New Delhi, Mar 4 (LAB) The 15th Jaipur Literature Festival Scheduled from March 5 – 14, 2022, will bring a brilliant line-up of sessions on climate change and the environment. Amitabh Kant, the CEO of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) and a key driver of initiatives such as Make in India, Startup India, Incredible India, and God’s Own Country will be seen as the main speaker at the event.
The Festival will host an array of diverse speakers covering different angles of the issue. The rich programme will feature, among others, a session with Bruno Maçães, decorated author, international commentator, and advisor to some of the world’s leading companies on geopolitics and technology, who will be exploring the study of an emerging world order that is competitive and driven by the need to adapt and survive in increasingly hostile natural environments. In conversation with former diplomat and author Navtej Sarna, Maçães will discuss book Geopolitics for the End Time: From the Pandemic to the Climate Crisis.
Clean energy is often considered an investment into the future. This investment must be understood with the focus being shifted on clean and renewable sources of energy is to a new direction in environmentalism. Rahul Munjal, the Chairman & Managing Director at Hero Future Energies, one of India’s leading Independent Power Producer, is committed to positive environmental impact by increasing the share of renewables.
Academician Siddharth Singh, author of The Great Smog of India. Munjal and Niti Ayog CEO Amitabh Kant will discuss the future of clean energy and climate action. The panel can be caught in conversation with Srivatsan Iyer.
Simon Mundy, Financial Times journalist and author of Race for Tomorrow: Survival, Innovation and Profit on the Front Lines of the Climate Crisis, will speak on the question of what impact a single person can have in the face of the global climate crisis. His talk will feature stories of inspiring individuals from every region of the world, as well as considering the role that each and every one of us can play.
The earth has witnessed five major mass extinction events over the last 500 million years – responsible for the erasure of nearly three-quarters of its species each time. Life on earth has witnessed cataclysmic upheaval and existential threat in the planet’s long geological history, forced to recover, realign and build anew. A series called The Urgency of Borrowed Time will feature Pranay Lal, natural history writer, biochemist and public health advocate who is also author of the celebrated books Indica: A Deep Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent and Invisible Empire: The Natural History of Viruses. The session will explore the fate of dinosaurs and species sealed by extinction events, and the role of humankind in the surging climate crisis.
Urgency of Borrowed Time will also bring Lakshmi Puri, former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and former Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, who has worked extensively in bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, negotiations, and as an advocate for human rights and humanitarian action, sustainable development, climate change, gender equality, peace and security. She will be joined by, Shombi Sharp, United Nations Resident Coordinator in India and expert in sustainable development, working towards the country’s Covid-19 response, plans in alignment with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and Hans Jacob Frydenlund, Norwegian Ambassador to India, closely involved with the focus on clean and renewable energy. In conversation with Navdeep Suri, the three experts will discuss the importance of multilateralism in structural climate action.
In a session tracing the trajectory of climate change and the struggle for climate justice, Simon Mundy will present an extraordinary story of the people at the front lines of the climate crisis and how the struggle to respond is reshaping the modern world. Politician, economist, historian and writer Jairam Ramesh’s Green Signals: Ecology, Growth, and Democracy in India presents a fascinating debate between economic growth and ecological security and highlights the importance of the environment in a nation’s visions for the future. Mridula Ramesh is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Climate Solution: India’s Climate Change Crisis and What We Can Do About It. In conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jeffrey Gettleman, the experts will discuss climate crisis, the global economy and the people at the centre of it.
About Jaipur Literature Festival:
Described as the ‘greatest literary show on Earth’, the Jaipur Literature Festival is a sumptuous feast of ideas.
The past decade has seen it transform into a global literary phenomenon having hosted over 2,000 speakers and welcoming over a million book lovers from across India and the globe.
Our core values remain unchanged: to serve as a democratic, non-aligned platform offering free and fair access.
Every year, the Festival brings together a diverse mix of the world’s greatest writers, thinkers, humanitarians, politicians, business leaders and entertainers on one stage to champion the freedom to express and engage in thoughtful debate and dialogue.
Writers and Festival Directors Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple, alongside producer Teamwork Arts, invite speakers to take part in the five-day programme set against the backdrop of Rajasthan’s stunning cultural heritage and the Diggi Palace in the state capital Jaipur.
Past speakers have ranged from Nobel Laureates J. M. Coetzee, Orhan Pamuk, Malala Yousafzai, Muhammad Yunus and Joseph Stiglitz; Man Booker Prize winners Ben Okri, Douglas Stuart, Margaret Atwood and Paul Beatty; Sahitya Akademi winners Gulzar, Javed Akhtar, M. T. Vasudevan Nair, as well as the late Girish Karnad, Mahasweta Devi and U. R. Ananthamurthy; along with literary superstars including Amish Tripathi, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Vikram Seth. An annual event that goes beyond literature, the Festival has also hosted Amartya Sen, Amitabh Bachchan, the late A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Bill Gates, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Oprah Winfrey, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Stephen Fry, Thomas Piketty and former president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai.
The Jaipur Literature Festival is a flagship event of Teamwork Arts, which produces it along with over 25 highly acclaimed performing arts, visual arts and literary festivals across more than 40 cities globally.
About Teamwork Arts:
For over 30 years, Teamwork Arts has taken India to the world and brought the world to India, presenting the finest of Indian performers, writers and visual artists in the cultural and art space in India and abroad.
Every year, it produces over 25 performing, visual arts and literary festivals in several countries including Australia, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, the UK and USA, as well as many eclectic festivals across India. It produces the world’s largest literary gathering: the annual Jaipur Literature Festival; JLF international now travels to the US, UK, Canada, Qatar and Australia.
Even amidst the upheaval and unsettling times of 2020, Teamwork Arts successfully launched the digital series, JLF Brave New World and WORDS ARE BRIDGES, which were viewed by over 4.8 million people in their first season. Through its digital avatar, the Jaipur Literature Festival reached over 19 million viewers in January 2021 and brought together the world’s leading commentators and writers. The musical extravaganza, Bollywood Love Story – A Musical, continues to tour the world with sold-out shows everywhere it is held. /SNG/LAB/