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Baithak: Conversations in Policy
What?
Last year at CCS Academy, we curated a platform for CCS alumni, young students and professionals to engage in themes and discussions around public policy; now popularly called Baithak: Conversations in Policy. Baithaks follow an open group discussion format where the speaker is also the moderator of the debate, the principal guide and the facilitator of free flow of information among all the participants.
About Dr. Ashwin Mahesh
Dr.Ashwin Mahesh is a social technologist, environmentalist and urbanist. After a 15-year career in science, during which he was an astronomer and an Antarctic climate scientist, he switched to social enterprises, focused on urban development and governance. He is a founder of the technology lab, Mapunity, which builds urban social networking platforms and tools for citizens, public administrators and businesses. He is also a co-founder of Lithium, which operates the largest fleet of electric cars in India. He is a co-founder and editor of the national public affairs magazine, India Together. He was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship for social entrepreneurs in 2009.
Why?
The idea of Baithak is to give a platform to all CCS graduates and potential course participants to come together for a discussion on contemporary socio-cultural and economic issues in the presence of prominent voices from the liberal movement in India. Its objective is to create a knowledge ecosystem, impacting the policy space in India at large.
When and where?
Topic: Federalism: A standalone idea or part of something larger?
Date: June 30, 2019
Time: 04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Venue: Shoonya - Centre for Art and Somatic Practices,
4th Floor, Rear Wing, Brahmananda Court
#37, Lalbagh Road
Bangalore 560027
For details contact: Manasa Pidatala (Manasa Pidatala)
Baithak: Conversations in Policy
What?
Last year at CCS Academy, we curated a platform for CCS alumni, young students and professionals to engage in themes and discussions around public policy; now popularly called Baithak: Conversations in Policy. Baithaks follow an open group discussion format where the speaker is also the moderator of the debate, the principal guide and the facilitator of free flow of information among all the participants.
About Ragini Bajaj
Ragini Bajaj Chaudhary, Director Caspian Impact Advisors is development finance professional with more than 20 years of experience in microfinance, impact investment and development. Prior to Caspian, Ragini served as a CEO of GMC India, where she led the development of its strategic road map for the Affordable private school sector, set up operations to lead an 8m early stage investment fund, an Accelerator – Calibrator for mobile ed-tech companies and eco-system development for education.
Prior to GMC, she led the financial inclusion agenda of Poorest State Inclusive Growth (PSIG) Programme as well as its impact investment and incubation portfolio as a Private Sector Development Advisor, UK Government's Department for International Development (DFID) India.
Prior to DFID, she has worked in Mi India (Dia Vikas Capital), EDA Rural Systems, Care India, Institute of Rural Management Anand, in various capacities specialising in, impact investment, training, rating, consulting and social performance management for microfinance, livelihoods and social enterprise space. Ragini is a management graduate from Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) and has qualified as a Management Accountant from Chartered Institute of Management Accounting (CIMA),UK. Ragini strongly believes that her strong understanding of consumer context, social and economic challenges and rural realities has been on account of her grounding in IRMA. She counts this as one of her life-changing experiences.
Why?
The idea of Baithak is to give a platform to all CCS graduates and potential course participants to come together for a discussion on contemporary socio-cultural and economic issues in the presence of prominent voices from the liberal movement in India. Its objective is to create a knowledge ecosystem, impacting the policy space in India at large.
When and where?
Topic: Privatisation of Education in India: The Sin or the Saviour?
Date: June 30, 2019
Time: 04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Venue: TBD
For details contact: Sourya Banerjee (Sourya Banerjee)
Baithak: Conversations in Policy
What?
Last year at CCS Academy, we curated a platform for CCS alumni, young students and professionals to engage in themes and discussions around public policy; now popularly called Baithak: Conversations in Policy. Baithaks follow an open group discussion format where the speaker is also the moderator of the debate, the principal guide and the facilitator of free flow of information among all the participants.
About Dr Dhanuraj
Dr Dhanuraj is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees and the Chief Executive of CPPR of which he is also one of the founding members. He holds a PhD (Anna University), MSc Physics (Mahatma Gandhi University) and MA Political Science (Madras Christian College). He also holds a Post Graduate Executive Diploma in International Business from Loyola, Chennai and has undergone training by TTMBA of Atlas USA, IAF Germany, FEE USA, etc. Dhanuraj started his career as a Research Associate in 2003. He has handled various social research projects and has extensively travelled across the country to manage projects of various kinds. He works in the areas of urbanisation, education, health, livelihood and law. Dhanu, as he is fondly called by friends and colleagues, is foremost a policy researcher and then an entrepreneur and consultant. Election studies have been one of his main areas of interest and he has been analysing the polls on various TV channels and social media since 2012.
Why?
The idea of Baithak is to give a platform to all CCS graduates and potential course participants to come together for a discussion on contemporary socio-cultural and economic issues in the presence of prominent voices from the liberal movement in India. Its objective is to create a knowledge ecosystem, impacting the policy space in India at large.
When and where?
Topic: Decoding the Polls and Policy Challenges Ahead
Date: June 15, 2019
Time: 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Venue: Dialogues Cafe, J P Nagar, Bengaluru
For details contact: Manasa Pidatala (manasa@ccs.in)
Baithak: Conversations in Policy
What?
Last year at CCS Academy, we curated a platform for CCS alumni, young students and professionals to engage in themes and discussions around public policy; now popularly called Baithak: Conversations in Policy. Baithaks follow an open group discussion format where the speaker is also the moderator of the debate, the principal guide and the facilitator of free flow of information among all the participants.
About the speakers
Barun Mitra
Barun is the founder and director of the Liberty Institute, a non-profit, independent public policy research and advocacy organisation, based in New Delhi, India. Barun has also received the 2005 Julian L. Simon Award for his contribution in environmental policy debates from the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Prashant Narang
Prashant Narang is a lawyer practising in the High Court of Delhi and the Supreme Court of India. As a doctoral candidate at Center for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, he is working on a critical study of Supreme Court judgments on the Fundamental Right to practise business, trade and profession in India.
Nikhil Mehra
Nikhil Mehra is an advocate practicing in New Delhi before various forums, particularly the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Delhi. Nikhil graduated from the NLSIU, Bangalore and started his career with Mr. Harish Salve. He went on to complete his Masters in Law at the prestigious Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, USA. He worked as a Corporate Attorney in New York for many years with two of the top financial law firms before returning to India to set up his own Litigation practice. Nikhil was part of the talented team that assisted in drafting the JS Verma Report of 2013 on Reform of Criminal Laws.
Topic
The discussion will center around The Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951 and its implications on society 68 years on. The act was the first attempt to dilute right to property, and limit freedom of speech, as well as land acquisition and distribution. It was also a manifestation of the widespread political support for efforts to curb property rights in various forms. Whilst Barun will provide a broad overview of the act with emphasis on the political context of the time, Prashant is going to speak on Article 19(6)(ii) inserted through the First Amendment, focusing on how state monopolies were made immune from judicial review under the clause. Nikhil Mehra will shed light on Article 19(2) in particular, discussing restrictions on freedom of speech.
Why?
The idea of Baithak is to give a platform to all CCS graduates and potential course participants to come together for a discussion on contemporary socio-cultural and economic issues in the presence of prominent voices from the liberal movement in India. Its objective is to create a knowledge ecosystem, impacting the policy space in India at large.
When and where?
Date: 15 June, 2019
Time: 4 - 7 p.m.
Venue: A-69, Hauz Khas, New Delhi (CCS Office)
For details contact: Shivang Raina (Shivang Raina)
Baithak: Conversations in Policy
What?
Last year at CCS Academy, we curated a platform for CCS alumni, young students and professionals to engage in themes and discussions around public policy; now popularly called Baithak: Conversations in Policy. Baithaks follow an open group discussion format where the speaker is also the moderator of the debate, the principal guide and the facilitator of free flow of information among all the participants.
About Badri Seshadri
Badri Seshadri graduated with a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Madras in 1991 and a Ph.D from Cornell University in 1996. He co-founded Cricinfo, a cricket website along with several others, and was one of the founding Directors of Cricinfo Ltd. in 1996 when it was incorporated as a company. Badri managed Cricinfo in India during 1996-99, functioned as Chief Operations Officer in UK in 1999-2000, worked as Director Commercial in India in 2001 and as Managing Director of the India operations and Chief Technology Officer between 2002-04. During 2004-05 he managed the mobile strategy for Cricinfo. Badri is the Managing Director of New Horizon Media Private Limited. He maintains blogs in Tamil and English. He is a noted political commentator and articles in both Tamil and English for prominent newspapers and appears on political debates.
Why?
The idea of Baithak is to give a platform to all CCS graduates and potential course participants to come together for a discussion on contemporary socio-cultural and economic issues in the presence of prominent voices from the liberal movement in India. Its objective is to create a knowledge ecosystem, impacting the policy space in India at large.
When and where?
Topic: Politics of Voting with a focus on TN
Date: June 08, 2019
Time: 5 PM to 7 PM
Venue: Shankar IAS, Anna Nagar, Chennai
For details contact: Rini Rafi (Rini Rafi)