Speakers 2011
Prasoon Joshi
The Poetic Professional Prasoon Joshi has his finger on the pulse of the nation. Having published his first book of poetry at the age of seventeen (Main aur Woh was inspired by Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra), Joshi’s way with words stood him through varied professions — that of an internationally acclaimed advertising professional (he has Read More…
Pratap Bhanu Mehta
The Chaos Analyst When they are tired of trite clichés about a political situation and need explanations, Indian newspaper readers turn to Pratap Bhanu Mehta. His columns display a sense of historicity and an interest in empirical rigour. He will demonstrate that India’s jigsaw puzzle of coalition politics works even if you don’t like its unhemmed edges. Read More…
Qaushiq Mukerjee (Q)
The Provocateur Indie filmmaker Kaushik Mukherjee (37) professionally known as Q, produces, writes, shoots and directs films, genre-bending fiction and non-fiction. His documentary Love in India veers from the filmmaker and his girlfriend watching their sex video to expositions on dandiya dancing as mating ritual. At the 58th National Film Awards for 2010, Love in Read More…
Rajan Mittal
The Connectivity King Telecom may be the most public face of Bharti Enterprises but as Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of the group’s gamut of interests, Rajan Bharti Mittal is as clued into the booming retail and burgeoning insurance businesses as he is into mobile technology. An alumnus of Harvard Business School, Rajan along with brother Read More…
Ram Jethmalani
The Law’s Rapier Edge It took a special resolution to award Ram Jethmalani, then 18, a law degree, because the minimum age to become a lawyer at the time was 21. That was the first of many times in his life that Jethmalani broke the rules, in the professional and personal space. Although primarily a Read More…
Sam Pitroda
The Tech Troubleshooter He’s a maverick whose growth story, in many ways, mirrors the growth of India. Certainly, Sam Pitroda doesn’t know the meaning of taking things easy. From a modest beginning in Titlagarh, Orissa to business interests across three continents: Europe, North America and Asia, he’s had a long journey, and a mere listing Read More…
Shashi Tharoor
The Unlikely Politico Shashi Tharoor is everything you expect a politician not to be: erudite, articulate, informed and attractive. He’s also social-media savvy, although the frequency with which his twitter feed gets him into political hot water could make the word ‘savvy’ seem ill-advised. But Sharoor is both consummate politician and anti-politico at once: author Read More…
Shlomo Ben-Ami
The Peace Maker Professor Shlomo Ben Ami immigrated to Israel at the age of twelve in 1955, from Morocco. As a young academic in Israel, his initial choice of subject was Spanish history, a subject that he excelled in — his biography on the Spanish dictator Primo De Rivera, written when he was 28, is Read More…
Shukria Barakzai
The Invincible Afghan Afghan MP Shukria Barakzai famously said, Our parliament is a collection of lords. Warlords, drug lords, crime lords.” Barakzai grew up in a pre-Taliban Afganistan, playing football and volleyball, writing adolescent fiction and eventually choosing to study geophysics. When the Taliban came to power, Barakzai’s parents and siblings fled Afghanistan like many Read More…
