Speakers 2011
Imran Khan
The Young Gun One could say Imran Khan (28) had a bit of a head start in the Indian Film Industry by the time he was conceived. Nephew to the inimitable actor Aamir Khan and director Mansoor Khan; grandson of producer and director Nasir Hussain — Imran was acting since the age of five in Read More…
Justin Hall-Tipping
The Energy Evangelist Nanotechnology may be a very nascent field but it couldn’t have asked for a more vociferous champion than Justin Hall-Tipping. If you’re going to achieve the impossible, after all, it helps to have someone on your side whose imagination doesn’t take no for an answer—and it doesn’t get more imaginative than wanting Read More…
Kapil Sibal
The Hands-On Politician To understand the challenges faced by Indian scientists, Kapil Sibal traveled to icy Antartica and stayed in sub-zero temperature at the Maitri base. Upon returning, he immediately announced an upgrading of India’s scientific facilities at Maitri. A politician, lawyer, and veteran Congress leader, Kapil Sibal was appointed a Cabinet minister of Science Read More…
KD Singh
The Change-over Entrepreneur He’s entrepreneur, politician and dreamer rolled into one. When Kanwar Deep Singh borrowed 20,000 to start his career as an entrepreneur at the age of 19, there was no reason to believe he wouldn’t be back home, chastened and in debt, ready to follow his brother into the army in a few Read More…
Kiran Rao
The Mumbai Diarist Dhobi Ghat, Kiran Rao’s first film was an affectionate tribute to Mumbai. Thirty-six year old Rao grew up in Kolkata and studied film in Delhi but Mumbai is where she came to follow her cinema dreams. After a few gigs as an assistant director in some major films she moved to ad Read More…
Kopa Kunjam
The Grassroot Visionary A tribal activist from Dantewada, Chhattisgarh,Kopa Kunjam spent 22 months in jail for the murder of a sarpanch he tried to save. At the time of his arrest, Kopa had been implementing Supreme Court orders on the ground, helping rehabilitate villagers displaced by the Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh. First an ordinary farmer, Read More…
Maajid Nawaz
The Counter-Extremist Maajid Nawaz grew up in a predominantly white sea-side town in England. Radical Islam gave him a sense of identity as he grew up seeing racist attacks condoned by authorities — “Young men from immigrant families were radicalised; not as Muslims, but rather as rebels against the state,” he says. He joined the Read More…
Mani Shankar Aiyyar
The Man Who Doesn’t Hold Back Born in Lahore in 1941, Mani Shankar Aiyar is an outspoken Congress politician, a vocal critic of neo-liberal development policies, an ardent believer in grassroots democracy and usually a dissenting voice within his own party. “I am ashamed of belonging to the bureaucracy,” he once said in the Rajya Sabha Read More…
Michael Brown
The Planet Killer We’d all like to think we’re unique, but you’ve got to envy Mike Brown. After all, he’s the only man in the world who can put ‘I Demoted a Planet’ on his CV. And as if that weren’t cool enough, he also wrote How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Read More…
