in the Centre. For the same reason the Board also decided to extend the tenure of Shri M. P. Wadhawan, Honorary Treasurer, for a period of two years, from 1 April 2004 to 31 March 2006. 1 India International Centre records with sadness the passing away of 52 of its Members during the past year. Their valuable contributions and strong support to the Centre’s activities will be missed. From its inception the Centre has been making its facilities available, free of charge or at subsidized rates, to support the activities of various organizations which pursue objectives shared by the Centre. During the year under review. subventions amounting to Rs 44 lakhs were provided, as against Rs 36 lakhs in the previous year. Programmes During the past year the Centre organized 220 seminars, talks and discussions, and 270 cultural presentations, documentaries and feature films (the month- wise details of programmes organized during March 2003-January 2004 are given in Appendices I-VI). Some of the highlights of the programmes are given in the following paragraphs. The 21st C. D. Deshmukh Memorial Lecture st The 21 C. D. Deshmukh Memorial Lecture was delivered on 14 January 2004 by Shri N. R. Narayana Murthy Chairman and Chief Mentor of lnfosys Technologies Limited, on ‘Corporate Governance and its Relevance to India’. He served as CEO of Infosys for twenty years, handing over the reins to a fellow co-founder in March 2002. Shri Narayana Murthy’s talk stressed on the importance of corporations in India following the highest level of corporate governance in order to attract world class investors as well as the brightest talent. He said that unless India lives up to the best examples of customer fairness, it cannot enhance or maintain its market share. The talk established the case for corporate 2 governance and elaborated the steps that Indian cooperates have to take in order to grasp the opportunities that globalisation offers. IIC Annual Day The 42nd Annual Day of the Centre was celebrated on the 22nd of January with a three-day festival of films on environment entitled ‘Quotes from the Earth’. Using the medium of films this festival highlighted the complex environmental and developmental framework that is emerging in India. The festival was divided into three sections titled ‘Water’, ‘Hunger’ and ‘Survival’. In addition to the screening of films, there were panel discussions with eminent academicians, grassroots activists and film makers. A media space on environment was created in the Art Gallery which included a major sound installation and video footage. The exhibition was curated by Shri Pradip Saha, Photographer, and Managing Editor, Down to Earth. The festival, organized in collaboration with Toxics Link, drew together a group of film makers from Delhi and different parts of India, South Asia and elsewhere, who presented their films and participated in lively discussions following each screening. Although the festival dealt with issues that were topical and of a serious nature, the audience response from both Members as well as non-Members was very encouraging and participative. The Centre has since received a number of requests from different parts of the country to make the event into a travelling festival in order to reach out to people in smaller cities and towns. Many of the film makers have also received requests for their alms from other similar fora. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Centenary Celebrations Programmes to mark the centenary of the late Smt. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, a Founder Life Trustee of the Centre, commenced in 2001, with an exhibition documenting her contribution to the revival of crafts in India. In 2002, a puppet festival was held in her memory on the 40th annual day of the Centre. In March 2003 the Centre was host to the prestigious UNIMA (Union 3 Internationals de la Marlonette) Executive Committee meeting. UNIMA is recognized internationally for the revival and the popularization of puppet traditions, and Kamaladeviji had been its Member of Honour. Participants from eighteen countries attended the meeting, bringing puppets from their respective countries, which were displayed in the Art Gallery. A festival of Indian puppets, ‘Putulyatra’, was organized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi to coincide with this event, which was also dedicated to Kamladeviji. An international seminar on ‘Puppetry: East-West’ and some related events were held at the Centre, The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (lCCR) gave generous support to this programme. Programmes for the Young The Centre has, during the last six months, added programmes that attract a younger audience. In July a quiz was held on ‘How Well do You know Harry Potter?’ which was very imaginatively conceptualized by Shrimati Paro Anand. Three schools participated, viz, Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Bluebells and Vasant Valley School. A scintillating ambience was created with colourful props and the quiz was ably conducted by a very young quiz master, Arjun Kumar. Members of the audience, comprising children of all age groups, were often more knowledgeable than the participating teams. Bluebells School was the winner. Penguin India publishers contributed the prizes. Jal Paree, presented by Living Room Theatre and directed by Sarita Vohra, was a musical performed by children for children, The Alliance Francaise de Delhi organised a mime show inspired by the Panchatantra and by La Fontaine’s fables. This was followed by a musical comedy in mime, Achille and the Tortoise, presented by the Compagnie des Atomes. Film shows for the young included a festival of animation films entitled ‘The Magical World of Animation’ in September, and Israeli children’s films in December. In 2002 the Centre had instituted a running trophy for an inter-college debate involving the various colleges of Delhi University. This was done in 4 collaboration with the Hindu College Debating Society. In January 2004, the second debate was held. The topic of the debate was, ‘UN Has Lost Its Relevance’. Several teams from the Delhi University participated. The three- member jury gave the best team award to Miranda House and the best speaker award to Ms. Piyush Chopra of Miranda House. Hindu College won the second prize. The awards were in the form of cash prizes. Seminars A one-day seminar on ‘India’s South Asian Neighbours: The Options for Constructive Engagement’ (8 March) was organized in collaboration with the Association for Indian Diplomats, which brought together representatives of academic institutions, think tanks and diplomats to examine the overall issue as well as specific ones, and to highlight and analyse those cases which had been beneficial for cooperation within the South Asian region. Two years ago the Centre received a grant from the Indian Women’s Association, Moscow, to organize programmes to promote a deeper study of Indo-Russian relations.